How to Compost chicken poo and pine shavings?

[pollodelbambino]

Hello!
I'm very new to raising chickens and BYC. I have a question regarding what to do with all of the poo and pine shavings. my chicks are almost 3 weeks old and in their brooder. I just wonder if I clean their brooder everyday and get this much, how will it be when they go in the coop. Im paranoid about mites and lice. How often do you clean? And when you do clean do you replace
all the shavings or just add to the existing shavings? I really want to compost but have no idea how to even get started.
HELP!!!!

 

[PapaChaz]

I was just in another thread, "springtime stink in the run" and there was a link to another thread on the deep litter method. in that link, which I am about to post for your benefit, is a lady who on here goes by 'beekissed' who has done a 9 1/2 minute video explaining how deep litter and cold composting works. This will be good for you to watch being new.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/70/deep-litter-method/1660

However, I know that's not what you're asking in this thread, for this thread is about cleaning out your brooder.

A few questions if I may:

how many chicks?
how big is the brooder?
how much pine shavings are you using each fill up?

here's my explanation of how it works, summarized and followed up with how I did my brooder in my kitchen. Had very little smell to it.

Chickens are poop machines! they eat, they drink, they poop. they run around in it, they pick at it, they eat it, they'll pick it off each others behinds. They sleep a little while and then they do it all again. They will even poo when they sleep!

this batch of chicks I started with 8, and wound up with 14 total. I quickly assembled a temporary brooder box, in our Kitchen! I had the guys at home depot cut two sheets of osb board in half, long ways. This gave me 4 pieces that were 2' x 8'. When I got home with them, I cut one of those pieces so that I had 2 pieces that were 2'x2' square. I used those for the ends, and took the other three pieces and made 2 walls and 1 floor. Some quick 1x2 framing inside the corners and along the bottom edges and viola, I had a brooder box! I also framed out some 4 ft by 2ft 1x2 frames and covered them with chicken wire, a couple hinges on each and I had two 'lids'

Ok, theres the box, so what next? 3" of pine shavings. Sprinkle in a couple of cups of sweet pdz. In a few days, there will begin to arise an odor.......add more pine shavings, and mix them up!

How it works: wet poo smells. The dry pine shavings will absorb the wetness from the poo, along with the sweet pdz. Dry poo doesn't have a smell to it. I would do this until I had 6 or 7 inches of bedding in the box, then when it came time for the aroma to begin to arise, I'd get a dust pan and a large garbage can, clean it out, put in a new 3" of pine shavings and take the old out and spread in the garden spot.

If you're wanting to compost this, of course you'll need your compost bins set up and turn it regularly, but that's another thread in and of itself.

Now go watch the video by beekissed, and you'll see the only difference in doing a brooder and a coop and run is the amount of time between total clean outs, if you ever actually do a total clean out on the coop!

hope this helps!

 

[tbatz11]

I was also about to ask the same question. But maybe we can both get some answers from this thread.

I have 4 2-week old pullets. (4 is the maximum we're allowed to have in out town)
I use 1-2" of pine shavings for their bedding and clean it all out once a week.
Right now the brooder is a clear plastic tub, but i'll be moving them to a much larger tub soon.

So far i've been throwing everything away because I don't have a compost bin. They're kinda expensive! At least the tumbling ones I looked at.

I can't do the deep litter method because my coop is 20" off the ground and will most likely be moved around my yard along with the run.
I'd like to know how big of a compost bin should I get? Do I need more than one? How long does it take for the stuff to compost?

 

[Blooie]

Nice job, PapaChaz! You did a great job explaining things. I only had chicks in the house last year, and I had a horrible time with smell and dust and dander. Bee told me to quit panicking over keeping every little germ out of the brooder and just toss some dry on top of the yuck. But there comes a time when that just wasn't enough, so I evicted them at 5.5 weeks. I had 22 of the little boogers and it was either move them out into the unfinished coop or move me out there!

@pollodelbambino If your birds are going to get mites or lice, they'll get them. It's usually not from litter in the brooder, but once they go outside where they are exposed to all the things out there. And caught early enough both are relatively easy to take care of - not that it's a pleasant discovery! Now, that doesn't mean that it's okay to let your chickens live in a dirty environment, but if you try to keep everything spotless and sanitary all of the time you'll drive yourself and your chickens crazy. You'll wish you'd chosen goldfish! So relax, enjoy the experience and take the good with the bad. It all balances out in the end.

 

[PapaChaz]

thank you Blooie!

@tbatz11 you don't really have to have a tumbling compost bin, and there's really no need for 'bins' per se at all. I've seen people successfully do composting just piling it up! I know one couple who compost directly into their raised beds they do their garden in. The just throw it in, go out and turn it once a week. then before planting the garden take one of those mini tillers and till the whole thing

our last place in the country, I had 3 bins behind a garden shed. they were 4' square and about 3' tall. removable boards on the front to be able to get in there to move stuff around. But as said, you don't have to have that really. if you have a place you can pile stuff up, that's about all you need. Add table scraps (non protein veggie only), coffee grounds, leaves, grass clippings basically anything vegetable. Occasionally throw a shovel or so of dirt in it.....I always went out and turned every thing over once a week, then about every 5 or 6 weeks, when I turned it I'd move it to the next bin and start a new pile in the first one. every three months or so I'd run it through my chipper/shredder. I'd take a box about the size of a washing machine and put it over my garden cart and blow it in there, then go use it.....

One year after taking down all the fall decorations, the wife threw her 'decorative pumpkins' in the compost bin. We piled on top of them, turned it all like normal. That next spring I composted around all the azaleas, and other flower beds and we had this vine come out and I had no clue........until the pumpkins started growing, LOL

 

[pollodelbambino]

I was just in another thread, "springtime stink in the run" and there was a link to another thread on the deep litter method. in that link, which I am about to post for your benefit, is a lady who on here goes by 'beekissed' who has done a 9 1/2 minute video explaining how deep litter and cold composting works. This will be good for you to watch being new.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/70/deep-litter-method/1660

However, I know that's not what you're asking in this thread, for this thread is about cleaning out your brooder.

A few questions if I may:

how many chicks?
how big is the brooder?
how much pine shavings are you using each fill up?

here's my explanation of how it works, summarized and followed up with how I did my brooder in my kitchen. Had very little smell to it.

Chickens are poop machines! they eat, they drink, they poop. they run around in it, they pick at it, they eat it, they'll pick it off each others behinds. They sleep a little while and then they do it all again. They will even poo when they sleep!

this batch of chicks I started with 8, and wound up with 14 total. I quickly assembled a temporary brooder box, in our Kitchen! I had the guys at home depot cut two sheets of osb board in half, long ways. This gave me 4 pieces that were 2' x 8'. When I got home with them, I cut one of those pieces so that I had 2 pieces that were 2'x2' square. I used those for the ends, and took the other three pieces and made 2 walls and 1 floor. Some quick 1x2 framing inside the corners and along the bottom edges and viola, I had a brooder box! I also framed out some 4 ft by 2ft 1x2 frames and covered them with chicken wire, a couple hinges on each and I had two 'lids'

Ok, theres the box, so what next? 3" of pine shavings. Sprinkle in a couple of cups of sweet pdz. In a few days, there will begin to arise an odor.......add more pine shavings, and mix them up!

How it works: wet poo smells. The dry pine shavings will absorb the wetness from the poo, along with the sweet pdz. Dry poo doesn't have a smell to it. I would do this until I had 6 or 7 inches of bedding in the box, then when it came time for the aroma to begin to arise, I'd get a dust pan and a large garbage can, clean it out, put in a new 3" of pine shavings and take the old out and spread in the garden spot.

If you're wanting to compost this, of course you'll need your compost bins set up and turn it regularly, but that's another thread in and of itself.

Now go watch the video by beekissed, and you'll see the only difference in doing a brooder and a coop and run is the amount of time between total clean outs, if you ever actually do a total clean out on the coop!

hope this helps!

Thank you for your advice!

 

[pollodelbambino]

Nice job, PapaChaz!  You did a great job explaining things.  I only had chicks in the house last year, and I had a horrible time with smell and dust and dander.  Bee told me to quit panicking over keeping every little germ out of the brooder and just toss some dry on top of the yuck. But there comes a time when that just wasn't enough, so I evicted them at 5.5 weeks.  I had 22 of the little boogers and it was either move them out into the unfinished coop or move me out there!

@pollodelbambino
   If your birds are going to get mites or lice, they'll get them.  It's usually not from litter in the brooder, but once they go outside where they are exposed to all the things out there.  And caught early enough both are relatively easy to take care of - not that it's a pleasant discovery!  Now, that doesn't mean that it's okay to let your chickens live in a dirty environment, but if you try to keep everything spotless and sanitary all of the time you'll drive yourself and your chickens crazy.  You'll wish you'd chosen goldfish!  So relax, enjoy the experience and take the good with the bad.  It all balances out in the end.

Thank you Blooie for the advice. I think I'm just on information overload, and I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right for my girls!

 

[Blooie]

Thank you Blooie for the advice. I think I'm just on information overload, and I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right for my girls!

Oh, I remember that feeling well! But then I decided that just because someone offers advice doesn't mean I have to take it. Nothing at all wrong with reading, then politely saying, "Thank you. That's worth thinking about." and then going my own way if that advice doesn't fit my situation or goes contrary to my own common sense. So I choose the things that will work for me or that I'd like to try, and move on. But I also feel that if someone has taken the time to read a question or idea, then respond to it, they deserve an acknowledgement.

Common sense is your best friend. You know your situation, your area, and your capabilities better than anyone. I know that accepted practices for raising chicks include keeping them in the house with a heat lamp, starting out at that magical 90-95 degrees, lowering that by 5 degrees per week, and putting the chicks out in the coop when they are fully feathered and in that 6-8 week age range. Mine go out to live in the run from day old, and they've never had a heat lamp on them. Just a wire frame, a heating pad, and a towel. Simple, cheap, and extremely effective. It has raised some eyebrows, so I don't get my knickers in a twist if they don't want to try it. It is so against common "knowledge" that it scares a lot of people. But I'm on my 3rd time using this system and it's right for me and my birds. Being outside from the start means they see the adults and the adults see them from the start, and they learn how to be chickens from the Bigs. Their immune systems build up quicker because they are exposed to stuff. They explore, play, eat and drink all day long, and they sleep in darkness all night. If they get chilly or scared they run into their cave, just like they would run under a broody hen. This makes so much sense to me. It might not make any sense at all to you, and that's okay. The thought of putting day old chicks outside when temperatures are in the teens and twenties flies in the face of what's usually done. Shoot, my first chick to use this system was out there when it was 4 below, he did just fine, and he was recovering from a serious injury at the time.

I don't worry anymore about doing everything right. There are just too many "rights" and it gets confusing to me. I'm a simple kind of person. If something is working for me, then it's right. For instance, I know that folks chop up apples and take out the seeds because "they" say the seeds are bad for them. Well, in steps a little common sense. Yes, I suppose if I emptied out a bag of apple seeds in their run and they ate them all, it would be bad for them. But there are what, 6 or 8 seeds in an apple? Tossing a few in there isn't going to kill them, and they like pecking at the whole apple, not sifting through chopped up stuff. Common sense. And I have Beekissed and several others - Lazy Gardener, Enola, Perchie Girl, BruceHa and so many others - to thank for jerking me back down to earth and showing me how to raise chickens instead of divas!

So you do what's right for you - if it works you've saved a lot of time and work. If it doesn't, you move on to something else. Leave the information overload to others who like it! Sounds like you prefer to just get it done.

 

[tbatz11]

That's pretty funny about the pumpkins =) Maybe i'll do that too

We live in a somewhat new development, the back yard is only 50x90 feet and has a large concrete patio, deck, and playset. On the side of the house someone poured a small cement space as well, maybe 4x8. So thats the only spot we can use for the compost and why I planned to buy bins. I guess I can put something under the deck too, as soon as we can get the ugly gravel cleared out.

Does compost smell bad? I'm a little afraid of attracting too many insects.
I like your idea of adding clean bedding to the brooder and just mixing it all in. I can probably do that it the coop too. The coop is a 4x4, how often do you think I should clean it?

How long does it take for things to compost?

My idea so far:
Start with one bin, fill it, turn it weekly, then use it in my raised beds (can I use it in pots too?) when it's done composting.
then when the first one is full I get another bin and start filling that one, use up the compost in the first one, repeat.
Does that sound doable?

 

[pollodelbambino]

Oh, I remember that feeling well!  But then I decided that just because someone offers advice doesn't mean I have to take it.  Nothing at all wrong with reading, then politely saying, "Thank you.  That's worth thinking about." and then going my own way if that advice doesn't fit my situation or goes contrary to my own common sense.  So I choose the things that will work for me or that I'd like to try, and move on.  But I also feel that if someone has taken the time to read a question or idea, then respond to it, they deserve an acknowledgement.  

Common sense is your best friend.  You know your situation, your area, and your capabilities better than anyone.  I know that accepted practices for raising chicks include keeping them in the house with a heat lamp, starting out at that magical 90-95 degrees, lowering that by 5 degrees per week, and putting the chicks out in the coop when they are fully feathered and in that 6-8 week age range.  Mine go out to live in the run from day old, and they've never had a heat lamp on them.  Just a wire frame, a heating pad, and a towel.  Simple, cheap, and extremely effective.  It has raised some eyebrows, so I don't get my knickers in a twist if they don't want to try it.  It is so against common "knowledge" that it scares a lot of people.  But I'm on my 3rd time using this system and it's right for me and my birds.  Being outside from the start means they see the adults and the adults see them from the start, and they learn how to be chickens from the Bigs.  Their immune systems build up quicker  because they are exposed to stuff.  They explore, play, eat and drink all day long, and they sleep in darkness all night.  If they get chilly or scared they run into their cave, just like they would run under a broody hen.  This makes so much sense to me.  It might not make any sense at all to you, and that's okay.  The thought of putting day old chicks outside when temperatures are in the teens and twenties flies in the face of what's usually done.  Shoot, my first chick to use this system was out there when it was 4 below, he did just fine, and he was recovering from a serious injury at the time.  

I don't worry anymore about doing everything right.  There are just too many "rights" and it gets confusing to me.  I'm a simple kind of person.  If something is working for me, then it's right.  For instance,  I know that folks chop up apples and take out the seeds because "they" say the seeds are bad for them.  Well, in steps a little common sense.  Yes, I suppose if I emptied out a bag of apple seeds in their run and they ate them all, it would be bad for them.  But there are what, 6 or 8 seeds in an apple?  Tossing a few in there isn't going to kill them, and they like pecking at the whole apple, not sifting through chopped up stuff.  Common sense.  And I have Beekissed and several others - Lazy Gardener, Enola, Perchie Girl, BruceHa and so many others - to thank for jerking me back down to earth and showing me how to raise chickens instead of divas!     So you do what's right for you - if it works you've saved a lot of time and work.  If it doesn't, you move on to something else.  Leave the information overload to others who like it!  Sounds like you prefer to just get it done.

Thanks again Blooie! I really like your approach. It sounds like you've got a system that works great for you. I know I will get a system of my own that works for me. It's great to have this forum and all of you for all the great information and advice! !