How to compost?

[ashlierami]

I want to compost and use it for my garden next year. I am new to this so I do not know how. Right now I have soil mixed with the pine shavings and droppings from my chicken coop. Is this a start or is it wrong? What's next? This year I used this organic fertilizer bit it's expensive. I have 14 birds so I thought why not put their waste to use. When I clean out the coop I collect alot of droppings that's mixed with their bedding which is fine pine shavings.

 

[lazy gardener]

Do you have a walk in style chicken run? If so, I suggest that you put your coop bedding right into the run. Add the rest of your yard debris, perhaps a few bales of hay, and any materials from your kitchen that the chickens might eat. I'd not put out any dairy or meat unless they consume all of it. But if you have vegetable matter, toss that into the run. The chickens will eat what they want and the rest will be scratched into the deep litter. Your goal will be to make the deep litter at least 6" deep in the run. The chickens will take care of the composting process for you. The DL will attract all sorts of beneficial organisms which will help with the composting, provide beneficial bacteria and fungi to improve the immunity and digestion in your chicken's guts.

It takes a very long time for shavings to break down. The process will speed up in the run. But, b/c of the long break down time, and my gardening goals, I only buy shavings if I'm brooding chicks. I use lawn clippings and dry leaves as bedding in my coop. The bedding in the coop is DL also. When I do a partial clean out, I simply scoop the bedding into the run where the birds complete the composting process for me.

 

[ashlierami]

Do you have a walk in style chicken run? If so, I suggest that you put your coop bedding right into the run. Add the rest of your yard debris, perhaps a few bales of hay, and any materials from your kitchen that the chickens might eat. I'd not put out any dairy or meat unless they consume all of it. But if you have vegetable matter, toss that into the run. The chickens will eat what they want and the rest will be scratched into the deep litter. Your goal will be to make the deep litter at least 6" deep in the run. The chickens will take care of the composting process for you. The DL will attract all sorts of beneficial organisms which will help with the composting, provide beneficial bacteria and fungi to improve the immunity and digestion in your chicken's guts.

It takes a very long time for shavings to break down. The process will speed up in the run. But, b/c of the long break down time, and my gardening goals, I only buy shavings if I'm brooding chicks. I use lawn clippings and dry leaves as bedding in my coop. The bedding in the coop is DL also. When I do a partial clean out, I simply scoop the bedding into the run where the birds complete the composting process for me.

No my run isn't walk in. My birds are free range and only use the coop at night. The run part is where I keep baby chicks until they are old enough to be with the flock. I just have a large tub that's got soil and the chicken waste in it for now.

 

[lazy gardener]

In order to compost well, you need to create a pile that is at least 1 cubic yard. This allows the material to build enough heat for the microbes to work well. Your best bet is going to be to do some google searches, or contact your county agricultural extension office. They will have some on line materials to get you started, or even send you some literature. I could go into great length about how to compost, but it would be "re-inventing the wheel" since there is so much good written material out there to tell you how to do it. Any good gardening book will have a chapter devoted to composting.

 

[boz]

add to your compost coffee grounds and any food scarps other then meats, myo. and there are a few more items you can even google compost and you can find a good list of the things to put in it