how well do pine shavings break down in a compost pile?

[Wifezilla]

Before I got ducks, I used the pine bedding to start grass seeds. I would put down a layer of seeds then a layer of pine. The pine held in moisture, keeps the birds from eating all the seeds, and broke down quickly once the grass sprouted.

 

[CARS]

I use pine shavings in my barn (coop) and straw in my nesting boxes. When the coop gets cleaned it gets put on my makeshift compost pile for a year before it gets used in the garden. It really never makes compost like I see in the magazines but most of it is broke down and doesn't smell too bad.

So I have 3 separate piles, next to each other, in different stages of decomposition. If I have more greens to mix in it would be a faster, more true compost instead of a decomposition pile.

 

[GardenerGal]

My waterfowl overnight in a stall with pine shavings that the chickens walk around on during the day (waterfowl go out into a big pen every day). Since ducks and geese are prolific poopers (and the chickens roosting on the rafters above at night contribute their own poops too), I remove the top 2" of shavings daily and put on a fresh layer.

The removed poop-filled shavings, believe it or not, go immediately to top-dress my garden beds: shrubs/trees, perennials, veggies, flower- and fruiting vines, and bamboo "groves." Because there is such a thick layer of mulch everywhere, the fresh poop doesn't burn or harm the plants. The poop "dissolves" down through the shavings and doesn't sit on top, so there are no flies and no smell.

Pine shavings use a lot of nitrogen to break down (actually, it's the microscopic critters in the soil that use it as they eat the cellulose of the wood, etc.) so the poop replenishes any nitrogen taken from the soil, and soil microbes quickly digest the poop too. In less than 3 months, each layer of poopy pine shavings becomes rich garden soil.

If you don't like the idea of spreading fresh barn-cleanings, then it's better to have compost bins, barrels or piles that you can manage, turn, and dispense as they mature into "finished" compost.

 

[MsRiderUp]

Hi,
I have been an organic gardener for years. When we recently started keeping chickens I vaguely remembered that pine shavings aren't so good for organic gardening. Although the following quote refers to horse manure and pine shavings, it is equally applicable to chicken manure and shavings:

"These wood products are the most common bedding used for horses. When horse manure and sawdust (or shavings) are put on soil the microorganisms in the soil start to break them down. Unfortunately, these wood products have a lot of carbon that the microorganisms use for energy but not enough nitrogen to build protein. In other words, the microorganisms have an unbalanced diet and they need nitrogen. They find that nitrogen in the soil and they collect it more efficiently than plants do. In fact, they do it so well that the plants growing in the soil can't find enough nitrogen to grow properly. That's called an "induced nitrogen deficiency" and it stunts crops."

reference: http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0212.html

Perhaps as mentioned earlier, they're better used with roses?

 

[DLCShark]

I figured a lot of the bagged compost you get from stores still have chips of wood in it so why bother worrying about "fully" composting it...me myself I don't have an ideal system as of right now so I'm using my compost material for hole filler and bald spot repair. I've started to see growth in my first hole then on the the next one. GL

 

[mithious]

Question, if there is nitrogen in the chicken poop, why would the shaving be nitrogen poor? Doesn't the poop add enough nitrogen for the microbes? I use poop boards, so have piles of shavings and piles of poop. Can I layer these and get the right compost that way for these little microbes? What am I missing here? Good topic by the way!

Thanks in advance

 

[Pent]

Yes there is plenty of nitrogen in chicken poop; the issue is that the shavings take a long time, and a crazy amount of nitrogen, to break down. The chicken poop doesn't quite cover it, unless there is a whole heck of a lot; like if you're emptying a poop hammock into the compost pile more often than cleaning out your shavings. My pile is soaked with rabbit urine and full of chicken poo and rabbit poo, and its still frozen solid rather than having enough Nitrogen to generate heat.

 

[Pent]

Also this explains what went wrong in my garden last year; I was adding so much chicken poo I was afraid I was over doing it on the Nitrogen, but my plants were still stunted and yellowing. It was the shavings.

 

[lazy gardener]

Interesting. I think there's so much to this whole "nitrogen robbing" concept that we don't understand. For grins and giggles, check out the video clips regarding "back to eden". Also, check out "hugelkulture mounds". I did a hybrid HK mound in my garden last season. I took all of the litter from my coop (shavings/poo) and laid it on the ground in the garden, then covered with about 4 - 6" of soil. Everything in that bed grew lush and productive. When the flock dug into that bed this fall, the shavings/poo looked grossly unchanged from when I initially built the bed. I think a lot of the mixed results from using coop bedding may be related to how laden it is with poo. Some folks use the DL method, so the bedding is pretty saturated with poo and urates, while others do a weekly or monthly clean out. I'm trying to be successful with DL in a coop with linoleum over wood floor. I'll let you all know how successful that is when the stuff thaws out! It was wildly successful in my dirt floor lower level coop the last 2 seasons.

 

[GardenerGal]

Just saw this old tread get woken up again. lol
As I said in my post written 6 years ago (!), if there's enough chicken/poultry poop mixed into the shavings, there should be enough nitrogen to supply the microorganisms and the plants, without burning plant roots.

I've been top-dressing my garden with barn sweepings (a mix of shavings, grass hay and poultry manure) for decades now, and have never, never had a nitrogen deficiency in my soil. The plants grow lush and healthy. Perhaps the key point here is "top-dressing," meaning that it is being applied to the surface of the soil, not turned under or mixed into it. When you top-dress, it allows a gradual integration of the materials rather than giving the soil a sudden dose that would cause a spike in microorganism activity and possibly lead to a nitrogen deficiency due to all that microbial metabolism.

So, really, I'm using barn sweepings as a mulch that composts itself while also holding moisture into the soil and suppressing weeds. The shavings and hay buffer the plant roots from the heat of the mixed-in poop as it breaks down, and also keeps the poop loose and aerated so there are no bad odors.The whole thing ends up as rich, dark compost within months. It works really well, in my experience.