how would YOU turn this into a coop

[sue121507]

What would you do with the bedding then? I do have 15 acres.

 

[TalkALittle]

Any plans to garden? Composted chicken poop and bedding makes great fertilizer.

 

[sue121507]

Any plans to garden? Composted chicken poop and bedding makes great fertilizer.

Possibly, but by time I move it will be a bit late to start a garden. I don't know anything about composting either.

 

[TalkALittle]

There's always next year. Composting can be as easy as just making a pile out back and letting nature take it's course. Yes, you can speed up the process by monitoring moisture levels and balancing nitrogen rich matter with carbon rich matter and periodic stirring but even that's not too hard. Check out the posts in the Gardening forum here on BYC and you'll see plenty of threads about composting. Who knows? You might want to give it a try.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I compost my chicken poo and shavings. I do it the lazy/easy way. I put it all in the compost bin until one side is full then start on the second side. I can use most all of it one year after starting the process. I actually just built a couple raised beds for the garden and the one year old compost was nicely rotted into rich compost.
One thing about chicken compost is it is very nitrogen rich. It is easy to over do it. I mixed it in with the soil as I filled the new boxes and will be able to add on top with a light mixing in in the future.
We just do not generate quite enough green items to add to the bins to do the other way. We have to many noxious weeds to use the grass clippings with confidence.
One year I simply dumped the coop cleanings onto the garden and let it over winter there. In the spring the ground was easy to turn and we actually had earthworms. Our soil is ALL clay so I was very shocked to see earthworms. The chickens however were elated and had quite a good time.
My DH was concerned the composting would smell bad but it has little if any odor.