Since this thread was brought to the top, I wanted to add my 2cents. I do everything in the slow add to the pile as you go mode. In the fall when gardening is done, I rip out all the plants and just dump in a pile in the corner of the yard. When leaves fall, I use my mower to direct its discharge in the direction of the pile. When I get a big enough pile of chopped leaves, I just rake them into the compost pile. I use the fine wood chips in my chicken coop to absorb the poop. I just dump a bale or two inside when things start to look nasty and then throw in a handfull of feed and the birds spread the chips for me. After two or three refreshing of the chips, I wait until it needs more added and use a rake and shovel to remove down to the dirt and start over with new chips. I throw the poop laden chips on top of my compost pile. The rain makes it wet. When I need compost, I dig down to the bottom of the pile and gather the good stuff for the garden. I dont bother with turning the pile, what ever turing it gets is from me digging down to get to the bottom of the pile.
I have never heard of chip drop, but I used to get free chips from the local power company. I have gotten as much as 200 dump loads at a time. Thats a big pile. I would take my tractor and roll the pile when ever the mood struck me. The wood chips where mostly 'Ramail in size and contain all the bark and leaves of the trees being chipped. Plenty of brown and green material. I found they broke down in about a year enough to provide a usable mulch. worked great to mulch around my trees and lanscape. I would till and plant my garden and once established I would use the wood chips as a mulch, pileing it high around the plants and even filling in the lanes between the rows, Worked great keeping down weed pressure and kept the soil moist underneath. Also since the mulch isnt buried in the soil, it doesnt rob nitrogen from the growing garden. Once the garden was done for the year, I would till all the mulch into the soil, this way it had the entire winter to breakdown and turn into actual soil. I would occassionally find a stick or something left over simple because it was to large to break down in one year, but mostly, it just disappeared in the dirt.
Being a man, an old one at that, I have to pee often. Since I have a build in sprayer, I dont bother with catching my pee, I just apply it fresh directly to the plants or to the compost pile. I aim for the base and around the plants, never directly on the plants. I cant say it does or doesnt help.
I have raised both ducks and geese in years gone by. Ducks and geese are certainly good at spreading fertilizer all over the yard, the walkway, the front porch, etc....
