Meat chickens in the winter?

[RUNuts]

Shavings will layer and pack. Need lots of turning to get them going and stay aerated. If you mix them with something bulky, you may have better luck. I suggest wood chips or some type of large mulch.

I use yard waste and junk mail. The county dump shreds yard waste and it's free for the taking as mulch, compost or wood chips. Quality varies with what was shredded. I've recycled wood chips, hay bales (those cute fall decorations or rotting bales from a barn), grass clippings, leaves and banana trees (can't kill them) from the dump. I target the wood chips for the chickens and the composted stuff for the garden. Fill empty feed bags once and dump when and where you want them.

The figs this year are golf ball size. Last year was half that. This includes using chicken compost around the figs. Compost, flattened boxes for weed deterrent and topped with wood chips. I'm still feeding the soil, but there are areas that are black and rich.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Leaf litter from my surrounding forest. Its an upland hardwood hammock, technically, so there isn't much pine needle, unlike most of FL. Leaves of oak, hickory, youpon holly primarily, plus some pine and laurels, and others I have yet to identify.

 

[atucker]

well, now you guys have lead me on a new fact finding adventure on how to best use all my coop waste as compost!! I thought chicken poop took a long time to compost, although I have heard that it is like gold for gardening... Leaves are in a huge abundance here for me in Maine, I am surrounded by acres of woods... So maybe I will look into using these... Just have to find a way to store them and keep them dry in wet seasons.

 

[RUNuts]

well, now you guys have lead me on a new fact finding adventure on how to best use all my coop waste as compost!! I thought chicken poop took a long time to compost, although I have heard that it is like gold for gardening... Leaves are in a huge abundance here for me in Maine, I am surrounded by acres of woods... So maybe I will look into using these... Just have to find a way to store them and keep them dry in wet seasons.

Used feed bags. Dog food, chicken food, any type of 50# food bags.

Or just leave them in the forest until you have a need. Easier to store that way. I'm assuming the snow will cooperate.

There are comments about using hay bales for insulation. I'd imagine bags of leaves are about as good. Be warned, these are heaven for nesting rodents. And compost piles with kitchen scraps are buffets. Manage your resources and your rodent attractants properly.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Chicken droppings are "hot" compost, high nitrogen, and thus can "burn" certain sensitive plants. The highe the protein in the feed you offer them, the higher the nitrogen, and the "hotter" (as in, more likely to burn your plants) the compost.

Easist way is to add it to brown matter and let it break down naturally (which is what we who deep litter method are doing). You can also add it wholesale to a raised bed you intend to let lay fallow for a season - till it in a few months later, plant as normal. Or you can let them free range on so many acres the droppings are too widely scattered to have obvious effect (or ability for you togather and scoop the poop).

Between those extremes, there's a lot of options.

 

[atucker]

Good point. I have a tumbling composter I put anything the chickens cant or don't have.. chipmunks are in abundance here, I will have to think of the best way to store and use chicken manure. I will probably use leaves as bedding when the new coop is done, this seems like the best option for me. I could fill my raised beds after garden season ends and let it sit for winter, till it in the spring and they are ready to go! maybe have a different area to store the rest in-between fills or to add to my other planters...

 

[Parront]

Do you use wood shavings for your bedding? When we set up the new coop, I was torn between that and sand... I have read that some will add some shavings weekly and scratch, let the chickens turn it and then twice a year clean it all out as compost and start again...
What process do you use?

I use straw bedding, and a compost pile. I have so much wood here, I do not want any more! I clean out the brooder, and nests, pile it with dirt over the top. The previous year's clean outs are good on the garden. I add grass clippings to the chickens when we have them, they do not leave much of that to rake! They love to scratch fresh straw. A $10.00 bale lasts a month, less when it is raining a lot. (Like now)!

 

[Molpet]

A $10.00 bale l

Wow
$5 here from a farmer... sometimes $3.50 if you pick it up in the field.
Not sure what it costs at a feed store.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Wow
$5 here from a farmer... sometimes $3.50 if you pick it up in the field.
Not sure what it costs at a feed store.

Compressed bales $12-14 at the feed store. Sorry that I know. Have no way to transport or store a round, few of my neighbors make bales, and I've been waiting for it to come in - feed prices being what they are, people are holding hay close. I only need straw, but hay is what's being harvested...

So I only use it for nesting boxes. Leaf litter everywhere else.

 

[Parront]

Good point. I have a tumbling composter I put anything the chickens cant or don't have.. chipmunks are in abundance here, I will have to think of the best way to store and use chicken manure. I will probably use leaves as bedding when the new coop is done, this seems like the best option for me. I could fill my raised beds after garden season ends and let it sit for winter, till it in the spring and they are ready to go! maybe have a different area to store the rest in-between fills or to add to my other planters...

I wish we had hardwood leaves. Here only cedar and pine and I do use them in the compost some, but too much is not great for the acidity of the garden. So, I have to buy straw for them. Yard raking goes in the coop, but does have Juniper berries that are not my favorite. I think the chickens eat some of them, though!