Merax
In the Brooder
Just thought I'd share what I've done with my coop with regards to composting. Getting chickens (and never having had them before, despite wanting them since I was a kid) made me think about what I was going to lay down on the floor of the coop. While I got the chickens for eggs, I wanted to be able to use their poo in the garden beds to improve my soil and promote plant growth. I did pick up a bale of hay, but that proved (as others have attested to in this forum) to not be great as a medium for catching chicken droppings...doesn't dry them out enough. I have a 6" bed of sand in the floor of my run, which proves ideal - it just requires a regular rake and collection of droppings / scraps, but I didn't want sand in the coop floor.
So I hit upon a solution that also forced me to clean up my yard....you see, I have HEAPS of bamboo (planted to stop soil slip on slopes instead of using rock walls).
http://i.imgur.com/qgitPAV.jpg
So I started experimenting with bamboo leaf in the coop.
http://i.imgur.com/4mPsrQI.jpg
It works really well. It dries out the poo really quickly, it's free, it forces me to clean up leaf litter around the property etc. The chooks seem to love the nice deep layer I use in the coop (they free range through the day so they really don't spend much time in there apart from sleeping). Every weekend, the dirty bamboo leaf gets combined with the collection from the run in this bad boy (shown with lid off):
http://i.imgur.com/pt1fQVQ.jpg
It gets a bucket of water added after the new contents and the lid put back on - due to the heat (I am in Queensland, Australia...it's still around 90 degrees fahrenheit during the day) it starts breaking down pretty quickly as well as getting all sorts of insects / bugs / grubs in there.
Once it is full I leave it sit for a couple of weeks, then pull out the bin and collect everything inside. Well, not everything. The chooks love it when I open up the compost bin, they eat so many grubs and bugs that they're full to bursting for the rest of the day. Anyway, it then gets added to my raised beds. Simple solution that (A) keeps my coop clean (B) keeps me cleaning up the yard (C) fertilizes my garden.
What do you do with your chicken poo?
So I hit upon a solution that also forced me to clean up my yard....you see, I have HEAPS of bamboo (planted to stop soil slip on slopes instead of using rock walls).
http://i.imgur.com/qgitPAV.jpg
So I started experimenting with bamboo leaf in the coop.
http://i.imgur.com/4mPsrQI.jpg
It works really well. It dries out the poo really quickly, it's free, it forces me to clean up leaf litter around the property etc. The chooks seem to love the nice deep layer I use in the coop (they free range through the day so they really don't spend much time in there apart from sleeping). Every weekend, the dirty bamboo leaf gets combined with the collection from the run in this bad boy (shown with lid off):
http://i.imgur.com/pt1fQVQ.jpg
It gets a bucket of water added after the new contents and the lid put back on - due to the heat (I am in Queensland, Australia...it's still around 90 degrees fahrenheit during the day) it starts breaking down pretty quickly as well as getting all sorts of insects / bugs / grubs in there.
Once it is full I leave it sit for a couple of weeks, then pull out the bin and collect everything inside. Well, not everything. The chooks love it when I open up the compost bin, they eat so many grubs and bugs that they're full to bursting for the rest of the day. Anyway, it then gets added to my raised beds. Simple solution that (A) keeps my coop clean (B) keeps me cleaning up the yard (C) fertilizes my garden.
What do you do with your chicken poo?
