Northern states compost question

[bmanty]

What does everyone do in the frigid lands with compost after coop clean up. I dump it in my back property but it just sits there, sometimes I offer people.to come get it for free for gardens, is it ok to maybe put it in the coop yard and let the chickens work it down to dirt. I justdont want to get them sick possibly. Any ideas.
Thank you

 

[CoopintheWoods]

I have about 4 piles in the woods out of the way on my property. I have a (very approximate) system where I add to one pile every time I clean the coop for maybe six months and then switch. It's all the bedding from an 8x8 or 9x9 coop for 18 chickens. There might be some rabbit bedding mixed in there too. After maybe year, the old piles are just about down to dirt. Good rich dirt, too. After 2 years if I haven't used one, I can hardly find the pile. It doesn't smell much either.

I'm sure there are more efficient ways to do it, but it works for me.

Best wishes!

 

[Tre3hugger]

I throw used coop bedding into my run. The birds spread it out and it evnetually breaks down.

 

[Mvan42]

I do throw coop bedding in the run. It does break down but we sometimes put hey in the run because that's all we have at the time when cleaning that we put it in a pile. Hubby mixes it around with the reactor when he has it out which helps..

 

[Mrs. K]

I pitch the bedding from the coop to the run, then in the spring I use it as mulch in my garden. I use old hay for bedding, and I like it in the run too, although it is a bit more spotty than in the coop.

 

[bmanty]

Thanks everyone
.ill try some spring and summer clean up in the run and see how they do with it

 

[aart]

What does everyone do in the frigid lands with compost after coop clean up. I dump it in my back property but it just sits there, sometimes I offer people.to come get it for free for gardens, is it ok to maybe put it in the coop yard and let the chickens work it down to dirt. I justdont want to get them sick possibly. Any ideas.
Thank you

What are you using for coop bedding?
That's going to make a big difference in how fast it breaks down.

 

[bmanty]

What are you using for coop bedding?
That's going to make a big difference in how fast it breaks down

Usually I go with straw in winter, horse bedding or animal shaved wood bedding gets mixed.in and i use the shaved chips in spring and summer

 

[aart]

Usually I go with straw in winter, horse bedding or animal shaved wood bedding gets mixed.in and i use the shaved chips in spring and summer

Straw will break down fast, wood not so much.

 

[gtaus]

What does everyone do in the frigid lands with compost after coop clean up. I dump it in my back property but it just sits there, sometimes I offer people.to come get it for free for gardens, is it ok to maybe put it in the coop yard and let the chickens work it down to dirt. I justdont want to get them sick possibly. Any ideas.
Thank you

Hey, neighbor. I'm just about 143 miles from you. Here is what I do with my chickens.

I use dry deep bedding in the chicken coop. The past couple of years I used free wood chips in the coop as deep bedding, and they worked great. This winter, I used shredded paper in the coop. I shred all the paper myself at home from all our waste paper products, like junk mail, old bills, light food box cardboard, newspapers, etc... The shredded paper in the coop as dry deep bedding has worked great for me this year.

All my coop bedding typically gets cleaned out in the spring, after the snow melts, and gets tossed into the chicken run. I turned my chicken run into a chicken run composting system, so all my bagged grass clippings, leaves, weeds from the lawn and garden, and just about anything else gets tossed into the chicken run. My chickens love to eat some fresh grass clippings, and some weeds are good tasting to them, but everything else just gets mixed together by them and breaks down as compost. If you use good organic material for your coop bedding, the chickens will mix and turn all that material in the run along with everything else.

With all the wood chips, grass clipping, leaves, and everything else organic in my chicken run, the litter was about 18 inches deep last fall. Over winter, a lot has composted down and is now about 12 inches deep, but it is a beautiful dark black compost ready material for use in the garden, or elsewhere. I had a few visitors last year that were gardeners and they complimented me on the chicken run compost system because they immediately knew what I was doing and they could see how well it was working.

I have been harvesting my chicken run compost late in the fall, after all my garden plants have been picked, and put it out on the beds to sit over the winter. Although there is chicken poo in that chicken run compost, the ratio of poo to all other material is so small that I really don't think I would have to let it sit over winter, but I do anyway.

Because I now make so much chicken run compost, I converted a cement mixer into a compost sifter. For years I just sifted my compost with a small 2X4 frame with hardware cloth. Now I can sift compost in 30 minutes with the cement mixer compost sifter that would take me hours and hours to do manually.

OK, where we live in the north country, composting is usually a long process because it is hard for us to make and maintain any kind of hot composting system. If you want to use a 3 bin method, and constantly turn over the piles, then maybe you might get compost ready to use before winter. But I just let my chickens do all the work for me. They love scratching and pecking, turning all the compost material as they search for worms and bugs to eat. My chicken run compost takes about 6 months before it is ready to harvest, but I don't have to do anything other than dump the grass clippings and leaves into the run.

In the past, I used wood chips as coop bedding, and as someone already mentioned, wood chips take a long time to break down in a compost pile. But they will eventually break down and if you can get free wood chips, that is a great option for bedding. This year I used the paper shreds and I suspect they will breakdown in just a few months, or less, when they are put out into the chicken run. I have not used straw or hay for many years, because I prefer to use free resources that I have. But straw and hay should break down fast in your compost.

As far as getting people sick from chicken compost, I don't think there is anything to worry about. Fresh chicken poo is high in nitrogen, which makes it a "hot" manure, requiring time to "cool off" before use. But that is because concentrated fresh chicken poo will burn the plants roots and harm the plants. I have never heard of chicken compost like I make harming people. But, in my chicken run compost system, there is mostly the grass clippings and leaves, a smattering of wood chips and other organic material, and relatively very little chicken poo in the mix.

Nothing wrong with dumping your old coop bedding into a pile in the back of the property, just letting it sit there, and eventually it will break down and make excellent compost without any effort. Might take a few years just sitting there. If you dump that same material into your chicken run, your chickens will rip it apart, break it down, and turn it into useable compost in about 5-6 months. At least, that is what I am seeing with my system.