Northern states compost question

[bmanty]

Awesome. Thank you, when you say deep dry bedding do you mean you just make some layers of it and let it pile up throughout winter inside the coop? I like to keep it clean if I can but 10 degrees or 20 below, its not happening, so do you put down bedding and later put down more and just keep building it up, then clean it all up in spring? Thats what ive done, just want to make sure im doing it well or correctly.

Thanks again, ill start dumping most in their run then

 

[gtaus]

Awesome. Thank you, when you say deep dry bedding do you mean you just make some layers of it and let it pile up throughout winter inside the coop? I like to keep it clean if I can but 10 degrees or 20 below, its not happening, so do you put down bedding and later put down more and just keep building it up, then clean it all up in spring? Thats what ive done, just want to make sure im doing it well or correctly.

Thanks again, ill start dumping most in their run then

I usually clean my coop out in late fall, just before we start to get snow. I put in about 3-4 inches of fresh dry deep bedding (wood chips, paper shreds, etc...) as a starter. Throughout the winter, I will add additional bedding, covering the old bedding, and letting everything build up to almost 12 inches by the spring. Really, the only place that builds up frozen poo in the winter is the area directly under their roost bar. So I just cover that portion as needed and the rest of the coop does not need as much attention.

This winter, I used paper shreds I make at home. I started off with my typical 3-4 inches of bedding, and added paper shreds throughout the winter, and currently have maybe 7 inches deep in the coop. Adding a fresh layer of paper shreds on top of the frozen poo is enough to keep everything in my coop looking clean and smelling fresh. Of course, you have to have a good balance of chickens per square feet in your coop. I have almost 7 square feet per bird in my coop. But I designed my coop to hold up to 12 inches of deep bedding and almost 8 square feet per bird because I knew my chickens would not go outside in the snow for a good 4-5 months of the winter, and maybe 6 months for a long winter year. So they basically live in their coop when there is snow out in the chicken run.

I will clean out the coop and the old bedding sometime early in the spring after the snow melts. All the old bedding gets tossed into the chicken run and the chickens will turn it into compost over the summer. It's a great system for me and I have more chicken run compost than I can use in my gardens.

Sounds like you are doing something similar to me. I don't even bother to clean out the coop in the winter, it's just going to happen. Frozen poo is as hard as concrete. Just cover it with a fresh layer of bedding and let the deep bedding automatically absorb it all.