I have only had 5 or 6 hens at a time for awhile and now have 47 plus 2 goats who dirty up lots of litter. The amount of litter and poo has obviously increased enormously. I used to just mix the used wood shavings into my compost gradually but now have so much more that I think it will be too hot for my composter. How do you guys get rid of this much pooey wood shavings? Can it be composted if I use lots and lots of leaves and dry things to counter it's strong ickiness?
I just pile it up and till it into the gardens fresh in the fall till a month before planting, and then during growing season, pile it elsewhere to be dug in the coming fall. I mostly have straw though, so it doesn't change the soil ph that much.
I guess I do it the lazy mans way. I just wheelbarrow it to a section of yard and sling it across the yard with the pitch fork or the cherry picker. Sure makes for some green fast growing grass. Did I mention that I hate to cut grass?
I hate grass too. If it were me and I didn't plan to USE it for my garden and just wanted to be rid of it I would sell it cheap on craigslist. I fill my empty feed sacks whenever I clean out the coop to make for easy transport and I bet you could get $5 a bag for fresh chicken poo! Or you could post it in the free section, but you may have folks fighting for it. You would not believe how thrilled my co worker was when I gave her 5 bags of it when I found out I had to move. I thought there was no sense in packing it with me or putting it in the ground to leave behind so I gave it away and it was about the perfect present. *shrug* It is an option.
I pile it in a fenced in area (to keep the poo eating dog out ) I have two piles, one that sits and one that I add to. I try to turn it occasionally but sometimes that doesn't happen . I use chopped straw and wood shavings in my coops and I finally after 4 years have lots of worm activity in my coop compost, I've never added anything to it. When the pile that is sitting is composted I throw it in the veg. garden, makes a great mulch
I normally do a big cleaning of my coop in the fall. When I put my garden beds to rest for the winter I just scoop the bedding straight onto the garden beds, since it will have all winter to age over.
I spread it under my fruit trees, the vegetable patch gets some in early spring, on the lawn, along the hedge, dissolved in water as liquid fertilizer for watering anything which needs to be watered (outside plants/flowers only obviously) and I even give it to my neighbours. Best local produced ecological fertilizer or sometimes we jokingly call it Swedish guano . I already thought about selling it, since it´s so popular and effective first animals/pets where a lot of poop is not an annoyance.
I estimate that 90% of my compost bin is filled with poo and pine shavings and straw. It makes lovely compost. In the winter, I throw it directly onto the garden soil, to be tilled under in spring.
I don't have anywhere near as much as you do but I put it in the garden. When I scrape the poop board every morning I bury the results in a hole in the garden. When I clean out the deep litter, I spread that over the whole garden.
