Poop and Compost

[CapeReds]

My neighbor planted a garden this year using compost from his coop. I helped him with my tractor and couldn't miss the richness.

Now we are starting to see results and they are amazing. This stuff is like rocket fuel for a vegtable garden.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Yes, yes it is! I'm currently using a cheap trash bin as a modified compost tumbler to keep things neat looking. I add chicken poop and pine shavings, my neighbors grass clippings and some food waste. I think we'll have ready to use compost in just a few weeks. Here's a link to my "compost tumbler." I couldn't have a pile as I have a regular backyard....

http://mountaingirlvintage.blogspot.com/2011/06/make-compost-tumbler-for-10.html

Awesome stuff! Now I just need a bunny for some ready to use droppings!

 

[mcostas]

I used compost in which I dumped the litter from my chicken pen and it was amazing!! My tomatoes grew like they were kudzu!!

I make too much compost to use one of those tumblers, I just put it in a pile that has wire around it (mainly to keep my doggies out) and kind of stir it around as best I can. During leaf season I collect as many bags of leaves around the neighborhood as my yard will hold. I pile them along the back fence, some of them I still leave in bags.

I add kitchen and food scraps in it and add leaves as needed. Once it gets to a certain height I don't add any more leaves. When I think it's time I open it and rake out the pile. Some of it goes back in teh wire hoop and some gets put in a pile in my garden to use as needed.

I let my chickens free range in teh yard cause my coop is kind of small for 6 large chickens. I'm going to get rid of 2 so I can keep the remaining 4 in the pen until I get off work in the afternoon. I should have some more/better chicken poo leaf litter to add to my pile.

My pile finishes a lot sooner now that I have chickens. I can see it's affect in the garden as well.

 

[SC_Hugh]

Our household veggies scraps, coffee grinds with paper filters, leaves and chicken poop and wood shavings + WORMS = the most light and fluffy worm casting compost ever

No smell and loaded with worms...

All of our 3 composters have open bottoms that allow worms to find the compost pile and go to town. All 3 composters are in the shade and never get hot.

Anyone that gardens would appreciate this final compost product. I added two more chickens recently to increase our egg count and increase the compost production.

Brown gold,

Hugh

 

[bloom_ss]

Quote:
Great idea!! I have been looking for a compost tumbler but they are SOOO expensive that I haven't broken down and bought one yet. I think I'll just go get me a trash bin like you have and make my own!! Thanks so much for the idea!!

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Quote:
I would do this too if I had more land. However, in a regular backyard it would take up too much space and not be able to be hidden. Plus, my dogs would get into it. Blech! This is definitely an idea for a smaller scale. We are making a second to rotate them. =0)

 

[Yashar]

There are a few placed in my garden that got a more generous helping of compost than others, and I am quite impressed at the difference.

I read in Eliot Coleman's book 4 season harvest that back in the day, while people were still using horse and carriage for transportation, the compost was heaped regularly on the gardens and made things grow like you wouldn't believe. Paris would produce enough crops for the entire city with enough to export to England.

 

[wood&feathers]

I keep two piles, no bin or anything. Last winter's pile was used to build the row that holds corn and beans. My son is tickled - I have never had much luck with corn, and discouraged him, but he wanted corn and planted some. It is now the tallest in our county. Even the midget strawberry popcorn is taller than I am, and the husks are filling out now. Like you said, rocket fuel for a garden.

 

[Cherry Bird]

I'm intimidated by compost. I have mostly "green" yard waste and I haven't been able to get the mix right. Last year I just had a stinking pile of yuck that we eventually hauled to the dump. Maybe if I add poopy pine shavings as the "brown..."

Is it okay to compost the poop of sick chickens? Are there other reasons to avoid composing?

 

[SC_Hugh]

Sick chickens? You have to solve that issue first.

Too much green stuff + lots of moisture = will not work. Mix in plenty of dry brown leaves in alternating layers...Autumn is on it's way now, so starting in September, there should be lots of falling leaves until the end of this year.

I get most of my quality brown leaves from the family across the street that has a huge maple tree that takes up most of their entire front yard. I have two medium sized Japanese Maple trees, but the leaf volume is better over there. All in all, I must move about 15-20 greenwaste can loads per year from that one huge Maple tree. I pile the leaves into a large hole in the ground, and it stays one huge pile throughout the winter season. In the following Spring, I take the leaves off the top of the pile (the ones that didn't really break down much, but very dry from being in the sun on the top of the pile) and then I make alternate layers of partially broken down brown leaves with the chicken coop poopy shavings. Two piles per year, in Spring and Fall, I clean out the whole coop and run and build next year's compost. I like to let the piles break down for at least 6 months, but most of the time, I wait for a year and keep turning it and adding more household fruit and veggie scraps + coffee grinds and paper filters.

I have let the majority of the leaf compost pile mature year after year, at this point, I must have about a yard and a half of pure leaf compost, looks like dirt, but with no grit, just brown fluffy duff.

--Hugh