Poop and Compost

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Here's where I compost, about 10 feet away from the coop, I just flip the top of the pile over every couple weeks and re'do the "walls" made of post scrap wood. I did contact the wood manufacturer because I was afraid of copper/lead/mercury leaching, but they provided documentation that the posts are safe and intended for use with food gardens and pets/children. This photo taken early last spring:

The compost pile is usually about 3 feet high when I flip it, layering dusty brown, dry coop litter (pine shavings and poop), topped by green cut grass, topped by another layer of old compost "black dirt", topped by kitchen scraps/coffeegrounds/eggshells/fruit/veg peels, watered with the garden hose and then layered again and again til the coop is clean. In 2-4 weeks time, when I'm ready to clean the coop again, I flip the top of this back into the old hole in the ground, which the chickens have been furiously digging and dustbathing in, after they got all the worms, and restack the wood scrap walls to keep it looking somewhat tidy. Also, the worms and grubs which the chickens dig for seem to luuurve the spaces in the wood stacked against the dirt, which is like a party for the chickens when I take it down to flip it!

After 2-4 weeks it's only about a foot high, and often I use it before its fully composted, just MOSTLY composted. But it smells heavenly, like a rich greenhouse.

 

[lindseythefork]

Quote:
I have a tumbler and one that's just a box with an open bottom- both work fine. The tumbler was easier until it got too full and just about squished me when it toppled one day. Both were jam-packed full of worms! Not entirely sure how the earthworms got into the tumbler (since it doesn't have contact with the ground) but it was.

 

[dcouette]

Might be a silly question, but just started with my chickens this year and definately want to get into composting chicken poop. All the posts I have seen refer to shavings in the coop. I have access to straw or hay. What would compost better; staw or hay? Another silly question: Will the feathers compost?

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Our straw grows mushrooms. I always wondered, is this the secret ingredient to those $5 bags of "mushroom compost"? Or will the mushrooms in the compost hurt anything I'm trying to grow?

I purposely buy the finely shredded pine chips for my coop, and there's sand under them with much of the sand getting into my compost pile. I like the way the fine pine chips fluff the compost. I'll try to get a pic now of my flowers, its really fun to see stuff grow in it!

 

[rancher hicks]

I just fill my "raised beds" with this stuff and cover it with whatever bags of soil is on sale.

also what Jesse (the help) and I did last year was dig up some of those wild daylilies and place them around a big tree I have in the yard and then when we cleaned the coop used it to bury the lilies. This year they came up and some of the bloomed.

I use this stuff to fill in low spots in the yard and then throw some cheap grass seen and clover seed on it. It makes great mulch around shrubs and trees.

I wish you the best,

rancher

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

OK here's a 100ft row of thyme hedge I seeded in front of our picket fence, right into my compost, with a few annual filler flowers thrown in til the thyme gets established. Its shocking how quickly the thyme sprouted and grew! Its already in flower only 10 weeks later! My gardening goal = I Don't Want To Mow There:

Here's our rosecomb bantam enjoying the fruits of her poops in our strawberry ledge, its interplanted with Empress Nasturtium, basil and violets. I encourage the chickens to forage after I get home around 6pm for those dang green japanese beetles, you can see some of their damage on the strawberry leaves:

Lastly, here's my last ditch effort at helping our SweetGum tree to grow, I never watered it, so I gave it a pet garden which I water, sometimes. I just plopped about 10 inches of my composted chicken poop on top of wetted brown grocery bags in a square shape around my tree, seeded annuals and perrenials, and its a garden! Like,

The perennials are sage, daisies, short monarda, lupines and something pink and spiky (first year sow, second year grow, third year SHOW!) but already my sages have bloomed and the pink spiky things are already done blooming. The annuals are pretty, though, Zinnias and alyssum with portulaca/moss roses:

Chicken poop makes it possible. I always composted, but it really is rocket fuel now.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Oh Yeah, I'm the Man!

I am very grateful for Mr Woof. He's the poopmaster of my world. And he calls the hens over for beetles off my roses. He's all good.

 

[farmerinKC]

We have always had a compost bin-now with the addition of the pine shavings and chicken poop from the coop, I'm expecting it to be really good compost. We have sand in our run that I scoop a couple times a day. I was wondering about how the addition of some sand is going to be in the compost. Does anyone know about this?

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Quote:
Roses like it sandy!

 

[jrosto]

Adding sand to your compost is not an issue at all. Dirt and sand are good for your pile.