Storing grass clippings without mold?

[3KillerBs]

but in other places they packed it down hard and it somehow became about 1" of dense, relatively dry clay with a thin layer of very wet, very slippery silty mud and poop that wasn't getting stirred down and wasn't getting absorbed by anything. The grass clippings somehow helped return things to a substrate that the chicks can dig into, so now the slippery layer is getting stirred in and dried up.

Nothing like adding organic material to improve bad soil conditions.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I would like to add some wood chips if I can find suitable ones. I've been having trouble finding wood chips though that aren't treated in some way.

If you have space to store a truckload of chips, you can contact a tree service company and see if they can drop off a load on your lot.

If that's far more than you can use (since the run is small) then maybe if a neighbor or friend collects wood chips for gardening, you can get a wheelbarrow or two of it which should last you a while.

Oh, and I do use grass clippings in my run as well. It doesn't store very well compared to other materials (like I save dried leaves every fall, around 15-18 bags of it). After I mow, let the clippings sit a day or two on the grass, and by then it's dried out enough that the chickens don't want to eat it and I can just dump it all in the run. Any grass that I can't dry out I either throw in my compost or in the commercial compost waste bin.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I've learned a few things with the clippings since I initially made this thread. I live in a very wet area so a lot of the issues I've run into are probably related to that climate.

• When it's raining daily, I can only add about 1/4in to 1/2in of new material every 1-2 days. If I add more, whatever is under the top 1/2in has a chance of becoming compacted, yellow, and really soggy pretty fast. If that happens, I rake out the yellow soggy stuff and add a little shavings or some shredded pine bark.
• If I have a few dry days in a row, I can add more like 1in at a time in a given part of the run. Depending on where I take the clippings from, the chickens seem to eat anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of it. The volume decreases pretty fast.
• I mow in smaller amounts more frequently now. If I get a gap in the rain, I mow a bag's worth or as much of a bag as I can get before it starts sticking to the blades. I use what I can and discard anything that sits more than 2 days.

For the most part, the substrate of my covered run has seemed good despite the rain. Before I put down the coop, the soil was pretty dead. Now there's a nice crumbly black layer at the bottom in most parts of the run. Worms have even started to move into that layer (which my chickens obviously quite like).

However, this morning part of my run got mold bombed the same way I used to see when I was trying to store clippings in my cart. The mold started about 1" down and was on everything below that. I know it wasn't like this a day ago. I ended up taking out probably 4-5 cubic feet of material to get rid of the mold, including some of the nice black layer unfortunately. I slapped down some deeper shavings than I'd normally put to try to dry it out and stop any more mold.

Fortunately I've got a few hot, dry days ahead of me so I can get some fresh grass again for that patch. I have a separate place for doing regular composting where I've been putting dirty bedding from the coop, so the stuff I tore out won't completely go to waste. It's still frustrating though, since I felt like I was doing good up until now with that organic layer. I don't know what I did wrong that led to the mold this morning.

 

[mcdze]

its just that time of the year .. fungus mold nematodes etc are just in the ground waiting for you to feed it lol .. when winter hits it will chill out ... i love to save dried grass for brooder bedding and nest boxes .. best stuff there is but its alot of work to get a large bag saved .. generally it takes about 6-8 walkbehind mower bags dumped out on a concrete garage floor and spread out for several days to dry it .. flip it with a pitchfork once a day till its fluffy and dry ... yeah right now my yard is lush, i could make 10 bags if i was motivated to get out in that 100 degree heat lol ... but i got 1 big stuffed 55gal bag full to carry things through winter .. far as saving a pile of clippings for the coop floor i dont see a good way to do it .. if your place is big enough you might be able to save a corner uncut to mow up in the winter ..

 

[suburbanfarmermi]

If you had the space you could build a drying rack with spare lumber and some hardware clothe?

I have a 4ftx12ft covered run and have been dumping a bag or so of class clippings in the run occastionally. they spread it around within a few days. Last night I grabbed a few large handfuls of various long weeks (some 2 Foot tall or so) and threw it in the run. I was amazed by what was left of it a few hours later.