What Do Yall Do With Your Old Bedding?

[discoveregg]

I rake it in with leaves that have fallen on my property out by the oak trees, then spread it around my Iris garden as a mulch

 

[al6517]

Compost pile for sure !!!!!! and my veggie garden has never looked and produced better.

 

[Julie's +/-6 Girls]

My pine shavings mix in well, I keep turning everything, produces lots of worms!

 

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

Be wary of mixing in too much of the manure into your compost or in some areas of your soil... the high nitrogen doesn't work well for all things... legumes shouldn't get nitrogen added to the soil....they will just produce a ton of leaves and few flowers/beans... but for ornamental plants, herbs and most other vegitables...you couldn't ask for a better compost additive. If you are using sand as your bedding use the equivelant of a litter scooper and add the manure to the composter...a little sand and pea gravel is nice in the compost.

I am so happy everyone composts... I wish I could have all BYC people for neighbors...you're all so smart and resourceful!

 

[Aria]

Directly on my flowers ...works great.

 

[BlueBetween]

we compost it too, but here's a tip for someone just starting out with composting and overwhelmed with the amount of shavings: Mix in with grass clippings and water and mix it up with a pitchfork- it will all start to cook and shrink soon and then you'll have more room for the next load. I also add in coffee grounds, banana peels, egg shells, and any left over fruits and veggies/peelings that the dog or chickens won't eat. No fats or meats or it will start to stink and attract rodents.

 

[SarahBeth9394]

I have a compost pile but I know I'm doing it all wrong. They hay is just sitting there and the pile is getting bigger. I hose it down a bit when I water the garden. But it's so hot out that it stays dry. There is however a real nice sunflower sprouted out of it right now.

 

[BlueBetween]

Quote:
LOL! When I didn't stir mine for awhile, mine was growing potato vines.

 

[confusedturtle]

Composter! Hubby was deployed, and I had been researching ways to be more green in our home, almost half of my backyard quickly became a rasied garden. It was so expensive to water it that I thought I'd give rain barrels a shot. I love using them and now have 9, which totally feed our garden year round. I bought the composter several months before the chickens, to make my own soil, and while reading info about the composter I found out about how great chickens poo is for your garden and how to compost it. Hubby had just gotten home and thought I was crazy for wanting to cook our garbage and lawn clippings into dirt. So when I suggested chickens he knew I had lost it and the more I talked about it the more he realized I meant it and it sounded slightly less crazy LoL! He was convinced I was insane until a few days after we got the chicks, now he likes them and I have even caught him a few times sitting in my observation seat just watching them

He is coming around on the composter and thinks the rain barrels were a great idea, and likes the chicks so much he is refusing to get rid of our roo (he has claimed as his) and swears he will find a way to keep him from crowing. Next deployment & lil farm adventure will be bunnies, I used their poo directly in my garden in the spring and this year my garden is going crazy!

 

[confusedturtle]

Sore Thumb Suburbanite:

I am so happy everyone composts... I wish I could have all BYC people for neighbors...you're all so smart and resourceful!

I totally agree, wish all of you lived nearby and we could just hang out, share our ideas and enjoy watching each others chickens