This has probably been discussed in a ton of different threads. But... I have a nice big pile right outside my coop (I guess I've been lazy just shoveling it outside and leaving it there) which has been piling up for about a year now. I think when the weather gets colder I'll pitchfork it 30 feet away. Hope there are no snakes hibernating under there. Shavings, hay, and chicken poop. I'm thinking I'll make raised bed veggie gardens next year (too many rocks around here - can't grow anything) and maybe pitchfork it all into there, either under the soil or over the soil. It should be pretty ready by then. What do you all do with it?
I suggest just spreading it all thickly as a mulch over the future garden bed to over winter and break down. It will protect the soil from drying out some, and from some cold, giving earthworms a happy place and smothering winter weeds. I'm in Georgia, I've gathered leaves from the curbs of other homes to pile up in the garden. By spring I just till it all in, has worked wonders on the original clay subsoil that was all we have here. I have been dumping mine in the row of pallet compost bins that catch all the yard debris, kitchen scraps that don't go to the chickens. Hopefully, someone will spread it all over the garden sometime this fall or winter so I can till it first thing in spring.
