What do YOU do with a year's worth of DeepLitterMethod's used litter?

[feathersnuggles]

Bag it up into huge bags - give to family members & friends who have gardens and don't have chickens, to fertilize their gardens. It's the best gift, cuz it keeps on giving (turning into big healthy veggies & flowers)!

If you give them a bag, and if necessary, explain how to use it, next year they'll be requesting it.

 

[Momo]

We compost it (adding some lime because of the acidity of the shavings), and it's like black gold. If you're not a gardener, put an ad in the paper and you'll find avid gardeners will be thrilled to pay you for the privilege of coming to get it.

 

[kennedyscochins]

Quote:
I know everyone's going to think I'm crazy, but how do you compost? Do you just make a big pile of shavings and chicken poop and let it sit until spring and then put it in the garden or is there other stuff you have to do to it? I'm asking because I plan on using the poop in the garden for fertilizer this spring, but would like to be as natural as possible (not having to use a lot of chemicals for the composting process).

 

[gritsar]

DH takes ours and dumps it in different places on the farm, on the meadows.
If the cows aren't fenced up somewhere, they will follow the tractor and eat it as fast as he can dump it.

 

[BirchHatchery]

i pile it up and put it on the garden threwout the year or sell it

 

[Lesa]

You don't need any chemicals for composting. The problem with the deep litter method is it involves a lot of wood chips...They take years to really break down into soil. The best thing is to clean the coop each morning and remove fresh poop. This can put on the garden now and worked in during spring. The chips really need to be used as mulch (my blueberries love them) or left in a pile to compost. Trust me, you are not going to want the leave those chips in the coop until June or July. You won't be able to breath in there and neither will your chickens...I tried deep litter last year and have changed my system. If and when we have a slight warm up, I empty the chips and add clean ones. This really worked much better for me. The warmth the chips add has been debated on here, many times. It seems unless you have a dirt floor the heat issue is minimal. Good luck! Think spring!

 

[kennedyscochins]

Quote:
Okay, I have pine shavings in my coop and it seems impossible to clean every morning. The poop just sticks to the pine shavings. I have to completely empty the shaving and put fresh in to get all of the poop out. This takes a while to do. I couldn't imagine doing it everyday. Is there something I'm missing. How do you all get the poop cleaned out everyday?

 

[fldiver97]

I have 2 compost piles. I use both for yard waste, grass clippings,leaves, add chicken poo and shavings from spot cleanings and 'big changings' and then also add coffeegrounds, tea bags, any fruit or produce scraps the chickens don't go for. Rinds of melons, squash, pumpkin they leave. I mostly use the black plastic composter during the winter though even nothing much composts when it is so cold here. I use deep litter over the winter months, that'll go out in a big compost pile come spring. Will mix in contents of plastic composter. During the summer both pile and bin are in use and I get the best compost for the vegetable garden. To the OP....a compost pile does not need anything artificial. There are some products available to add to get a new pile started but they are not chemicals. You can also just use some soil layered in the pile to get the pile going. I was always told not to put grease, meat, cat or dog poop or dairy in the pile. In cold climate small piles do not produce enough heat to break stuff down. I still add to the pile all year round. You can also get used coffeegrounds from Starbucks and some other coffeeshops for free, that is good to add to the pile too. (Not that I don't drink enough coffee to have plenty of grounds to add without extra supplies....) You'll get wonderful natural fertilizer for vegetables an other plants and improvement to your soil!!!!! And you cut down on waste for the landfill! If the chickens haveaccess to the pile, they'll scratch around and help 'turn it'. They love finding worms and goodies in there