What do you do with the bedding?

[kristen2678]

The chicks are going outside this week. We intend on using pine shavings for litter. I'd love to compost them, but the poop to shavings ratio will be way off. We are in a neighborhood setting so we need a friendly smelling solution. What do you do??

 

[hikerchick]

Mix in more browns..straw, etc.

 

[Eggie and Me]

Check out this info. I read it awhile back. we have 7 pullets and also want to be kind to ourselves and our neighbors. We are just kinda doing our own thing based on our yard and vegatation. We toss in grass clippings and leaves from our trees. Not the citrus trees. We also toss in treats, greens, veggies and fruits. Every couple of days we turn everything over really good water and keep going. It seems for the time to have cut down on flies and we have had no odor. We've noticed that we are getting tons of worms and other bugs which our girls just love scratching around for. Our gals have their own yard that's approx 15' x 14'. The only place we use the pine shavings in in their nesting boxes. We clean them out every week. We dig a hole and dump the shavings, etc in. It's surprising on how fast all breaks down. You can also do a search and just type in key words. Tons of good information here.

Best of Luck

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/ … erformance

 

[ChickenToes]

Whenever I clean out the coop I dump all the litter into a big pile and let it just sit there and start to decompose. I turn it every so often. After a year or so it's great for the garden.

 

[sonew123]

I throw it all in the compost pile! We mix it up a few times a year and use it the next-yes it gets smelly but we dont have alot of neighbors!

 

[ocean_rain21]

We also just put it in a pile outside behind the coup and let it compost. But we have no neighbours so we don;t have to worry about the small although so far it hasn't been too bad and the chickens will sometimes go in to the pile and dig around for bugs so i don't have to mix it up too often.

 

[Chickenmaven]

We use our run as a compost. Rake the shavings into the run, throw in weeds from the garden, melon rinds, foods scraps, etc. Every few months, we clean out about 6 wheelbarrels of broken down goodness. It is still somewhat "hot" - too poopy for a food garden. We have used it directly on flowers & trees. No problem. We took a huge quantity to our garden site in March, which is months before our food crops are started, here in Michigan. I am not the genius that thought of this. I read it in Backyard Poultry magazine.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

That's what I do Maven. Works great. I built my veggie garden in one side of the run this year and filled the beds with all the stuff that has composted for the last 2 years. You should see the size of my squash plants!!!!

 

[cowman910]

i try to use shavings but no matter how high the door is they always seem to kick and sratch it all out of the coop! now i just leave hardware cloth on the bottom so all the poop falls out the bottom then i rake it up and through it into the garden so the smell doesnt build up.

 

[Bellasmom]

I am composting mine along with the usual compost stuff. So far no smellies. I do put a spoon full of dirt on any fresh poop found in the yard during their free range time before I put it in the compost. So far so good.