What do you do with the bedding?

[cposz]

We only have a couple of hens in our henhouse at the moment. So once a day we scoop the poo out with a cat box scooper and throw the it in the compost. A few shavings end up in there, too, but it doesn't seem to be any big deal. So far, no smell from the compost, and the coop stays fresh.

That might change when we add the 2 chicks to the coop later this summer.

 

[Anny]

I mix the pine bedding with what ever other yard waste I have (leafes branches ect.) I then put them in my compost bin made from old pallets (if you google pallet compost you can find a plan for one)
No smell at all. And I can dump it on the garden soon.

 

[wyo-helpmeet]

Quote:
Mine (chicks) goes to compost as well. It doesn't smell though. We do have a good mix in the compost, though- shredded paper, TP cardboard rolls, grass clippings, weeds, LOTS of veggie waste from the kitchen, etc.

 

[vermontgal]

Compost, yup. And I mix mine with leaves. I save the leaves from the fall in leaf bags. You could also save them just in a big pile. No way I'm giving those good leaves to the city for them to truck away...!

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

We compost all ours with some fresh green grass too and it took only over the winter and this spring it was ready to mix into the garden

Hubby rototilled it a few times to get the green grass mixed in well or it molds if left in a big clump. We have three coops and lots of smaller coops and we add ALL of it in there with no problems. We also collect foods from our kitchen like coffee grounds and peelings from fruit, hair from hair cuts, etc and add that and mix it up.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

ALmost forgot to add...keep it moist too

We water ours frequently.

 

[LynneP]

Compost with alternate layers of peat moss.

or

We mix ours into horse manure and peat moss as we dump it. Getting fabulous garden soil as it breaks down, in fact we planted our pumpkins, squash, tomatoes and sunflower in it and they are HUGE!

I should add that our bedding is dry and contains food-grade DE and Stable Boy powder, makes soil from compost high in calcium (bonus).

We don't use the deep litter method- we spot clean and keep birds very dry to avoid ammonia buildup.

 

[Hypnotist_Collectr]

We have a compost tumbler, and I just toss the shavings in there.... but, not before making a few mistakes...It stinks to high heavens, so it is good that there is a lid!
We are still newish (our babies are a day from being 7 weeks and are still inside, so we are cleaning out the brooder often!) and with the first two batches of wood shavings, I put them around my rose bushes & other flowers. The dirt there is clay and hard as a rock... it's so bad, weeds won't even grow there.
In the Rosebush bed, (which is close to the street) the flowers went from the palest pink and purples, to neon pink and purple... They look cool, but I will be happy when the color calms down a bit.

The flower/veggie beds are another story. They are on either side of my front door, and the smell didn't bother me at first, because we dug trenches around the flowers, and sprinkled it... Wooo!

It's stinky! It has been a couple of weeks, and every few days I have been ho-ing around it, and trying to work it into the soil. It is FINALLY not so stinky (there is a strange odor), and the shavings look a bit out of place...
So, I have been putting them into the compost tumbler. Here, we have these crazy looking things that look like half maggot, half roly poly bugs, that will go through your compost like no tomorrow. In a week, they break down almost all the wood shavings. It is awesome! But, it STINKS... so, I am keeping the tumbler near our back fence, totally in the middle, and away from the neighbors. I can only smell it when I open up the lid... I did add some to the bottom of a future veggie bed, and my dog was so excited, she dug it up. Gross. She gets so excited when she sees me coming with a bag of poopy shavings. You'd think it was a doggie treat. Nasty.

 

[FrenchHen]

Ours gets piled next to the coop. At the end of the summer, I'll let the chickens turn it for me. They did a great job of it this spring...and they found huge worms. Then in the fall I'll put it in the garden as ground cover for the winter.
I have one pile that's ready to go, and I threw all my extra garden seeds in it. I have VERY happy green beans and sunflower plants.

 

[Bwaaak!]

Eh... Ive been using straw and husband says it wont break down in compost bins sooooo.... Ive been having to bag the straw and poop into garbage bags and set out on the curb for garbage guy. Im now down to just a tiny bit of straw in their house and that I am just going to put in compost bins.

So is it better to use shavings or straw?