What is your favorite compost bin and compost ratio for chicken poo?

[dbounds10]

We are considering starting a compost pile and have been google-ing tumbling compost bins ALL afternoon. I have heard that chicken poo is the hardest manure to compost. So I thought you all would be the best peeps to ask.

What kind of bin do you have?

What ratio do you use of brown to green?

Its only me and my husband so we will not have an abundance of kitchen greens and our lawn mower completely obliterates the grass so VERY little clipping survive a mowing. What we do have is 6 chickens and an acre of land with tons of trees so I have leaves coming out of my ears unless we mow over them with the monster lawn mower. Right now I have about 20 lawn bags full under my car port since we are on burn ban....

I don't really want just a pile that I have to turn manually so that is why we were considering the tumbler kind. I know that you have to fill those up all at once and start cooking. How long would I have to save poop to go with a full lawn bag of leaves?

 

[galanie]

That's a really hard one to answer. There are so many variables involved. Like, now often do you clean? Do you have pure droppings, or droppings mixed with shavings, etc? Best advice I can give you is to be sure you have more leaves then droppings, be sure it's all moist, and pile it up.

 

[AngelaClassAct]

We bought a hog panel and used zip ties to secure it into a round cylinder, we cover it with tarps if we are going to get a lot of rain. Works well for us, but then again we have 17 chickens, 2 pigs that we feed 800# of produce on a weekly basis. We load ours up, and we mix in chicken poop/shavings from the coop into the composters. We have 2 hog panel composters, and then we purchased (last year before we had all the critters) a square black composter for our kitchen scraps. That one is near the house and our kitchen stuff goes in it and I do mix in some of the less ripe chicken poop mixture into it.

 

[remuda1]

Here you go dbounds. Hope this helps

http://easttexasgardening.tamu.edu/tips/compost/composting.html

 

[dbounds10]

Quote:
I use sand inside my coop so I have no shavings, I also have sand on my poop board so the poop does not stick and I scoop it out into a bucket with a kitty scoop every day. At the end of the week that is going in my garbage. Hate to waste all that perfectly good poop! Especially since our garden did not do very well this year. The sand dries is out overnight. It's fresh but dry is that what you mean by "pure poop"?

 

[dbounds10]

Quote:
Thanks, this does help!

 

[Royd]

Most of my debris gets mulched before going to the compost pile, so this really speeds up the process.

A three inch layer a mulch, a sprinkling of manure, maybe a couple shovels full of soil, and water.

Water is the catylist. Without it, nothing happen. I'm talking saturation.

 

[Marcymom3]

Before I got the chickens we just had an area at the back of our property where I composted leaves, garden waste, kitchen scraps, etc. For an experiment, this spring we repurposed our old trash can to make a composter. Hubs cut the worn out bottom out of it and drilled some 1" holes in the sides and lid. I put everything in there, coffee grinds (and the filters), teabags, leaves, weeds from my garden, corn cobs, you name it, and the bonus points: poopy pine shavings from the first time I cleaned out the coop in July. I have not put anymore poop in it but continue to add the other stuff. Every once in a while I stick a pitchfork in it and twist it around to mix stuff up. We put the lid on upside down so when it rains the water goes into the bin. It's surprising how fast the contents of the bin composts. In a month or so, I am going to take the can off the pile and put the compost in my garden. This will be the first time for this, and I am hoping that by springtime it will be all ready. When I do the coop cleanout in the spring, I'll start over with the trashcan.

Having heard the same advice you did about the poop needing a long time to be usable, since that big cleanout, I have been raking out as many of the droppings from the shavings in the coop as possible. Then I've been adding a layer of fresh shavings and some DE. I've been putting the droppings in a pile in the woods at the back of our property. I also rake the sand in their run every Saturday and put those poops there too. Since I only have eight chickens and they spend the whole day outside the pile isn't huge. Should I be adding green stuff to this pile? There will be lots of leaves from the woods to cover it in a few weeks. I guess I should put a stake in the ground to mark my spot?

Great subject!!

 

[Rosaleen]

My outdoor covered run has a dirt floor and will freeze this winter. I plan to dump all our fallen leaves on the floor of the run to add a layer of 'cushioning' from the frozen ground. Between the poop and the girls scratching through it, it should really be ready for the compost pile when I clean it out in the springtime. My compost is a pile in the far corner of our property, nothing fancy but it does get turned. I also add food scraps and green trimings from the lawn and garden. It's also the hens favorite spot to scratch around looking for worms.

 

[cravenchx]

We have a 3 walled concrete block pile.
I throw kitchen scraps, (no meat products),
cut the scraps kinda small. I go by the local
starbucks and grab their coffee grounds.
I turn the pile every other day and layer
coffee grounds, chicken poo with the straw, and
the existing compost. I just love the steam rising
when I turn it.!
Oh yes, in the fall, I mulch leaves and layer also.
With the coffee grounds, poo and leaves, my compost
pile can be ready in 6 weeks. We've had a lot of
rain this week, haven't had to worry about water
But if dry, I have a 4ft. pole I punch holes with
and throw the water to it that way.
I would love to have a tumbler, but my set up
is way less expensive, and I get exercise with it.