what to do with the poo and dirty bedding? advice please.....

[PepsNick]

It works great for fertilizer. I use mulch for bedding, so cheap but quality mulch plus chicken poop equals very healthy plants! Great for gardens.

And the neighbor's buy it from me for five bucks... what a deal! The joy of chickens.








edited for typos

 

[Cavendish Chickens]

There's a lot of ways to make money from chickens I see. More than I had even thought of. And you guys just reminded me... my husband's friend has a compost and likes to get what he can to add to it. I should have him see if he wants any of it. We can bag it up for him so he can just grab it and go easily. But I also want some good fertilizer for our garden too. Hmm.... I will have to split it in half. Half for our garden, half for him. Awesome. And as it piles up... maybe I too can sell it. Do you sell it as it turns into soil, or any time? You guys are all so smart. I wouldn't have thought of any of this! lol

 

[chickensnax]

I agree with everyone else to definitly compost your poo and straw. I would not place directly in the garden unless its winter like some say they do, but even still I'm not sure about that. If you do the composting and it gets proper heating and time to break down it will help break down any pesticides or herbacides that the farmer might have used on is hay or straw fields, which you definitely don't want in your garden. But you don't have to buy an expensive composter from the the store, I've made my own that works just as well. One of mine is just four pieces of wire fencing put together like a box, no top or bottom. In this i place mostly grass clippings, dead flower stalks, leaves exct. bulky stuff when its full i take off the box and move it next to it and then fork everything from previous stack back in and the bottom is good soil. I only really do the cube is to keep my girls from scratching it everywhere. They love nothing better than good compost, lots of good tasty bugs and at the bottom good dirt to take a bath in, I'd rather the good soil go in the garden for my maters than being carried away in their feathers( they have other spots to play in). My other composter in a plastic drum, that I cleaned and made a door and my husband made a stand out of rolling casters so I can turn it, and drilled holes and it works great and was way cheaper than the store bought composters. The store bought ones cost over a 100 bucks and mine maybe twenty, just had to buy the casters, hinge and lock for door, drum was obtained for free. In the drum I place the poo, and vegi scraps, plant clippings and such, it does smell when you lift the lid but once closed you can't smell it in the yard and it keeps the chickens out and decreases the time it takes to decompose and be ready for use. I just turn when every I think of it or feel like it.

good luck in what ever you decide to do.

 

[BunnyMomma]

I have a composter made from a section of 4 foot, 2x3 welded wire fencing.

I just cut it to make a circle about 4 feet across. I toss all my shavings, straw, grass and plant clippings,leaves, manure, etc. I never have to turn it, and when it rains, it wets the entire compost pile. I never have to water it. It works great. When it gets completely full and is finished, I undo the fence and put the compost any where I need it.

I like this method, because it is rather neat looking, and it makes wonderful compost. You can even make smaller ones from 3 foot wire and plant veggies in them when they are finished cooking.

Bunny

 

[Ema]

I use straw for bedding, but when pine shavings are accessible I use those instead. all the straw and shavings when I switch it goes into a big pile on the other side of the yard. I checked the pile before it snowed and I already have some good compost on the bottom, by next planting season I should have some real good compost for the garden :-D

 

[lightfoot]

Quote:
put that horse manure in a bin, add worms, wait a few days, screen out the worms. sell composted manure for 5-6 dollars.

 

[mrsbos]

I bought one of those Ace Hardware 32 gallon plastic trash bins (I drilled holes all around it, and it has a nice tight fitting lid) to use as a chicken poo/pine shavings composter for the waste from my 3 pullets. I also threw in veggie clippings/coffee grounds/egg shells/etc. Unfortunately, I started the bin in September, it's already totally full, and the weather is so cold here I'm guessing composting is going to be a REALLY slow process. I read that the whole process pretty much stops during freezing temps. Well I guess not much will be happening in my bin until at least March! Hopefully it won't be too "hot" to till into my garden come mid-May. I tried the open compost pile, but I heard with the food scraps it can attract rodents, it's up against my fence & the neighbor probably doesn't appreciate the smell, and I guess if you don't turn it often enough I read yellow jackets find it a nice place to make their nest! I may just have to buy several 32 gallon trash bins and use them on a rotating basis so that by the time they're all full, the first can will have ready to use soil. I'm new at all this (composting and chicken raising) and I know their poop is considered gold to many gardeners, so I definitely don't want this valuable "waste" to go to waste! I wonder if the pine shavings/chicken poo would "age" properly in a large garbage bag, so that I could offer bags to those who would want some of this stuff for their gardens (and my garden too).

 

[pgpoultry]

Best not to put chicken poop straight onto the garden as it is very acidic and can burn plants when 'new'

Chicken poop plus shavings, hay, straw etc. can all be piled with other stuff like kitchen vegetable waste, tea bags, coffee grounds etc. and lawn cuttings, fallen leaves etc. If you then leave the heap for about a year (at some stage compost worms will come into it....small red banded earthworms...and will turn the whole lot into nice crumbly compost which grows ENORMOUS vegetables.
As I have readily available sheep poop I add some of this too, plus ashes from the wood burning stove. You could add other poop or vegetable matter of your choice, plus spent compost, rotted fruit etc.

Add to you garden after a year, sit back, and watch your garden grow.

 

[dreamcatcherarabians]

I use pine shavings because I buy them in bulk for my horses, so they're readily available. When I'm cleaning stalls, I just swing by the coop and scoop out all the shavings and poo and toss it into the trailer with the horse poo and dirty shavings. I keep a couple of compost piles going at the back edge of the property, next to another 20 acre pasture with nothing in it so the neighbors don't complain. I never turn the piles, just make them around 25 ft long by about 3 ft high and let them do their thing. Once I've built a pile up, I start a new one several feet away from the full pile and just leave it be. Next year, I'll have 3 piles that are 2 yrs old and ready to use on my veggie garden. If I don't use it all, I'll put an ad on Craigs list and sell the rest.

 

[tammyd57]

Quote:
No. Don't seal the fresh poo and straw/shavings in a bag. It needs oxygen to compost. Sealed in a bag it will turn into slimy, stinky goo a lot faster than you'd think, even faster than it would turn into compost with proper aeration.

I compost right in the coop and run. Couldn't be easier. I use straw in a deep litter method and just add more about once a month as it breaks down. In Spring, I have about a 6" thick layer of compost over my entire chicken yard and inside the coop. I rake all that out and put it in my vegetable/flower garden/fruit orchard and start all over with a foot of fresh hay on the ground in the chicken yard. Right now I get about 50 cubic feet of compost a year (that's 25 large bags if bought from a garden center). Next year things will double when I add chickens to my new coop and yards.
The math works out great for me even if I don't sell any extra. A 2 cubic foot bag of quality compost costs about $8. So 25 bags are worth $200. I spend $6 on a bale of straw and use about 4 a year. The chickens do all the work for me by turning it over every day, I throw a handful of BOSS anywhere that needs particular attention and they work it over good.