- Thread starter
- #11
Devorah
Songster
Thanks so much (and what beautiful chickens)! I have a ton of deep bedding which I’m going to remove from the coop in a few weeks. I don’t think I’ll be able to accommodate all of it in the run, but I’ll try to put in as much a possible. I still am having difficulties understanding what “rake back” means: do you mean simply take a rake and turn over things? I do that every morning in the coop.I used to have a sand run. I had a rake with hardware cloth attached to it to rake and bucket the poo. Without raking there were too many flies. So I read up on deep litter for the run. I just started adding leaves, pine straw, coop bedding and when I don't have these I throw in a bale of wheat straw. These are carbon materials. Poo adds nitrogen. As long as you have both not only are you making compost but also you'll have no smell or flies. I can rake back the "mix" on top (stuff that's not broke down yet) to get to the finished compost. The chickens are constantly digging and stirring it up.
I also have a large compost bin by my garden. I add the poo from the dropping boards to that and it's mixed with various other tree trimmings, lawn debris and such. Part of our land is wooded so I have lots. My neighbor also gives my all her leaves in the fall.
I agree 6 months is plenty of time for a hot compost pile to break down and be safe for edibles.
Here's a photo of part of my run showing the "mix" on top.View attachment 3461481