Who uses their chicken compost?

[Xtina]

My compost is pretty far from the house. I wonder if I should have a plastic bag in the garage for the food peelings and scraps. This would make it better. I'm always peeling potatoes, cutting onions, garlic, cracking 2 dozens of eggs each week. I think I'll give it a whirl and bring it down every 2-3 days.

The city of Portland has recently begun a city-wide composting program. In October every home received a plastic bucket for our countertops that has a lid and a top. We're not supposed to put food scraps in our regular garbage anymore (or down the sink). We have always had a third dumpster for each household (1 trash, 1 recycling, 1 green bin for yard waste). Now the trash bin gets taken out once every two weeks (not weekly) and the green bin takes yard AND food waste weekly.

I tell this story because it's given me some tips I didn't have before. 1) A bin on the countertop with a lid is a great solution to home composting. 2) layer the inside of that bin with paper bags (no plastic bags are given in stores in Portland anymore, so we have lots of them) or newspaper. 3) Some people keep their compost buckets in the freezer to reduce smell and rotting until right before they take it outside. If you wanted to start composting your home scraps but were a little grossed out by it, you could do this.

The one thing I should add about Portland's composting is that all cheese, meat, and bones are allowed, unlike most home composting. I don't know if I'd use that stuff in my own, but I sure can easily start adding my home compost to the backyard instead of giving it all to the city.

 

[trooper]

My compost is pretty far from the house. I wonder if I should have a plastic bag in the garage for the food peelings and scraps. This would make it better. I'm always peeling potatoes, cutting onions, garlic, cracking 2 dozens of eggs each week. I think I'll give it a whirl and bring it down every 2-3 days.

From what I have seen in what you are using I've heard is good but 1 thing.I don't know for a fact,but I have heard that potatoes and their peelings can be harmful to chickens.I feed my chickens the table scraps and let them start the process.This gives them a treat,saves on feed,helps to keep them healthy and more.A nick name for chickens is little pigs.They will eat about anything.We have to review what and what not to give them.This also brings them running to you because they want a treat.

 

[Nicole01]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nicole01 My compost is pretty far from the house. I wonder if I should have a plastic bag in the garage for the food peelings and scraps. This would make it better. I'm always peeling potatoes, cutting onions, garlic, cracking 2 dozens of eggs each week. I think I'll give it a whirl and bring it down every 2-3 days. From what I have seen in what you are using I've heard is good but 1 thing.I don't know for a fact,but I have heard that potatoes and their peelings can be harmful to chickens.I feed my chickens the table scraps and let them start the process.This gives them a treat,saves on feed,helps to keep them healthy and more.A nick name for chickens is little pigs.They will eat about anything.We have to review what and what not to give them.This also brings them running to you because they want a treat.

I don't feed my chickens table food. I've only sprouted alfalfa and sunflower for them. Otherwise they eat bugs, grass, weeds, worms, larvae, and sometimes chicken feed. They mostly eat bugs as our yard and woods are covered in them.

The table scraps will be for the compost only. My girls do not touch it ever. I have no idea why. Maybe the pile is too high? I'm not worried what I put into my compost for the garden as long as its safe.

 

[chiques chicks]

I don't think citrus is bad for compost, it just doesn't degrade well. I could very well be wrong.

 

[booker81]

I deep litter, so once a year in March, I take out all the litter and poo and throw it on the garden (or rather, I pile it in DH's truck bed, and HE throws it on the garden. It sits there, about 2-3" deep, until mid May when I till it under. For me, it gives enough time to take the "hot" out, and when I till, the shavings help aerate the soil.

I throw most of our kitchen scraps to the chickens and turkeys, so that doesn't go to the garden. Same with weedings from the garden - straight to the chickens/turkeys.

Don't do a lot a citrus here (try to eat local - and citrus isn't local to MI ) so no thoughts on that

 

[GardenerGal]

Newsprint makes great "brown material" for composting, now that almost all ink used is soy-based and so is non-toxic and biodegradable. When I clean out the dove cages (lined with newsprint), I toss it poop, paper and all into the compost pile.

One thing that's always amazed me, is that even with all the poop and shavings I've topdressed the soil with, it NEVER smells. Maybe being in the open air, with plenty of moisture and soil critters munching it into Black/Brown Gold, it doesn't have a chance to build up the gases of putrification. There is no putrification, only natural composting. Composting with chicken (and othe poultry) poop is the way to go, even in the city and 'burbs.

 

[highplainsmister]

I have used green alfalfa inside the coop and on the runs.. the chix love the leaves, full of vitamins and protein. Their scratching breaks the stems into small pieces and their poop aids in the breakdown of the alfalfa stems. The high chlorophyll content keeps the coop smelling fresh much longer than shavings or hay alone. It costs a little more but it reduces cleaning greatly.. usually I just add another layer whenever I smell any poop. And when I rake it out, it goes straight to the garden.. quality fertilizer/compost.. the tomatoes and zuchs love it. So- the alfalfa feeds the chickens, then feeds my garden, and then feeds me. Not too bad.

 

[highplainsmister]

I have used green alfalfa inside the coop and on the runs.. the chix love the leaves, full of vitamins and protein. Their scratching breaks the stems into small pieces and their poop aids in the breakdown of the alfalfa stems. The high chlorophyll content keeps the coop smelling fresh much longer than shavings or hay alone. It costs a little more but it reduces cleaning greatly.. usually I just add another layer whenever I smell any poop. And when I rake it out, it goes straight to the garden.. quality fertilizer/compost.. the tomatoes and zuchs love it. So- the alfalfa feeds the chickens, then feeds my garden, and then feeds me. Not too bad.

 

[Xtina]

Isn't that sort of a disease hazard? Not trying to sound all judgy, but I thought that you had to try to keep chicken poop away from their food so that in case one of them catches a disease, the whole flock doesn't get it.

 

[hemet dennis]

Isn't that sort of a disease hazard? Not trying to sound all judgy, but I thought that you had to try to keep chicken poop away from their food so that in case one of them catches a disease, the whole flock doesn't get it.

They're already with each other drinking from the same waterier and the same feeder. If one sneezes at the feeder do the rest stop eating ?