Who uses their chicken compost?

[chickenchacha]

Yes, I would try that. Think of the chickens as little composter machines. If there are bugs and worms there, they will be hunting for them and turning over the materials. Sounds as if you have ALL the ingredients you need! Funny, I actually use rabbit pellets for cat litter. I'm not sure if I would sprinkle the crumbles containing the cat stuff in there.... I usually throw the used litter under my fruit trees. Let us know how it works out. No sense feeding the wild critters your scraps, the chickens will love that stuff and turn it into eggs.

 

[oceansideangora]

Cool! I am adding ducks to the other side of my porch too, nothing like a triple compost source. I'll continue to throw the cat waste out in the current pile. It's pretty urine filled, nothing I would want to put on plants before a year or 2.

 

[chickenchacha]

You'd better get some "poop" shoes to stroll around in

 

[Dotshines]

I have rabbits and when I let my chickens out to free range they always go under the rabbit cages.I also use leaves in the chicken pen. They love to scratch and look for bugs. The chickens do a wonderful job of breaking up the leaves. I don't till in my garden, I have just been putting compost , straw and cardboard. It is amazing how many worms are under the cardboard.

 

[krcchickens]

Exactly, but weeds instead of grass. We started it last year. Since my flock poops mostly in their run and on the poop boards, there is more poop then chips. However, we will clean the whole coop out and throw the chips in there too. My hubby turns it over with a shovel once every 2-3 months. I thought it would smell when wet, but I was wrong. It's full of flies and mushrooms too. I never imagined that it would be pure soil underneath like that. It's better soil then what you buy in a bag I think!

What type of compost container do you use?

 

[nanceann]

I'm kind of new to this. We have 6 laying hens (down from 24, due to predators, etc). They go into a shed with the rooster nightly to roost, and the poop is really piling up! We have fruit trees we planted last year, and I was wondering about using the poop as fertilizer. I also have gardens, not really big but still trying to plant etc. I've never composted, although we have plenty of leaves and dog poop also...
Any suggestions?

 

[Weasleymum]

This blogger wrote a wonderful post about her chicken compost-- she actually figures out exactly how much money she's saving by not having to bring in compost for her gardens.
http://www.nwedible.com/2013/02/the-crappy-composters-secret-to-perfect-compost.html

When the new coop gets built, I'm planning to do essentially what she does: keep a good layer of straw in the run all the time, and throw yard waste and kitchen scraps into the chicken run for the girls to eat/ process. (Right now, my two hens free-range almost all the time, so I really can't 'harvest' their manure and get it to where I want it. They even roost outside unless we trap them in their coop before dusk! I gave up on having any kind of compost 'heap', because they were constantly digging through it and spreading it all back over the yard. But soon! New (additional) hens, new coop, new plan.)

 

[gladahmae]

So, I have a question: I don't have a shredder, and the lawnmower needs at least a new battery before it'll be functional, and I've got 3 BIG piles of leaves raked up in the woods that I want to put on my compost pile. If I just throw them all in the chicken run, will the chickens shred them up for me? I'd like to get my compost bin up and running this year, and I really need to get my leaves shredded. Thoughts?

 

[chickenchacha]

Leaves... A tree's naturally shredded material. Go for it.

 

[Weasleymum]

So, I have a question: I don't have a shredder, and the lawnmower needs at least a new battery before it'll be functional, and I've got 3 BIG piles of leaves raked up in the woods that I want to put on my compost pile. If I just throw them all in the chicken run, will the chickens shred them up for me? I'd like to get my compost bin up and running this year, and I really need to get my leaves shredded. Thoughts?

Your chickens will shred those leaves up better than a lawnmower could ever do! Toss them in the run and just wait...