Composting chicken poo?

[adeledamate]

I've been adding chicken poop/mixed with pine shavings to my two composting barrels and placed the composted material, about 5 months in barrel, to my garden and I now have 10 foot tomato plants and very green plants whereever I've added the compost. I agree that the "not completely composted" pine shavings help retain moisture and help the soil breath. I'm waiting for my second barrel to finish composting so I can add it to my other raised beds that have "not so green" leaves. Now I just wish I had the room for rabbits. I know their poop is like gold for the garden.

 

[Dirtdoctor]

Any material dumped in your compost pile will compost if GIVEN the proper nutrients. Green = nitrogen, Brown = woody stuff, heavier brown add more nitrogen. As for Diseased material, yea, thats the idea of composting, heat will KILL the nasty pathogens. E. coli in a compost pile reaching 130Deg F, will be DEAD. moist heat is needed, 50% moisture and 160 degrees is pretty much the max temp that you can reach with out combustion rearing its head at 161Degrees the microbes are doomed to die, then kinetic energy takes over and you get compost fire, like the wet hay in the pile fire.

We compost all the litter, with the paper, cardboard, ya even the morts, one of the compost piles has 1600 sheep in it. (one thousand six hundred) three months they are reduced to little bits of bone. three more months and the bones are dust. IF you CANT GET YOUR PILE up to 120 degrees then i suggest you only put non weedy things with no seeds, or diseased materials... since your pile will only degrade adn not compost. (heat is what makes the pathogen reduction work... 120 -160 degrees F.)

We taught folks in the COLD North to compost the used sled dog food. (they stored it as frozen used dog food til it warmed up to about 40 degrees, then the compost was MAnditory to break it down.) Thats one thing ya dont wanna have stored up with it thaws.

HAVE fun in your composting, ppl say dont use meat or fat in your compost but thats just cause they dont have hot enough piles, and food scraps can attract vermin, if its not kept hot enough to digest. (120 pound animal digested totally down to only a hip bone in two months).

most homeowners have a hard time keeping a compost pile HOT... the piles are too small, make a pile that is over 6 foot tall, and you can easily keep it at 120-140 degrees. smaller than that and you will have to work REALLY hard to keep it hot.

have fun,
Jack
dirtdoctorjak@aol.com

 

[bills]

Any material dumped in your compost pile will compost if GIVEN the proper nutrients.
We compost all the litter, with the paper, cardboard, ya even the morts, one of the compost piles has 1600 sheep in it. (one thousand six hundred) three months they are reduced to little bits of bone. Jack
dirtdoctorjak@aol.com

1600 sheep!!? Is that 1600 whole sheep, hide, guts hooves and all? How in the world did you end up with so many sheep carcasses? :/

That must have been the fowlest smelling compost pile ever. I am not a vegetarian, but that compost would have me hesitating to use it for veggies. I could see it being spread on a field used for perhaps wheat or canola, etc.

I imagine the maggots on that pile could have fed all the chickens in your state....

 

[chickaD]

Backintime, I know I'm answering your post late, but I just joined TEG tonight...we also use the deep litter method for our chickens (before I read BYC, I just thought it was my "lazy litter" method!) and find it makes lovely compost and it does eventually all break down. I let it set in a pile (am now switching to wooden pallet bins) for a year at least so plants aren't burned by the strong urine. Another plan if you happen to need to change the litter in the fall is to spread it on the garden and let it leach out and break down over the winter. Our Vermont winters willl break down most anything