new here info needed

[shaggysgirl]

Hi Guys,
I just joined here and I need to know where to look to find info on starting to compost from the beginning. I am like starting with no knowledge except I'd like to get a compost pile going and I'd like to add the straw, wood shaving and chicken poop from my coop in it when I clean it out.
I'd like to do something home made so DH doesn't pout ...lol the bins I have seen are expensive and don't look like they would hold much. So I was thinking just an area in the back of the property maybe surrounded by weld wire....maybe
Thanks for any info. I'm sure ya all get this a lot, clueless people like me. I'm looking forward to learning

 

[herbsherbsflowers]

Hi and welcome,

You can click on the search link above and do a search for making compost, but the easiest thing to do is to take that weld wire and cut a piece 10 to 12 feet long. Make a big circle with it and bend the ends so that they hook to the other end. Ta-Da, you have a compost bin that is just as good as all those expensive ones. I go around the neighborhood and collect grass clippings in the summer and leaves in the winter when people put them out on the street, to add to my compost. The stuff from your chicken coop will be a good addition and your kitchen scraps and trimming from plants and spent plants from the garden, unless they are diseased, can all go in too. About once every couple of months, you can pull the wire ring up from around the pile, move it over and toss all the stuff back into it which will speed up the breaking down. Scoop up the fine stuff that is left at the bottom of the pile and side dress your veggies or flowers with it. It is great stuff.

 

[shaggysgirl]

Thanks for the info. I have weld wire left from the chicken run

 

[patandchickens]

The main thing to watch for, if it's coop cleanings you want to compost, is that it's real easy to end up with way too much carbon and way not enough nitrogen, with the result that things progress at only glacial speed.

If you let your coop get REALLY SUPER FILTHY this is not a problem; or if you have pure poo scraped off a droppings board, and can mix in only as much soiled shavings as appropriate, that works well too; but if you are a normal chickenkeeper who cleans out the bedding periodically before it gets to a call-the-spca situation, you will have an excess of carbon and the pile tends not to progress well. You may need to find another source of high nitrogen materials to add.

Also make sure to dampen the pile thoroughly -- shavings in particular can require a BUNCH of water to get damp enough to compost well.

But of course, if you are not in a great hurry, the above does not matter all that much -- everything will break down *eventually* in one fashion or another

Good luck, have fun, welcome to TEG,

Pat

 

[gardenmama]

I have been thinking of starting to compost what with all of the garden scraps and chicken poop I have around here. Thanks. I think I will be starting one too.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Don't forget things like kitchen trimmings & coffee grounds add nitrogen. Also green grass clippings. Basically, if its green or turns slimy, its nitro. If its dry or brown, its carbon. Mix them really well and it will get cooking!

I need to go turn my compost. I've not touched it in weeks...

 

[aquarose]

I have tried lots of different methods. What works best, I have decided in my laziness, is to just dump everything in a pile in a corner of the backyard. I have a shallow pit where my boys used to practice digging, and the compost all kind of gravitates to the pit. Then the chickens scratch around in it and shred stuff. Eventually, it will all rot. I do have a fancy composter full of coop litter and for a while I threw chopped up kitchen scraps in it. Like Pat warned, it is really not composting very fast. The litter in the pit is more decomposed.

 

[momofdrew]

I am the lazy kind of composter I set it and forget it for a year I have a few piles going at one time at different stages of decomp

by the way

 

[shaggysgirl]

Thanks for the info. Sorry for my late response.
I do the deep litter method with my coops I know it will take longer for all those wood shaving and hay to compost.
We have been saving kitchen stuff and some lawn stuff and are starting the pile today.
I'm hoping this will improve our soil next year we are very sandy.
Wish us luck.
Rhonda