rabbit & chicken manure?

[journey11]

Welcome, Jeremy!

Chicken manure seems to take forever to compost. I think I need to switch to using old hay for bedding instead of pine shavings. That might help it heat up faster. I recently bought some electric poultry net fencing and stationed my chickens and my compost pile together right over one quarter of my big garden to let them compost it in place and not waste any of the good stuff. They are doing a pretty good job of turning the compost for me and adding to it as they go. I just go out and rake it back up into a pile every so often. They do most of the work for me. It will be next year before I know how well this is going to turn out, but I have high hopes. I'll move them on to a new quarter of the garden each year. I think they'll work on the bug population too.

I used to do the pile it up behind the barn and wait thing. But I realized I was losing a lot of the compost's value due to it sitting on a useless spot and also the huge, very happy weeds that were feeding on it. Another good system I thought about using is where you take pallets or something similar and create 3 open bays (also right on a corner of the garden) and when you go to turn it, you just pull out the divider and turn it over into the second bay, then later into the 3rd bay and it is supposed to be done and ready by then. You keep a rotation going, adding new stuff to the first bay after that, and so on.

Make yourself at home here. Have fun!

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I used to do the pile it up behind the barn and wait thing. But I realized I was losing a lot of the compost's value due to it sitting on a useless spot and also the huge, very happy weeds that were feeding on it. Another good system I thought about using is where you take pallets or something similar and create 3 open bays (also right on a corner of the garden) and when you go to turn it, you just pull out the divider and turn it over into the second bay, then later into the 3rd bay and it is supposed to be done and ready by then. You keep a rotation going, adding new stuff to the first bay after that, and so on.

I thought about this too and we put piles on the garden in the fall to breakdown, but it really did not ever heat up enough. I read an article in Rodale's Organic magazine years ago that had a garden divided into 2 gardens. The chickens had one side one year and the other side the next. It also had a run that went around both gardens so the chickens could eat bugs going into the garden. You could put all the compost in with them on the one side for that year. This has always been by thought if I had chickens, but right when I was getting closer to the chicken dream, these rabbits showed up.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I used to do the pile it up behind the barn and wait thing. But I realized I was losing a lot of the compost's value due to it sitting on a useless spot and also the huge, very happy weeds that were feeding on it. Another good system I thought about using is where you take pallets or something similar and create 3 open bays (also right on a corner of the garden) and when you go to turn it, you just pull out the divider and turn it over into the second bay, then later into the 3rd bay and it is supposed to be done and ready by then. You keep a rotation going, adding new stuff to the first bay after that, and so on.

I thought about this too and we put piles on the garden in the fall to breakdown, but it really did not ever heat up enough. I read an article in Rodale's Organic magazine years ago that had a garden divided into 2 gardens. The chickens had one side one year and the other side the next. It also had a run that went around both gardens so the chickens could eat bugs going into the garden. You could put all the compost in with them on the one side for that year. This has always been by thought if I had chickens, but right when I was getting closer to the chicken dream, these rabbits showed up.

 

[catjac1975]

We do not compost the chicken manure. We put it directly on the garden in very early spring.It it spread out pretty far. It gets tilled in and we plant corn in it. The tilling is a good month before planting the corn. Have not had a problem.

 

[Jeremy Ebers]

Very informative posts guys thank you for all the helpful info I'm really excited about using my animals to further my garden lol

 

[AMKuska]

Hmm, I might be doing it wrong but I have a special coop and run with 4-5 chickens in it called the "Composter Coop." I take my veggie scraps, grass clippings, old litter etc. and pile it in the run, and my chickens file through, turn it over, eat what they like and add their manure to it. They're very efficient and I've got about 4" of rich dark compost in there waiting.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Someone else on here does it a lot like that, just throw everything in the run. I can't remember who for sure so I won't guess. I'm not sure how they use it, whether it goes straight on or have some type of use restrictions. I killed a couple of tomatoes using bedding with too fresh chicken poop in it as mulch. It had rained on it a couple of times so I thought it was cleaned enough to use, but nope, did not work.

Back when I free ranged my chickens (before the dog attacks) mine could get to the compost pile and they would do a good job of keeping it turned. My problem with that was that they would scratch everything out and scatter it all over the place. I had to put a fourth side on it to keep them from scattering it all away. I used that stuff straight, without any wait or curing time but they did not live on it, just visited regularly.

 

[ninnymary]

I believe it's Baymule who tosses everything with lots of leaves into her coop. My problem is that the chickens would eat everything and not leave enough to compost. I'm also afraid of stuff scattering all over the place because it would go even through the hardware cloth. I already had this problem with the sand in there and had to add a 6" board all around it.

Mary

 

[baymule]

Yup, it's me. I pile tons of stuff in the coop and run for the girls and they compost it for me. I even make my DH turn the truck around and go back for leaves bagged up at the curb. Ya'll can feel sorry for my husband......

 

[baymule]

Today I bought corn, they got the shucks and after I made cream corn, they got the cobs too!