What does your compost bin/pile look like?

[baymule]

My compost bin IS the coop! :tools All year, I toss in vegetable trimmings, most of which they eat. What they don't eat gets pecked, scratched and pooped on. All winter I pile in sawdust, as it gets poop saturated, I just toss in some more. A few days ago I emptied 5 big gargage bags of grass clippings. It too will decompose. In the spring I dig it all out and pile it up to be applied to the garden as needed. It is black, crumbly and rich.

My compost pile is just that--a pile. I scoop it up and feed the garden, which feeds us, and the garden trimmings go to the chickens and the cycle starts all over again! :rainbow-sun

 

[schmije]

Thanks for the great info guys! The pictures are especially helpful.

DH set me up with a 55 gal barrel last night. It was a quick, temporary fix, since I had several buckets of scraps sitting on the porch attracting bugs. He cut the top and bottom off the barrel, dug a hole, and partially buried it. This should do until we decide what we really want and build it.

I'd love to have a pile in the yard like many of you do, but the animals here will just turn it into a huge mess.

Keep your ideas coming! Thanks!

 

[Kassaundra]

My compost bin IS the coop! :tools All year, I toss in vegetable trimmings, most of which they eat. What they don't eat gets pecked, scratched and pooped on. All winter I pile in sawdust, as it gets poop saturated, I just toss in some more. A few days ago I emptied 5 big gargage bags of grass clippings. It too will decompose. In the spring I dig it all out and pile it up to be applied to the garden as needed. It is black, crumbly and rich.

My compost pile is just that--a pile. I scoop it up and feed the garden, which feeds us, and the garden trimmings go to the chickens and the cycle starts all over again! :rainbow-sun

I just started doing this too after we got the new bigger coop built. We put river sand in the bottom and have been putting all kinds of garden / yard waste, grass clippings, chipped wood etc.... right in the coop.

We do have a compost pile, but it's just that a very neglected pile straight on the ground.

 

[Nifty]

I have 3 of these stackable units and turn my piles from one to another (well that was the original plan... now they mostly just sit):

 

[thistlebloom]

So, Nifty, you compost whole chickens? Most folks just go with the poo...

 

[vfem]

So, Nifty, you compost whole chickens? Most folks just go with the poo...

 

[Kassaundra]

So, Nifty, you compost whole chickens? Most folks just go with the poo...

 

[Smiles Jr.]

You guys are too much.

I have heard of someone who does put dead livestock in the compost pile. I think it might be one of us. I'm not sure.

 

[NwMtGardener]

I wish I had a 2 bin system, as well. My one bin has an active, dump kitchen scraps here area, and a "sitting and waiting" side. Once a year the sitting, composted material goes on the garden, and the active area gets moved over a bit. But it's not enough room to really do it well.

Re: composting dead animals. I once read a really informative article on how, somewhere here in Montana where I live, there is a municipality that composts roadkilled animals. They haul in the dead deer, cover them REALLY GOOD with wood chips I think it was, and let them sit and compost. Apparently it was working well for them... not sure what they were doing with the composted material afterward.

 

[RickF]

My compost bin IS the coop! :tools All year, I toss in vegetable trimmings, most of which they eat. What they don't eat gets pecked, scratched and pooped on. All winter I pile in sawdust, as it gets poop saturated, I just toss in some more. A few days ago I emptied 5 big garbage bags of grass clippings. It too will decompose. In the spring I dig it all out and pile it up to be applied to the garden as needed. It is black, crumbly and rich.

My compost pile is just that--a pile. I scoop it up and feed the garden, which feeds us, and the garden trimmings go to the chickens and the cycle starts all over again! :rainbow-sun

I REALLY like this idea! We've got a set of 4 new young hens that are <1 month old and we're thinking about putting them out in the hen-house before winter arrives (which will be in.. umm.. perhaps December?) but leave them to live in the coop/run.. The original set of 4-6 birds we had within the past several years did quite a number on our backyard and it's in need of some serious rehab -- not only because of the chickens.. (long story involving a remodel). Anyway, if we were to remove the sand (or some of it) from the run perhaps we could do this as well? Hmm..

We do have a number of compost bins but none are active for a variety of reasons -- lack of water, lack of turning/attention, wrong ratio,etc.. This sounds like we could employ chicken power to help out!