Recent content by Red-Stars-in-RI

Instead of cutting it and bringing it to the chickens, your best bet (if possible) is adding the chickens to the area it's growing. My reasoning is that it can spread from even a small piece of the plant, and if they are around the plant they hopefully will dig up the rhisomes and eventually...

If you live in an area with naturally acidic soil (like the northeast), you can apply clean wood ash directly into your soil. I'd not add it to the composting process, because as someone above mentioned, it can slow the decomposition process. The original post also asked about letting chickens...

How much time has/will pass between when you tilled in the compost and when you'll plant? Sounds like your compost was a little "hot" still. In theory, mixing it in with the soil should "dilute" it a bit compared to just putting it direct on grass. In the future, when using manure, it's a good...

I'd go a little crazy with the carbon, and like double the size of the pile by adding leaves, wood chips, shavings, hay, paper, or whatever you've got. You may want to pull some of the material out of the pile into a wheelbarrow to help with the mixing. It might also make sense to break out...

Wow! Well, the good news is that once we get the smell down, that should be some great compost! In addition to more carbon, I agree that more turning to get more oxygen in isn't a bad thing at all.

Wow, heated up that quick and still smelling of ammonia? Got any pictures (yes, we're compost geeks)? I'd say add a bunch more carbon (leaves, straw, hay, wood chips, shavings, shredded paper/cardboard, etc.). The extra carbon should help absorb odors and slow down the decomposition a bit...

In addition to adding the shavings and turning, you might want to dump some leaves, shaving, or wood chips on TOP of the pile, to act as a barrier between the smelly bits and your nose.

Many will tell you no, but honestly, I do. Coffee grinds with filters, tea bags, shredded junk mail, old coop bedding, etc. all go into the chicken run compost.

Generally, the best ingredients for any compost pile, including one within a chicken run, is "stuff I can get for free or need to get rid of anyway". Within reason, anyway, of course. So, for carbons...have fall leaves? wood chips? Spent hay? Those work great. Greens/Nitrogen? Food scraps...

I'd argue it's actually far healthier than having chickens on bare ground where their droppings fall. In the compost system, those dropping are being turned into the compost to break down.

Yeah, you wouldn't want dogs getting in there. My compost pile is actually in the chicken run, so no dogs can get in. I buried it deep in the compost pile so the chickens wouldn't get to it until I turned the pile over (many months later).

You can also compost the dead carcass first if you're concerned about burying straight into the garden. I've done that with a few animals I trapped in the chicken run....a few racoons and a skunk.

Good info. I think you're right that hot composting should kill the mites and eggs. If you had any concerns, I'd just make sure the compost pile is somewhere the chickens can't get to, and the compost is used in a similar "chicken-free" zone.

One of my chicken run compost setups:

Putting your compost pile where your chickens can get to it, or ideally right in their run, works really well. They do a lot of the turning, eat what they'd like, and scratch in the rest. They also eat lots of weed seeds, bugs, worms, etc. But generally speaking, about the only thing people...