Single hen

[JM]

Hi

 

Up until recently, I've been putting the old aubiose and chicken poo onto our compost heaps. However, they filled up quite rapidly, so I started putting it into the empty aubiose bags - so I now have about 5 bags to get rid of now!! (it does add up doesn't it? !!!)

 

So I could put it onto flower and vegetable beds, but there is a limit to how much you can put on... I could wait until the compost bins start to compost and make room... I could start another compost bin, but we already have 2... Any other ideas of how to get rid of it?

 

I know some people have advertised it on Freecycle, but how to word the advert?? "OFFERED: CHICKEN POO" may not get accepted!!!

 

Ideas please...

 

 

Ta

 

Jill

[chickenanne]

Hi Jill, I have a similar problem, but fortunately our council has garden waste wheelie bins, which helps! The problem is that in the winter things don't rot so quickly, so I do get a big winter build-up.

 

What I do is really try and make it compost fast, so:

Turn it fairly frequently (depends on the weather and enthusiasm, but every couple weeks in the summer, some will say twice a week (!) but life is too short IMO.

Add some green waste (grass cuttings well stirred in) because the auboise etc is quite woody so you need a balance to make good compost

Keep it damp-ish, like a wrung out towel would be, as bone-dry matter doesn't rot very quickly

Add garden soil in a layer every foot or so, as it has lots of lovely microbes fungus spores, beasties, etc to help decomposition.

 

I know some people use bokashi etc, but I don't- I find that doing the things above means that I only have problems in the winter months.

 

I have deep beds for veggies, so anything that isn't completely rotted gets dug into the very very bottom of them when they're empty, then I top them up with soil /well rotted compost; you can't use "raw" poo for this or iut'll burn the plant roots, and you shouldn't add loads or else it robs too much nutrients from the soil as it rots.

[bellekatz]

When I freecycle mine ( and I have a queue of people every time!!) I usually say chicken manure or chicken droppings plus bedding for allotments/composting. Works every time so far!

[JM]

Thanks for the replies!

 

Jill

[missuscluck]

I have made the mistake of spreading the soil and wood chips out of my hen run onto my garden. As I feed them mixed corn as a scratch feed the corn gets in the soil and then you end up weeding out grass forever more. I wont do that again.

[JM]

When I freecycle mine ( and I have a queue of people every time!!) I usually say chicken manure or chicken droppings plus bedding for allotments/composting. Works every time so far!

 

You are right - I put it on 2 of my local Freecycles first thing this morning, and have had 4 replies so far!! (it was too far away for 1 though (10 miles))

 

Thanks

 

Jill