Solitary chicken - need advice

[fluffyknickers]

Hello all, my new composter arrived yesterday (first one never turned up, then yesterday they delivered two!).

 

Basically I dont know how to begin!!!

 

What is the best stuff to start off putting in it so its not too wet/dry brown/green etc!

 

I have lots of aubiose and chicken poo ready to start going in.

 

Advise please!

 

Thanks

michelle

[chickenanne]

It's easy, really: if you mix green stuff and woody stuff up then all will be well. So if you ahve lots of dried autumn leaves, mix them in with grass cuttings; and if you have lots of grass cuttings, mix them in with dry leaves, or even newspaper.

Chop anything big into smaller sizes as it'll rot much quicker.

Keep the lid on, but if it's very dry then it's best to water the heap occasionally: not so it's soaking wet, or anything, just so it's not dry... wrung out flannel type moistness.

It's worth mixing it about occasionally, as this really speeds the rotting process up.

When you think the composter is full, it won't be: as it rots the volume decreases, so you can stick more in.

Aubiose and chicken poo is a good start! As is some garden soil, as it contains worms bugs and fungi spores etc that will be all ready to munch on whatever you put int he heap.

[Lewis]

We have 1 and a few.

One proper big green tardis, then a plastic bin with the bottom cut off and then one I made

 

They are all placed on soil, I start them off with grass just to get it going, then clean out the chickens and put all that straight in.

Newspaper (shredded) and food sometimes go in, we always put tea bags, coffee grounds and egg shells in (sometimes the egg shells can still be seen when everything else has decomposed, so crush them up a bit).

I wouldn't put potato in, just because it could sprout like ours and you'll get potato plants all over the garden

 

I used to turn it every week, but I just do it every few weeks now (just because I'm lazy).

[chickenanne]

Totally agree re: the potatoes! Also, citrus peel seems to be immortal.

[Olly]

I don't compost citrus. Everything else - teabags, eggshells, coffee grounds, banana skins ... there isn't much vegetable waste because my girls eat most of it.

 

You should work on roughly 1/3 'brown' to 2/3 'green' I believe, brown being woody stuff, paper, cardboard, chicken poo etc and green being veg waste and grass cuttings. I have had fantastic compost since I started keeping chickens, it speeds everything up marvellously. Just keep filling it up and don't be too impatient to get something out the other end! I have three on the go at the moment.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I was a compost newbie not that long ago . I learnt by my mistakes - I'll tell you so you don't do the same thing .

 

I used to put all my kitchen waste in one bin and some poo/hemcore but put all the poo/hemcore from the major run clean outs in the other. When I came to use the contents, the kitchen waste one was slimy, stinky and revolting and the other one was very dry and the hemcore was still "whole" (the poo seemed to have rotted down though ). I mixed the two up and put them in my raised beds and it looks OK now.

 

So I agree, make sure you alternate wet and dry .

[Tessa the Duchess]

I would also suggest that you position the compost bin in a place which catches some sun, I had miserable results with composting until I moved the bins to a sunny spot, now I have brilliant compost, I earthed up all my potatoes with it this year

 

Tessa