[kopperdrake]

Hi all,

We have geese who bed down on straw. At the moment I'm adding the old straw to the compost bins, but they get through a lot of straw. I was wondering if there was any reason I couldn't just pile it up in a spare corner and leave it to rot down naturally, like farmers do with cow manure and straw, and dig it in to the veggie patch after a year or so?

[joyfull]

dont see why not but you would need to cover it to stop all the poop running away. Perhaps make a couple of side by side compost bins out of pallets - this way you can turn the bedding over from one side to the other.

[Dawnuss]

We have done this in our garden in the summer its going to have a rockery built on top. I was a bit worried at first cause i thought it might stink but it didnt and it seem to compost a lot quicker. I will say i have chickens though andnot geese but i dont see that there is much difference

[Kate and her Ducks]

I have a big pile of bedding from the ducks and just pile it up. The ducks love digging through it for worms and very occasionally I dig it over to speed it up. It's amazing compost when done.

[joyfull]

I have a trench at the bottom of my garden which is also a soakaway for any rain that comes off the road and I simply tip my chickens waste on that (I did try putting it in 2 darlek compost bins but rats decided that would be a nice home for them - my own fault as I forgot to put weldmesh underneath them  ). Like Kates ducks my chickens have a good scratch around in it and it composts down quickly.

[kopperdrake]

Cheers all, I have a manure pile the farmer dumped over the hedge for me, I think I'll just start adding it to that. The ground's quite flat and grassy around it so I'm not too worried about run-off, the grass will just grow better there if the resulting compost works out well for my spuds then we'll be self-sufficient in one more aspect of growing our own, and it'll be guaranteed organic Result!

[Prod]

Another way is to put it in a hessian sack and then into a spare water butt. The poop will disolve and then you can put the straw on your compost. The water can then be used to help fertilize you allotment, garden and is fantastic on lawns

[kopperdrake]

Oh, do you let the water butt fill up with rain water, so the muck-filled hessian sack is acting like a rather large (and odorous) tea bag?

[Prod]

Exactly  a bit messy  but you do get a quicker result and a liquid fertilizer you can darin off as you need it

[kopperdrake]

Thanks for that idea! Magic!