[Neelam]

What are you doing with the dung from the chicken coop?
Having a dunghill or putting it in the green bin?

I have started a dunghill from our rabbits as I found it is great environment for red earthworms and those are quite useful to compost but it does develop a smell though I transplant it from time to time plus, as I couldn't for the past 2 weeks due to my fracture, yesterday I found it has developed quite a lot of heat inside so now I don't wonder why the rabbits like to lie on top even in rain...

I wonder what chemical reaction I will get when start putting chicken's dung on it, too.

How do you do it for all with urban chickens and no proper garden.

Thanks
Neelam

[rufty]

All mine goes on the compost heap.
I was quite impressed last week to walk up to it in the rain and see it quietly steaming away.  The girls would love it if I let them play in there with all the worms in heap 2  but I'm not sure it's a great idea since these days about 50% of the stuff that goes on the heap has something to do with them.

I'd have thought if you had a garden big enough for chickens you'd have space for a dalek style composter - and with the chicken poo in it it composts so fast i don't know why you'd need more!*


*Mind you I'm saying this having 3 quite large compost heaps, but this was spec'ed before I had chickens, I could probably do with just 1 these days!

[ANHBUC]

Mine goes in the refuse bin, you can't put it in the green waste recycling as it is animal waste.  I would compost it at home but I don't have the space at the moment.

[pepsi100]

Now this is an interesting post,

I use trays to catch all the poo and give them a rinse everyday, (it soon builds up)

I have an old plastic bin, just wondering if I scraped it all off before washing them, how long would it take to burn/rot away to something I could use on the garden ?

Would it be worth chucking in a couple of shovels of soil, sort of sandwich it and introduce worms into it?

I cant put it out the bin men would never touch it

[Helenaj]

You would need to leave it at least a year for the weather to leech the ammonia out - fresh it would burn all of your plants and probably kill them.

[pepsi100]

You would need to leave it at least a year for the weather to leech the ammonia out - fresh it would burn all of your plants and probably kill them.

Is there anything I could add to it to speed things up ? (Garotta, some kind of alkaline)

Otherwise I can see a huge mountain of the stuff building up 

[snowdrops]

Pepsi do you compost your garden/green waste? Not weeds

[pepsi100]

Pepsi do you compost your garden/green waste? Not weeds

I dont have any waste, just the packaging, food wrappers, bottles, plastics

The chooks eat the grass cuttings (or at least scatter it around)

No waste food, no out of date food, spud peelings I cook up on my camping stove, the chooks eat any peelings, green food

Any weeds, the chooks eat em after I pull em up

My bin bag is just full of food wrappers, cardboard boxes, free news papers, most gets picked up by the recycle truck

IF I do have waste food I mix it in with layers mash, heat it up on my camping burner and they eat it, but that is so rare these days to have waste food

Most times I give them rice, noodles cooked on my caming cooker, there isnt much of that anyway, so its more of a treat

[Neelam]

Thinking of the ammonia, is there any law in UK that tells you how and whete and who to have a heap? In Germany they do and if they find you're having a heap not according to their regulation it will be fined pretty harsh

[Sassy]

There are laws governing the storage of compost and animal waste. I don't know whether you would need the DEFRA website or the Environment agency site. The main concern is anything leaching into waterways.

Pepsi do take care feeding grass cuttings to any animal. The cuttings start to break down very quickly and could make your chooks very poorly. Personally I would not risk it.

[pepsi100]

The grass cuttings are fresh cut, its lucky if they are there a day

Anything I put in a bin or heap cant leech into a water way, there arent any here, I just have a rainwater drain and water butt and sealed foul water drain, which is sealed anyway

Just need to know what to put on the droppings to help speed up the rotting process

[New shoot]

I use wood shavings in my coops, so compost those with the droppings.  Most compost is a balancing act of fast rotting nitrogen rich material - green plant waste, veg peelings, manures and slower rotting carbon rich ones - shredded paper, cardboard, woodier plant waste.

Can't see why you couldn't compost chicken waste with some of the packaging you are currently recycling, ripped up old newspapers, pet bedding from a neighbour maybe - I'm sure there will be a resource somewhere if you investigate 

The droppings would be the activator, you just need the carbon rich stuff to make it rot into nice compost, not a stinky mess 

[snowdrops]

Pepsi,you could add chopped straw as well,also turn it when it cools to reactivate it,speeds the process up.

[pepsi100]

I could use wood shavings and straw, but with the current weather, it would get wet, they dont wipe their feet when they come into the hen house

I could use the paper though, rip it up and layer it, not much point with plastics, that will last longer than I will, but I guess anything wood based like paper and cardboard would rot away, along with a couple of shovels of dirt, give it a turn over when ever I can

[New shoot]

Sounds like a plan 

The heap needs to stay damp to rot, so a combo of damp chicken bedding and dry shredded cardboard and paper should be fine.  A bit of soil will add the microbes and other tiny beasties you need for rotting as well.

Put some dry stuff in the base to soak up any liquid, or drill a small drain hole and dilute the liquid that comes out to use as liquid feed.

Happy composting