Composting wood shavings from Chicken House

soupdragon10

Currently have my 3 Jersey Giant girls on shavings in their ark and wondered if anyone could tell me if I could compost the used shavings and if so, how long it might take.

I have dim recollections that it is a long process but want to be sure I will end up with useable compost if I make a long term heap in the corner of the garden. This could be a separate heap, or mixed with other garden waste if this would speed things up.

forgotmyname

Chicken poop is as good as it gets. Pile it up and put an old carpet or other cover over it.

Damp it slightly and leave til next year. All sorts of stuff has gone into my composter, Cardboard, paper
old compost, veg peelings and offcuts, teabags, Balsa wood from model planes.

After 12 months/2 years tops its just wonderful compost. Better than the budget stuff some shops sell.

Money_maker

I compost mine. Sometimes I don't leave quite long enough for it to break down fully but it really helps my clay soil even if still not completely rotted.

soupdragon10

Thanks for this. I already have several compost bins for household bits and garden waste - I will set up a heap for this plus garden bits as it's too far from the house to take peelings etc. there.

Rummer

Not chickens here but we do have a number of beasts on shavings and we always use a % of it in our composting bins with the rest going in the council garden bin. It works well here as the rest of our garden waste tends to be green and wet so it helps us to balance it out.

3v3

If you are using it for vegetable plots, apparently it can be put straight onto the plot. If you are using it for flower beds, it needs to rot down a bit or it "burns" the plants.

Davesnave

3v3 wrote: »

If you are using it for vegetable plots, apparently it can be put straight onto the plot. If you are using it for flower beds, it needs to rot down a bit or it "burns" the plants.

Yeah, but no, but......that's not the whole point.

These shavings have a certain % of poo and urea and the rest is just plain wood. Put wood into the soil and it robs the soil of nitrogen as it decomposes, which is bad for whatever is growing there.

And you are right that neat poo is very strong because of things like ammonia compounds which also need to break down.

Anyway, just leave it in a heap with other green matter till has rotted: 1 - 2 years.

This year, I grew some squash as an experiment directly in a chicken bedding heap about a year old, but I got better results from planting just alongside.

angelavdavis

I don't bed my chooks on shavings - I use shredded paper, but it rots down within a few months and I use it as top dressing on my flower beds and stack it on top of the vegetable beds in autumn to gradually be incorporated over winter by the worms.

Like Davesnave I have also planted squash and melon plants (with a cloche placed over the top) directly into the top of the heaps that haven't yet rotted down in the summer and get excellent results!

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

3v3 wrote: »

If you are using it for vegetable plots, apparently it can be put straight onto the plot. If you are using it for flower beds, it needs to rot down a bit or it "burns" the plants.

Agreed, I just dig mine in. Be careful of food spills though if you feed corn rather than pellets.