From Hen House to Compost Heap

Keeping Chickens and Getting Great Compost

Creating good compost seems to be an art. For years we heaped various dead plants and contents of the chicken house in a heap and wondered why we never seemed to be getting that wonderfully rich crumbly mixture that Monty Don always seemed to have crumbling through his fingers in every gardening program we watched. After spending some time experimenting with different compost bins in different locations around the garden, we seem to have found the answer.

After spending far too much money on pressure treated timber from the local wood yard to construct very elegant double compost bins, we found it was taking nearly a year to compost the contents and even then, there were still many lumps of 'matter' that hadn't composted correctly. One problem was loacation. It didn't get a lot of sunshine and wasn't really getting that hot, even though I spent quite a few hours turning and mixing the contents with a fork. Another problem we had was size. Even though the bin was large, we soon ran out of room and had to find other places to compost our hen house manure.

The cheapest compost bin did the trick.

By luck, we discovered the answer to our composting problems. A friend had a spare compost bin that she gave to us - one of those cheap plastic bins that are often supplied free by the council. My first thoughts were that it wasn't big enough to work efficiently and it had no ventillation holes. I visualise a black slime that would probably end up being the contents of this bin - but how wrong I was!

Bring on the Sunshine

We positioned the bin in the field, in a south facing position and were glad to have the extra space for a while to put all of the weekly waste in. Within a few days of adding the new contents, the bin was getting hot. So warm in fact that on chilly autumn mornings, I would lift the lid and feel the heat still being generated from the heart of it. The best part was that the contents was rapidly shrinking and every week we opened the lid to add another bucket load and there was room to add it. After only 3 months we were opening the little flap at the bottom and taking a few bucket loads of compost out that Monty Don would have been proud of. I went to my local council office who told me I could buy another bin for £10 which was a real bargain.

Our types of poultry bedding

We mainly use wood shavings and straw in our hen houses. Straw has a big advantage in that it rots down quickly. Mixed with a few grass clippings (just a 6 inch layer at a time), the compost bins seem to be kept hot right up until winter. Just a little winter sunshine seems to get them going again.Poultry manure is very high in nitrogen and therefore too rich to be used directly onto the soil. On the compost heap, it is a powerful activator and the straw helps to provide a good texture.  This is a real satisfaction for me, seeing this waste product now being integrated perfectly into our organic vegetable garden.