Gardening with chicken bedding

[lazy gardener]

This thread is for folks to document their use of chicken bedding in the garden, and the results achieved. Please be as specific as possible, including your gardening zone, type of bedding used, type of soil, crops grown, and any other details that will help other gardeners to duplicate your success and avoid your failures!

Zone 4 with garden receiving at least 6 hours of full sun/day. Gentle south slope, sandy loam. I started the season last spring with 5 girls. Used deep litter method with shavings in their loft coop. Cleaned out in November, and late January, laying the bedding directly on the ground on one bed to be, and dumping it on the snow in the adjacent bed spread 1 - 2" thick. Bed #2, has since then received 2" of grass clippings/poo from an August clean out of the run area of their coop, followed by spoiled hay, soil shoveled onto the bed from the adjacent paths, and covered with loose hay to keep the girls from decimating all of my hard work, and to keep the weeds from sprouting.

The plan is to clean out the coop loft ASAP, and the run as fresh grass clippings become available, layering this material between these 2 beds, with a generous addition of leaves and spoiled hay.

The girls are currently allowed to run freely in the other side of the garden. I am reserving one section for 2 beds about 4 x 8 which should be free of chicken poo for leafy greens and root veggies.

 

[Arielle]

Looking forward to following along . . . .

Today. Cleaned out shavings from brooder boxes, where waterer had leaked, so bedding is just moist enough to be heating up. REmoved that bedding and used it as mulch around the day lilies.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm guessing that day lilies are high nitrogen feeders! I'll be especially interested to hear if fresh shavings/poo cause any burning.

 

[Arielle]

I'm guessing that day lilies are high nitrogen feeders! I'll be especially interested to hear if fresh shavings/poo cause any burning.

I usually dump on the horse manure and shavings so they are used to some level of fresh manure. lol

 

[lazy gardener]

I cleaned the DL out of the little chicken tractor today. Almost 5 weeks worth. Rather than dump it somewhere to compost, I dug a trench between 2 beds, and put it in the bottom, followed by about a foot of compacted leaves. Hoping that stuff will hold the moisture, but not get anaerobic and stinky. Will be doing the same thing on the opposite side of one of those beds when I clean out the chicken loft. That stuff is pretty strong. Any body care to venture a guess about whether the nitrogen will leach laterally into the beds to either side? Or will it just sit and behave nicely, decomposing along with the shavings?

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Not sure how specific or broad you mean to be when you say 'bedding', but we use a couple chicken coop litters for differing purpose.

We're in the Sierra Foothills, Zone 7B, with a hot, sunny SW sloped exposure. We have a small vineyard, orchard, and a rather large garden, and the chickens are free ranging in the above (except for some of the gardens). I use deciduous oak leaves for deep litter under the chicken coop and rotate that into the compost every few months - which helps to make a rich compost. The bedding in the nest boxes, and the run litter in the winter, is rice straw which isn't a great compost additive so I use that as mulch in the gardens and vineyard. After a month or two of the mulch sitting there, the chickens will usually attack it and stir it up for the worms and grubs underneath.

Frankly, keeping a flock of chickens is a gardeners best tool. We keep a small flock of about a dozen birds, and their impact on composting is fantastic. Obviously their poop adds nutrient but the chickens also have free range access to the compost bins all day, and their scratching in there really helps the compost along. I get 3 to 4 loads of compost a near, most of which ends up in the gardens, each being about .6 of a cubic yard. 2+ cubic yards of high quality compost a year really keeps that garden strong - in great part, thanks to the chickens.

 

[lazy gardener]

Is all of your compost generated on your own property? Thanks for the details. I forget that pine shavings are not universal as bedding! I've worked up one bed, and trenched either side of it. In the past, I'd be finding lots of cut worms, and grubs, as well as quite a few clutches of grasshopper eggs. So far, in all of my digging, I've found a couple of millipedes and a single wire worm. Only 1 slug and 1 snail so far. My garden is usually over-run with snails and slugs. So far,only one tick on my cats. I do believe the girls are earning their keep!!!

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Yes, other than the inevitable kitchen scraps that come from trimming store bought veggies, etc, the compost materials are all from right here.

I do have access to a neighbors horse manure but so far haven't used any. I need to ask around and get some feedback on the pros and cons.

 

[Gayleyy]

This thread is a great idea! I will be following it for sure! We are in Zone 5, and use straw for bedding in the coop and run. We do not have an official compost pile, what we have been doing for the past year is dumping all the used straw, leaves from fall, bunny poo and veggie scraps into the woods behind our garden. We did it at first to try and drown out all of the briars that were going crazy, and thought when it decomposed it would be beneficial to the woods themselves. A few months ago we thought maybe we should try to compost it for our gardens. So we started making those piles bigger and more so in the clearing. I have never had a compost pile, so I am clueless what to do really.

 

[Arielle]

Is all of your compost generated on your own property? Thanks for the details. I forget that pine shavings are not universal as bedding! I've worked up one bed, and trenched either side of it. In the past, I'd be finding lots of cut worms, and grubs, as well as quite a few clutches of grasshopper eggs. So far, in all of my digging, I've found a couple of millipedes and a single wire worm. Only 1 slug and 1 snail so far. My garden is usually over-run with snails and slugs. So far,only one tick on my cats. I do believe the girls are earning their keep!!!

If you are ever able, I would love to see photos of what you are finding--- the microworld of soil and its inhabitants remain mostly a mystery-- yes, I know a few, but in the insect and bug world, that is nothing. lol

I am still picking up ticks, but given the large area, I don't expect the chickens to get everything-- yet. We did notice last year a decrease in the number of stable flies. We have a few horess,a nd had tried the predator wasps for two years-- no impact on the fly population. WIth the chickens, very noticable difference. I don't buy fly strips for the barn any more.