I have 3 lovely hens, and I keep their coop filled with wood shavings. They then leave their poo on the shavings, and I empty it out every-so-often and put in fresh shavings.

My question is.. can I use these shavings to help my soil? and how? I haven't set up a compost yet at my new house.. My last one didn't work so well.. and now I'm a bit intimidated. lol

Could i possibly use the poo-shavings to mix in my soil as a mulch? (if this is crazy talk.. I apologize.. lol I have a low soil IQ!)

Thanks!
Courtney

What happened?

The NOP guidelines are not less than 90 days for edible parts not touching the soil and not less than 120 days for those plants whose edible parts contact the soil. And the guidelines say "incorporated in to the soil".

Lloyd

Uncomposted wood shavings will use any nitrogen that comes in contact with them to aid in its decomposition. When incorporated into the soil, this can create a nitrogen deficiency and plants may yellow and get sickly. If you only used the shavings on the surface of the soil, as a "mulch", it doesn't do this because the nitrogen it uses is only at the surface where the shavings are making contact. However, fresh manure can contaminate plants, whether as a mulch or mixed into the soil, with salmonella and other bacteria, so, as Kim pointed out, it is recommended that manures be composted for at least 90 days. I wouldn't hesitate to use fresh manure with non-edibles.

Fresh chicken manure is a strong nitrogen source, so the amount of nitrogen in the uncomposted manure could offset the amount that the wood shavings use for their decomposition. Your concern, then, would be overapplying nitrogen to your plant with your strong nitrogen contribution---the fresh chicken manure. I think with just three hens, and periodic cleaning, you probably do not have to worry about overdoing the nitrogen for the average plant.

For edibles, you could compost your litter for 90 days, and after being mixed in your soil, if your plants started to show signs of nitrogen deficiency, you could supplement with nitrogen
or
you could use it after 90 days as a nourishing mulch.

I've tried, but I'm incapable of expressing this any better. The only thing I wanted to say was the first paragraph. Maybe ignore the rest.

Congratulations on your three hens. Isn't it nice to have fertilizer on site? (I only clean my chicken house out once a year, so the composting takes place there, in the house.)

I think you should send them to me, post paid. Send me an email and I will give you my address.

- My last compost was really hard to get to.. (in the trees) and I'm extremely asthmatic.. so I couldn't really stir it or even add stuff to it very often without getting sick. My husband is not into composting. lol!

So this year I'm trying the worm bin.. and so far I'm fairing much better with that. I'd still like to have a compost however.

If I set one up and added pretty much just the shavings with the manure, and grass clippings.. would I be successful?

lol! You guys are funny.. if I can't figure this composting thing out.. you just may get a big box of poo on your doorstep! ;)

But yes, you can just compost your litter. You can add your grass clippings, but if you have too many nitrogen additions (grass clippings plus chicken manure) to your carbon additions (wood shavings), your pile will get smelly.

Glad you can manage your asthma enough to garden at all. I'm in my 70s with a few health 'issues' and its like my personal joke to figure a way around them. I pass these along for whatever use they may be to you:

1] My compost piles are NEVER turned, but they do seem to heat up [can feel the warmth from the top] I'm just not into all that sweaty turning stuff. But I have built a worm 'sky box' on top of one of my piles...the theory being that the worms will be at home in the dirt sky box and then travel into the pile. That's experimental as yet, but I like the idea of my little guys slowly populating the compost pile. :0

2] I have made about 4 worm/compost 'cones' in different parts of the garden. Started with mostly horse manure/bedding plus tree trimmings. I populated each cone with worms and their dirt that I found under the manure pile in my side yard. Then as I have kitchen waste, I dig in the side of the cone and bury the waste. After a while when I dig in the same place [to see what's going on]these waste sites are just teeming with worms. I am very pleased with this little devise ... sort of a hybrid between a worm bin and a compost pile.

Anyway, I know you'll find your own ways to deal with whatever is at your disposal. Again ....how cool to have chickens ...

Chris