[mlthompson]

The pile gets raked back up every day.

[mlthompson]

The Johnson/Su gets built over a few weeks. But its going to sit for 6 months to a year.

[DavidTheGood]

Nice. Johnson-Su is too much trouble for me, but we do love scraping up the compost in the chicken run for our beds.

[Garden-of-Grace-Homestead]

First time chicken mom here… so do you just dump the scraps and stuff on the ground in the chicken run for them to scratch around in? Do you add anything else to it? Like extra hay or grass clippings? I’m lost and apparently need step by step directions! 🤓🙄 I can’t figure out how chickens scratching around in scraps turns into compost. 🤔

[AutumnDawn]

The chickens may eat some of the scraps. They will certainly eat the bugs that come to feast on the scraps. They are constantly turning things over so it will stay aerated. If they don’t seen interested in it, throw some scratch grain on top.

[Garden-of-Grace-Homestead]

Ty! I’ve just been spreading the scraps out all over the run and just letting them pick and scratch at it. I guess I need to designate a particular spot to make it easier to collect.

[mlthompson]

In the outside yard I have bedding from the coop, grass clippings, shredded paper that go into a short wire cage. I then just dump food scraps on top of that and the chickens will work it around. When it looks “broken down” I then move it to the bioreactor.

We also have a covered run that we do a deep litter method. So we scatter wood chips, straw, grass clippings, leaves, shredded paper a few inches deep. Scraps in the winter just get tossed in the run and chickens work it into the litter. We also make bio char that gets tossed into the mix and the chickens mix that into the compost. If it starts smelling we just add more carbon and the chickens will work that into the rest.

The part that I’ve been cleaning out is bare “dirt”. The microbial life is such that no dropping are building up on the bare end. They just disappear.

I’m just cleaning out the covered run after 2 yrs and theres been no smell at all. What is coming out is almost perfect compost by look and feel, I haven’t looked at it under a microscope.

[Garden-of-Grace-Homestead]

Thank you for sharing your techniques with me! What is biochar? And you said if it starts smelling you add charcoal? I’ve just been tossing the scraps in the run for them to pick at. But now I’m gonna pick a spot like you said and do it that way. Thanks again for your help!!

[Hanidu-Acres]

You can add those things if you want. The idea is that the chickens themselves with eat, process, expel and turn the scraps mixing it with dirt to produce a fully organic compost.

[Garden-of-Grace-Homestead]

I was just confused on how to go about doing it. All I had been doing was tossing the scraps in the run. And they have a pretty big run. More like open range. I couldn’t figure out how I was going to collect the composted material if it was all scattered everywhere. Duh! Bless my heart. All I gotta do is pick a particular spot and just put it all there. Guess I was trying to make it more difficult than it is. Typical me. lol

[mlthompson]

Video description of the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-DnZwqGTvU&t=203s

[mlthompson]

Material for chicken run.

https://youtube.com/shorts/wHmbFtelUnU?feature=share