The "Compost Connection"

in gardening •  8 years ago 

Besides fresh eggs, chickens also provide us with a great deal of compost for the garden and trees. Half of our barn has a dirt floor covered with straw and chicken droppings.

Once a year, we scrape the straw to the side and dig into the black gold underneath. It's hard work, but the result is a natural fertilizer better than anything found in the store.

The tractor makes the job a lot easier.

From the apple and plum trees, the ornamental shrubs, the raspberry and blackberry bushes, the bush cherry, peach tree, young blueberry bushes, and of course, the vegetable garden which we will show in another video.

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I need to spread some compost some time. The chickens add to what we get from other waste.

That is what we like to do. We have 4 compost bins which we add chicken waste from the poop boards in combination with kitchen waste.
I'm not sure what your setup is like but we have our barn divided into 3 sections: A lobby (where we keep food and access nest boxes), the coop where the girls sleep (it has a floor), and the barn which has a dirt floor and that is where we dig up the black gold.
The compost bins get filled from the poop boards in the coop area, see here: https://steemit.com/animals/@brimax/the-poop-board-because-poop-happens

We just have the coop which is an old playhouse. They have a run that's just dirt. We let the wander the garden under supervision. I'm actually out with them right now

I'm guessing the supervision is to save some of what it is you are gardening?

Partly, but also to ensure they don't wander too far. We had an attempted fox attack once before when the previous lot were out.

Sounds like you need a guard dog or fencing a fox cannot overcome. Keep those girls safe!

There's too many places a fox could get in and we don't want a dog. They are safe in their run and we don't mind watching them for a few minutes each day.

It sounds like you have a working system in place. It must be time to go practice......😀

http://july4jesus.org/chicks/Fox.shtml
Would you be brave enough to face this frightening hero if you were a fox?

I see you need a mask to go in your coop. Ours is not quite that bad

Oddly we don't need a mask because of coop conditions. Jeanne doesn't wear it, but my allergies to straw are so bad that any time spent inside requires some self preservation techniques.

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