rabbit & chicken manure?

[baymule]

I envy you all those leaves! I clean out the coop and run in the fall, then I pile leaves in the chicken coop and run 3 feet deep. They compost them down and I toss in more as needed. I love my chicken composters! I have horse wire baskets to store my compost in. I cut 4' horse wire in half, by 12' long, made a circle and voila' I have compost bins!

 

[Jeremy Ebers]

Do you do anything to ur bins or just fill it up & let it do the wk?

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Hi Jeremy in Oklahoma! I was born in Ardmore and lived there when I was young. I have a few rabbits and they have litter boxes with woodshavings, urine, droppings and some hay. We put it in a bin and compost it. My DH has finally got the compost hot and cooking right now. I think partly from the warmer weather, but also grass clippings. I also take the droppings and put in a 5 gallon bucket to make rabbit manure tea but not on plants that we eat like lettuce or strawberries. I put rabbit manure in the dirt before planting and the strawberries, I put all around the plants in early spring. The plants are huge right now. I read an article where somebody said they got huge onions from using chopped up leaves and rabbit manure and spread all over the ground in the fall. We have done that the last couple of years and the leaves have to be shredded good. I am not sure it was all that great, but i did not have truckloads of rabbit manure like I think the man in the article did, but this year I put rabbit droppings in where I planted onions and planted right on top, same with tomatoes and peppers. I also think that I was not fertilizing enough during the year, so I am experimenting myself.

 

[baymule]

Do you do anything to ur bins or just fill it up & let it do the wk?

I just fill them up and let them age.

I just raised 20 ducks, butchered 17 (Pekins) and kept 3 (Runners) for eggs. The Runners are in the coop with the chickens and I let the chickens scratch up the duck pen for a week and a half. There was probably 40 bags of leaves in the duck pen. When it got icky-POO, I put in 3 more bags of leaves! The chickens roto-tilled it for me, then I closed them out and planted corn. We'll see how the great duck-pen-corn-field experiment goes!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Composting is just letting things rot. Microbes eat the stuff and turn it back into dirt. A very nutrient rich dirt with good drainage properties. You have two different types of materials to put in compost, greens which are mostly nitrogen and browns which are mostly carbon. Chicken manure is a green. Leaves are a brown. Chicken manure mixed with a lot of wood shavings might be a brown though because wood shavings are very rich in carbon. The microbes eat the browns and use the greens for energy so you need a mix of the two, more browns than greens. You can worry a lot about this or just throw different things together. Getting it just right means it works faster. I mix things up but don't worry about it too much. I do get a lot of pure chicken poop from my droppings board.

You can turn it if you want to mix it up and get it to work faster. Or pile it up, leave it alone, and it will eventually break down. Maybe start a second pile while you are waiting. I usually turn mine once, practically never more.

The microbes need some moisture to live and eat. You do not want it soaking wet because then they can't get any air. That becomes a stinky mess. You can worry about keeping the moisture right or just let it go. In Oklahoma in the summer, it would probably be a good idea to occasionally add some water. I notice a big difference when I do that. But about the only time I do that is when I have chicks in my grow-out coop which is right next to my compost. I'm carrying water over there any way so I just carry a little more for the compost.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I just fill them up and let them age.

I just raised 20 ducks, butchered 17 (Pekins) and kept 3 (Runners) for eggs. The Runners are in the coop with the chickens and I let the chickens scratch up the duck pen for a week and a half. There was probably 40 bags of leaves in the duck pen. When it got icky-POO, I put in 3 more bags of leaves! The chickens roto-tilled it for me, then I closed them out and planted corn. We'll see how the great duck-pen-corn-field experiment goes!

I am really, really really interested to see what happens to your corn! REALLY!

 

[baymule]

I am really, really really interested to see what happens to your corn! REALLY!

Yeah, me too! It might even make it worth it again to get another round of ducks! DH says no, he hates the noisy quackers! LOL Pekins are bad neighbors, they sleep all day, whack-quack-whack all night at about 467 decibels, poo all over the place, splash all their water out, did I mention they never shut up?? They taste good though.

 

[baymule]

P.S.
@Gardening with Rabbits .......watch the corn thread, I'll post pics and progress.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Yeah, me too! It might even make it worth it again to get another round of ducks! DH says no, he hates the noisy quackers! LOL Pekins are bad neighbors, they sleep all day, whack-quack-whack all night at about 467 decibels, poo all over the place, splash all their water out, did I mention they never shut up?? They taste good though.

My friend has some and she likes them. I never thought about them quacking at night though. LOL

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

P.S.
@Gardening with Rabbits .......watch the corn thread, I'll post pics and progress.

Okay, just did, thank you!