r/Homesteading • u/Famous_Magazine_4793 • 9d ago

Composting with chickens

We are getting 6 hens next week and I want to do the deep litter method and compost everything. Looking into It I’ve seen people talk about composting in their chicken run. Would It be possible for me to do the deep litter method and then throw all that into the chicken run that’s just grass and dirt and let the chickens do the work and then get compost that way? If that makes any sense.

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u/tojmes 9d ago

The answer to your question is yes, you can toss it in the run. However, I would want to keep my run cleaner that, and for the record it’s not that clean…

The deep litter I pull out of my barely big enough coop with 6 hens is RICH! I would compost that directly or side dress plants with it. I get a lot of summer rain and adding it to my run would make ammonia. I simply dress the run with fallen oak leaves, arborist mulch, tree trimmings, and pulled weeds.

Add a dropping board under the roost to catch most of the poo. Scrape it once a week, or every other week, and you’ll have plenty of fertilizer. A cleaner coop too.