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How to handle the winter time blues
Timo:
Got another 2"n about an hour....Wait some more I guess? I did see that the local coop had seed spuds and onions already.
Grunt:
Got 6" more last night and I've got a 140 mile round trip to Asheville today. Roads should be ok when I get off the mountain.
Swamp Bow:
--- Quote from: Timo on February 10, 2010, 05:31:13 pm ---I raise chickens for eggs and meat,so I have plenty of manure from them.I normally just use it sparingly with decent results.
How would be the best way for me to compost it?( I am a simple man so keep it so.) ;D
--- End quote ---
Timo, Are you familiar with the deep litter method of keeping chickens? Basically you START with 6+ inches of pine shavings in your coop, and then stir everything up once or twice a week. I also add a few handfuls of diatomatious earth (DE), it dries and keeps bug out. Keep the manure from caking under the roost. You add shavings and DE sparingly as needed. The idea is if you have enough material, it stays dry and won't smell. For even less work sprinkle a handful of scratch in the coop every day and the chickens will turn the bedding over for you. Anyway, you only have to pull everything out once a year or so depending on how many birds you have, mine's been gong about 1.5 years. It's about time for me. After you pull everything out add some carbon rich material if you need it (plant matter like hay, shavings, mulch, etc.) and then let it cook for 6 months to a year depending. There are formulas for the ratio of manure to carbon, just look up manure composting, I'm sure you will learn more than you want. BTW I cold compost my stuff since I'm not in a hurry, we get plenty of rain, and it's less work to just let it sit. There are folks that go nuts with composting, run around with shovels, thermometers, and plastic sheeting (and more power to them). I like simple and easy: Put in pile and then wait. Make next years compost this year.
Swamp
Timo:
I kinda let that happen on it's own,lots of straw down with the manure, and yes I throw some scratch with it. I've left them penned alot this winter due to snow cover,so it has been turned alot. Was thinking on building me a little area to pile it and let it work, just haven't come up with the right idea yet! ???
Someone recommended some snow fence columns,Pile it in with a little water, wait a couple weeks and then transfer to another column. What say ye? :)
Pat B:
That will do it Tim.
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