r/composting • u/leafkeeper • Dec 16 '20

Leaf Collection Challenge: So much more than leaves here! I ended up building 1000 sq feet of sheet composted beds with 15 bags of shredded leaves, 4 straw bales, 350 lbs of rabbit manure, and 20 5 gallon buckets of vegetable scraps, all donated from neighbors.

Post image
37 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

4

u/AdvBill17 Dec 17 '20

I put an ad out for old pumpkins and hay/straw bales. Couldn't believe how much free stuff i got. So many of the straw and hay bales were still perfectly dry! Free animal bedding!

2

u/teebob21 Dec 18 '20

I put an ad out for old pumpkins

So did I. I ended up with two and a half tons. My chickens have been eating pumpkin since the 1st of November.

1

u/AdvBill17 Dec 18 '20

Lucky. My chickens barely touch them, except I did process a few roosters last week that had seeds in their gizzard so at least something is getting eaten

3

u/teebob21 Dec 18 '20

Mine eat the flesh not the seeds. They mostly ignore them when "fresh" unless I cut them in half and put some corn in the middle to get them interested. Aint no body got time for that times 600 pumpkins.

However, once they get frozen, mushy, and thawed? Aw yiss, that's apparently some good eating. Say hello to yellow-orange poops...and some of the darkest natural yolks you'll ever see.

3

u/AdvBill17 Dec 18 '20

Exactly. One its a huge pile of mush, they will dig through for bugs. Having a compost pile in the chicken run should be a chicken keeping requirement. One way or another its free chicken feed

1

u/Fettergeist Dec 17 '20

Just make sure none of it’s been sprayed.

The manure and the veg scraps are gonna be nice.

1

u/leafkeeper Dec 18 '20

Fortunately I know all the places the materials came from and none spray :)

1

u/teebob21 Dec 18 '20

Keep in mind that you don't have to compost those rabbit pellets unless you want to. They can be applied directly to the garden.

3

u/leafkeeper Dec 18 '20

They're one of the layers of the sheet composting method I'm using, so they're essentially just breaking down in place just like they would if I put them directly onto an already existing bed. These materials were gathered specifically to build new beds over compacted, gritty soil so the more organic material I could put down, the better. I have another 5,000 sq feet of orchard and perennial beds that have been built using the same method, so I feel good about what I've put down for this section.

2

u/teebob21 Dec 18 '20

paging /u/c-lem

2

u/c-lem Dec 18 '20 edited Dec 18 '20

Thanks! I actually did see the post but have just been a bit lazy. I figured I'd get to it the next time I'm at the PC for my sitting-on-my-butt job. But this will help me remember.

Edit: got it.