One of the very pleasant surprises of living in suburbia is just how abundant sources of organic matter for turning into soil are. Maybe that will change as the need for food security accelerates, but for the moment, nobody else seems to be chasing kitchen scraps, greengrocer trimmings, grass clippings, garden waste, wood chip, coffee grounds, dandelions, seaweed …
Every Sunday we bring home from the Farmer’s Market a small basket of shopping for us – produce we don’t grow – and several large tubs of bruised, broken or trimmed produce for the chooks. They feast, and then the leftovers feed the the compost bacteria, and then the worms, and then the garden. Vegetables like this, along with the coffee grounds and kitchen waste the chooks also get routinely, is too high nitrogen on its own. It needs a good, easy source of something high carbon to balance it out and stop it becoming a slimy, smelly mess (though the worms love a good slimy mess, the neighbours are less keen). Luckily, nobody likes big trees much in suburbia either. Wood chip is also an abundant organic waste.
I swear our chooks know when it is Sunday.
Pingback:Soil Building Part 1 - Chook Labour - The Witches Kitchen
Brilliant Linda and Lewie. I have two big chook pens but they are slightly sloped so the litter ends up on one side of the pen. But I am inspired to place more wood chips, garden waste, any coffee grounds I can get etc. I loved your post as you always inspire me to do better here in Homeleigh. I especially liked the video.
How do you get wood chips? I’ve enquured here and they will only sell them.
Hi Lydia, I think they are easier to get some places than others. We just chatted to a contractor. But if not woodchip, look for some other high carbon ingredient that won’t matt down. Straw or sugar cane mulch doesn’t work – it mats down with the chook poo to form a layer that they can’t scratch through. Hardwood sawdust or wood shavings might work? Anyone else? Where do you get your high carbon ingredients?
Browns are a constant problem for me in suburbia. With the recent wet my usual supply of reasonably priced straw bales disappeared. I’ve ended up buying a more robust office shredder that can handle the lighter weight corrugated cardboard. It’s not a winner for aesthetics, but shredded cardboard has worked well in the hen house. The heavier stuff I cut/tear by hand for the compost bins and a large open bin I use to collect branches and roots etc that are too big for the tiny electric garden shredder. I’ve seen a brilliant homemade cardboard shredder online but haven’t yet found someone who could build it for me. In their yard I toss anything that will shred (branches etc) plus any weed I’m not eating. The hens keep everything moving so nothing ever roots or reroots, even the invading kikuyu I toss in eventually gives up under the attention of my brilliant girls
Some great ideas in there Peggy. I didn’t like straw – witht the chook poo it matted down too much for me, but shredded cardboard sounds like it would work well. I have thought about buying a garden shredder but the electric ones I’ve seen all seem to be not very robust. The chooks are wonderful at dealing with hard to kill weed – like you I’ve found them up to dealing with my most invasive weeds.
Some great ideas in there Peggy. I didn’t like straw – with the chook poo it matted down too much for me, but shredded cardboard sounds like it would work well. I have thought about buying a garden shredder but the electric ones I’ve seen all seem to be not very robust. The chooks are wonderful at dealing with hard to kill weeds – like you I’ve found them up to dealing with my most invasive weeds.
I agree, the shredders I’ve had don’t appear very robust so I treat them gently. My first one lasted about 6 years and only failed because I couldn’t get the right bolts for the blades (the heads had eventually stripped). The motor was still going fine so it was given to someone who had a use for it. The current one is also a basic model that I only use for what it does easily. I think people expect too much of them, feeding in things that are too large, or too hard and dry and run them for too long at a time. There are some excellent heavy duty models around, but they’re both too expensive and too heavy for me.
I got a marked down ozito shredder and thought it would kast a season but still going 4 years later but only for branched twigs not soft cuttings as they will clog it