Chicken House CompostChicken house compost is nutrient rich and valuable if it’s processed properly. I raise my chickens using the deep litter method which provides lots of great compost. The chicken house I designed has a floor of native soil and the foundation is earth sheltered. This prevents it from freezing with the help from a 60watt bulb during the coldest parts of the season. The litter gradually builds up over the winter. I start with a deep layer of wood shavings from a local sawmill, and add several inches of dry leaves. These can be chopped with a weed whacker in a garbage can to break them down first, but it’s not essential as active healthy chickens will be happy to do that for you. The birds will scratch around in the litter and by the time spring comes your chicken house compost will be broken down to almost a fine powder. Adding hen scratch or other grain once in a while will encourage them to turn it over. I use a hoe to scrape off any crusted manure and mix it in, assisting in the drying process. Don’t allow the manure to accumulate in areas that are under a perch for instance, as it’s almost impossible to break apart the clumps once it’s dry. 
At some point you may notice a strong ammonia smell which means the process is failing. Simple to fix – just sprinkle some dolomite lime around and stir it in with the hoe. This will change the pH of the composting litter and it won’t smell. Ammonia build up in the winter when the house is closed can be quite unpleasant, as well as causing health problems for your birds. More ventilation will help too, as well as keeping the litter dry. It’s been said that the smell of manure is the smell of mismanagement, and I’m happy to say the deep litter method reduces the smell to almost nothing. Chicken house compost is too strong to use right away, even composted unless you make a hot bed. It really needs to be aged for at least a year, or mixed with a high percentage of other organic matter such as leaves or wet straw and allowed to compost. Be careful with this, as it can get very hot! The nutrient value of chicken compost is the highest there is, but it’s also the strongest and can burn plants if placed too close to the stem. I recommend using it as a compost activator in your other bins, especially if they seem to be too slow - like many gardeners, I’m very impatient!
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