Chicken Compost Bin and More

The Compost Problem

As with most things on a farm, evolution sometimes leads to some creative ideas. Necessity is the Mother of Invention, right? Roger built the coop and run first, then an extended run; aka play yard, for the girls. All of the chicken areas are built like Fort Knox since we have a lot of hawks, fox, coyote, and raccoons to name a few. At the time, my compost bin was about 50 feet away. That’s not bad, except when you’re shoveling a lot of chicken gold from one area to the next. Roger added another play-yard to encompass the compost bins and we strung high visibility fishing line above it to deter predators. This was great until it came time to move the compost to the gardens.

The Compost Solution

Finally, Roger decided to move all the compost to the play-yard and let the chickens have at it. That makes sense as they can forage in it for all the leftover veg and garden plant bits that we toss into the compost and mix it up for us! We will turn it once more then move it to the garden at the end of February and allow it to mature until early May when we start planting. Now we have a large compost bin connected to the chicken coop via a sky tunnel. Yup, that’s right, a sky tunnel. We call the girls our little composters.

Adding Some Entertaining Extras for the Chickens

The sky tunnel was built for the chickens to access the compost bin and to make life easier for me! We had a chicken tunnel between the two areas, but to get through there, I had to make sure the girls were closed in, in one area or the other, then flip open the top, open both gates, pass through and reverse the process. Not too laborious unless you’re pushing wheelbarrows or carts of bits through. Repeatedly. The girls took to the sky tunnel quickly with dried mealworm incentives to get the process going. Now, we see them going back and forth multiple times a day. It’s entertaining to see!

We all face challenges and look for ways to make our lives and theirs easier. And sometimes, this means adjusting what we have made to work even better. I’d love to hear about the changes you’ve made in your coops and yards. I love learning from others! I can’t wait to move this compost into the garden and watch the new plants grow!