Making Compost Fertiliser with Chickens 

G'day Everyone, if you didn't see the coffee vid here's the link ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jAxFV8rqZfE.html and the link to the Plastics Forests Website is here plasticforests.com.au Cheers :)

"I've buried lots of thing under those banana trees" 1:46 Ok I'm calling the police

Anyone else want to call this fella dad? Damn I wish I had a dad as soft spoken as this man.

I'd toss in a handful of cheap grain now and then to really get the hens scratching to mix it up. Good video, as usual. Thanx.

You're a kind human being. The goodness shines out of you.

In these crazy times here in the states u have no idea how much people enjoy ur videos. Thank you

Hey Mark! I’ve been watching your videos for a couple of years, and have been seriously thinking about setting up my own raised garden once I retire and move back to the southern United States. (I’ve been living in Alaska for the past 15 years.) Even though Alaskans grow amazing veggie gardens, I was unfortunately living in areas that weren’t especially good for growing veggies. (It took me a couple of failed gardening attempts to figure this out) I’ve since retired and I’m currently living in Texas. Finally going to make my dreams come true. Since we’ve gotten here in the late fall, I decided that I’d not waste any time and began gathering and taking the over abundance of pecan leaves we’ve got in our yard. My wife’s property had been vacant for about 3 years, and she’s got about 5 very large pecan trees. I had a lot of work to do. I raked up all the leaves and twigs and pile them into a large area along our back fence to start a compost pile, until I could get a proper bin set in the corner of the yard. For the past month, I’ve been maintaining the moisture levels and have watched the pile shrink from about 7 feet high to less than 4 feet. This afternoon I took a bucket of kitchen scraps out to bury in the pile and when I dug into it with my compost fork, the inside was black as pitch and there was steam rolling out of the pile. The smell was also amazing! I had to call my wife out to show her! I was like a kid in a candy store. “Super stoked” doesn’t even come close. I wanted to thank you for inspiring me to get outside and start gardening. I used to have huge gardens when I was a child and grew a ton of veggies that my family was able to can and eat through the entire year. It’s really nice to reconnect with my youth. I just wanted to share this with you and thank you again. Stay safe! Ramon Golden Spur, Texas

"I've buried a lot of things below our banana trees*"sounds ominous if you weren't so wholesome

After seeing you build this we built a 6x6 composter for our chickens. They love it! Everything goes in it, even their clean out from their indoor coup. Compost in there is heating up. I imagine it will warm their toes in the winter!

I just did the same thing and the chickens were trying to get into it before I had even finished ! lol You hit the nail on the head when you said they were more curious than cats Mark. lol

We use the bottom of our run as a compost heap - started with hay, kept going with scraps from the kitchen, added coffee chaff as that wore down... lawn clippings go there. By the time the garden bed needs some compost the girls will have created heeeeaps for us! (Saves poop scooping too)

CHICKENS: ADDED TO THE HANDY GARDEN HELPERS LIST, keep up the hard work Mark you are doing bloody good mate :) WAITING FOR THAT 1 MIL SUB

My chicks love the new compost heap in their run. Made from old concrete blocks to contain the heap. All kitchen waste and grass goes into it. Thanks for the tip. We are in Greece.

You can use that heavy plastic as skids for your duck coop. Should slide right along in the grass.

We have a load of broken blocks from some building work and after watching this over my morning coffee, I set to building a little compost pile, edged with the blocks, for the chooks' enclosure. We live in Bulgaria and the land varies from clay to dust. I need a good supply of really rich compost, so thought why not give this a whirl. I have faith (in your method, not so much my ability :D)

Every time I work on something in there area they are all over me. All up in my business. I love it.

another idea for moving around the duck pen. Slide two long planks under it when you want to move it, the pen should slide over the planks easier than just directly on the grass. Plank rails! :)

thats going to work great. Our chickens are in direct competition to compost production,,so you combined them and made it work for you. Awesome. Our chickens love potato peels, off-cuts etc. from the kitchen, and it "eats" into our compost . Totally awesome. And to the folks that think it will attract or promote insects....chickens eat everything that crawls or buzzes about. No worries on a bug problem...chicks will remedy that.

Good to get your animals helping out! I hope you filed off the screws, Would hate to see an injury! To expand, I'd make a 2nd, 3rd & 4th next to it, making a system where you add new material to the first and turn/transfer to the next weekly/biweekly, aerating and breaking down till the last is fine compost ready to go!

I bought 3 one day old chicks because of your videos 🥰

From my personal experience this will work great, the chickens will keep the pile turning and speed up the composting process. I’ve never used an enclosure I just tossed my garden and kitchen scraps around their yard and they recycled everything even cutting my feed cost because they got a good feed from the scraps. It’s amazing all the value the chickens see in things we throw away!

You really have your "thinking cap" on Mark. You are utilizing all your valuable nutrients and composting assets on your property.

We have a similar setup in our chook yard, with low walls made from corrugated iron. We chuck all our kitchen scraps, weeds, tired plants etc. in there for the chooks and after a couple of months we dig it out and pile it up to finish composting away from the chooks (then the worms can get into it). It works really well and saves us having food scraps and everything all over the chook yard.

I know one hobby farmer that meat&fish&bird leftovers or carcass he had, he suspended wire mesh bucket in the far corner of the pen (for smelly purposes), and put them there. Flies would nest in them and when the worms started feeding on them, they often fell out through the mesh and the chicken ate them. Then he grinded the bones up and mixed in the chickens foot for calcium.

In the evening when I put all my animals and pets to bed it is a big relief and one of the most satisfying times of my day. I sleep better knowing my animals are all safe, secure at night. We put up an outside day/night camera to view the night predators. You would not believe what is out there at night!!!

Hey Mark, My Wife and I live in the Namoi Region and we built a 360 Sqm garden full fenced off from the wildlife. You have given so many good tips. We are about to get chickens soon and can't wait to give them the Biomass. Full Circle. Thank-you, Richie

We live in Missouri, USA, Zone 6b. We have 16 black-laced silver Wyandottes. They began laying in early March, and we get 13 - 16 eggs daily. We give them away. We have a 12x16 foot house in which we use deep litter. The chooks went in November of 2022, and I have yet to smell anything. They have a 12x20 foot run. I throw grass clippings, hay, straw, weeds, dirt, etc., into the run. They have torn it up beautifully, but it's been dry here. Will soon dig up and see what's underneath. We are building raised beds and need filling. It's wonderful to sit out in the evening and just watch the chickens! Great video!

I'm a big believer in using the actual chicken run as the compost pile, I can normally generate about a ton of compost every 6 weeks

If you can aquire a bag of powdered limestone and sprinkle it on the compost it will excelerate the rotting process plus the mineral neutralizes acidity in the soil that comes from forest leaves and such! 👍

Hello Mark. You could use 4ft 19mm 20 gauge chicken netting or get some 8x4 sheets of the square holed mesh like the mesh used on peanut bird feeders but a big gauge and attach it around the bottom 4 ft of the duck pen. Hopefully that would stop the snakes... We don't have big snakes here in England so you would know if you needed to wrap around another 4 ft..! Good luck and thanks for all the inspiration. All the best, Marcus.

I just started being into plants cause of lockdown then I came across this gem! Who else?😄

Everything you do is calming

Sorry to hear about your chook. Glad we don't get such big snakes. A couple of months ago I was in the chook coup with a red belly black snake that I had disturbed luckily he had a mutual attitude of not wanting to be in the coup with me either. He quickly slithered away with our friendly residential bush turkey pecking him to guide him back into the bush. Hopefully your snakey mate won't visit again. Fantastic idea. Not only great compost. You also get healthy happy chooks and healthy happy chooks produce fantastic eggs. I might think about that on a smaller scale inside the coup. Thankyou once again for an informative video. It is really appreciated.:)

"I've buried many things under the banana trees..." I wonder what has collected there

I love the ducks. Thanks for sharing. You are one hard working man. Maybe I should holiday to Australia and join in on the chores.

My wife loves watching theses videos and commenting. She also loves hearing him talk and his accent. While we don't garden anymore, she enjoys learning.

You make it look SO EASY!

1:46 hey have you seen my dog? No but would you like a banana?

A very good compost with a chickens.

you could turn the whole chicken pen into a composting area, using woodchip as the flooring. then supplement their feed by giving them weeds and scraps from your kitchen and garden. closed circle/self sufficient gardening!

I wish they had those recycled material containers here in America.

I used to have chickens in my backyard and though the plants were being eaten, the protected ones were THRIVING. After their sad "departure" the soil became more acidic and the plants grew slower and smaller. Chickens are a great animal to keep if you're able to! Great fertilizer from their waste and they're really cute. They also pluck weeds and any unwanted plants if they can get their beak into it.

You could just use one of those plastic sheets to put under the metal parts of the cage, essentially making it into a sled, hopefully that would make it easier to drag it around on soil and grass! Great video as always.

Sorry about the loss of your duck Mark. Love the moveable duck pen!!!

My videos wouldn’t exist without you, thanks for continuing the inspiration Mark! Great value here again! Now I’m off to find me some of that plastic!

Mark sorry about your duck😔 I love your set up you are doing amazing job with everything. I love love your channel.Thank you for your hard work and inspiration!!

Looks great! And best is you can move the thick black recycled plastic to make a new pile and use up the previous pile. Keep up the good work.

I was building a bed for asparagus. All I did was dump the soil in and my little feathered helpers spread the soil and compost for me. Mark, I note you have some cute little browns...mine are hy-line browns retired from an egg farm at Caboolture...like me, enjoying our retirement together

I have had a compost area in the chicken run for a few years now...I started off small...but after discovery that the grass in the run didn't get destroyed as chickens spent most of the time in the compost area. I extended the run, added more chickens and made an even bigger compost area where I throw grass cuttings, most weeds and all the autumn leaves I have collected from the lawn into it as well. The chickens love it. I used a few boards to contain in designated area. I made it easy to remove the boards on one side so I can take the rideon in and empty contents 😀

Great video! My chickens use to jump on top of my compost pile and spread it all over the lawn as they scratched through it making quite a mess. So, now I just throw all my compostables into the chicken run. They love it and it breaks down so quickly. I add the beautiful worm filled soil from the chicken run to the garden in the spring. The plants love it. Full circle!

We have a compost system that uses the chickens, I have 3 bays and the chickens have access to the first 2 then the resting bay is blocked off and it works really well especially as I get alot of grass clippings from my mum (like a full wheely bin every couple of weeks) who mows lawns and they scratch them to break up the clumps and because there is the reminants of my woodchip pile right next to it when I'm scooping it back up it mixes some carbon in and Ive found it really effective

From Texas here in the US.....I love your videos. Just fantastic and practical advise for any level of self sufficiency.

Awesome idea Mark, it'll also fertilize the ground as you move it around. Which means extra fertile soil to use in gardens.

i just got three chickens my self and will take on board your great idea thanks heap, you do a fab job

Wow so smart adding that dollie and the rubber hose handles!!

A great video ,our chickens are free range and these lady's are the best composting machines we ever had , greetings from the Netherlands

As an American, I enjoy how you pronounce compost. Reminds me of how the woman says compost from Van Meuwen videos.

I use a wormbin now and the poop of my pet pigeon :') (4th floor apartment, balcony veg garden, no space for happy chickens sadly) Also while sad, I'm so happy to see how you at least give its death some use.

Me gusta como hablas. Pareces ser una persona muy amable. Gracias por toda la buena information que das. Espero ver muchos mas videos suyos primeramente Dios.

It's funny, I usually leave out the parts where I stand around staring into space trying to make a decision 😋

Good video show us how to make compost fertilizer with chicken, thanks for sharing to us such informative and good content for garden work, i learn from your video

I did something similar, I put a star picket in the centre, with a sprinkler cable-tied to it, the outside is made from hay bales, i and am now growing a water melon vine in the middle

Our kids have a few pet rabbits and we use the dropping in the vegetable garden and flower beds.

I already had a 6'x6' compost bin where we put the chicken run. The chickens ate about 1000 lbs of compost and eat every wheelbarrow load of weeds and greens I put in there. We are still getting good compost because the chickens have done a great job digging through the 4" of wood chips in the run and mixing it w/ dirt. I built a second bin and mixed the half composted wood chips w/ a truckload of grass and chicken manure.

You inspired me to make a chicken composting bin! I adapted a compost bin made of welded wire and lined it with 18” wide flooring 10’ long. I punched holes in it and used zip ties to attach it to the sides of the bin. The front is still made of the wood slats that were part of the original bin, but with no spacing. The girls love it! I want to share a picture of it, but can’t find a way to do it yet.

I think this a great idea Mark, given me more ideas on how to make my chickens work for me! They are so curious as when I am working around the garden and digging holes or pulling weeds out my chooks are right there checking to peck at what may be there for them.

Ah good, when I first saw "Making Compost Fertiliser with Chickens" I'd thought you'd added them to it...

I love the way the chickens were determined to check out what you were doing. 😂

Very good information, sorry about the duck they are so much fun. Your chickens are having a great day today compost on the make. God bless.

If you mound the material up past the edge, and lift the side up as you fill, you can get the pile 5' or more high. This will help in getting the thermophilic organisms working and breaking down the material faster. If you start with a pile of course brush on the bottom, it will allow more oxygen through the pile to aerate it and help to dry it out if it gets too wet. I usually lift the side off when it gets 7 or 8' high and had a chance to settle, and start a new pile.

I did this with my composting last year with my hens and it works well as long as you don't want worms it in. They turned it over really well but also cleaned out the worms that came up into it and when they were all gone they weren't much interested in it. they would come and have a peck when new stuff was added to it and would scratch out around for any more worms that had come in but started ignoring it more and more.

Been doing this, in a way, out of necessity. Don't use a compost bin because it tempts the girls to jump the fence into the neighbors and beyond. I am learning to manage it a bit, I'm in New Mexico and the desert is brutal. Saw how you use a tarp over the poo and such so will give that a try to keep moisture up and the sun's heat off a bit. Awesome vids!! Thanks

They love it !......Hi from Coos Bay, Oregon...USA

I just lost one out of my 12 chickens today. I went home a bit late and I couldn't put back all my chickens that I set free into the coop. Other chickens managed to do so by themselves but one poor little bird could've lost now that's it's dark already. not gonna lie I'm very frustrated but still hopeful tomorrow I'm gonna meet her again during their breakfast. btw I'm planning to make my compost like yours. Great vid as always !

I have an air conditioner unit that snakes were getting into. I dug down about 6 inches around the ac unit and filled it in with lava rock. Rat snakes, garter snakes and water snakes were creating havoc with the compressor. They don’t like rubbing their belly over lava rock. I actually think I’m going to create a patio out of it around the whole A/C area.

Well, that looks like a great idea for creating a compost bin right around where I keep my own chickens. I just started a new garden area there this year as well. Thanks for the idea!

all my chicken runs are composting runs, once a year I clean them out and make a giant pile with coop bedding and let it sit for 6 months. I keep 3 Cornish X meat birds to breed them and the giant compost pile is kept in their pen for them to feed off of (maggots worms etc) I give them so little feed that they need to scratch through the giant pile for feed and this keeps them exercised enough to breed them.

Wow nearly at 1,000,000 subscribers! Onya mate!!

Good idea for a compost set up. I think you are right that the chickens will really turn it up and provide some good compost over time for you

YOU HAVE GOTTA DO MORE CHICKEN VIDEOS😍😍😍

our chickens love compost bins, just love em, they do a good job too, breaking everything up into smaller peices, really speeds things up and compost is noticeably better for it, we have four bins, leave one out a week , as they soon lose interest if it is only the top stuff, what they really like is scratching through the lower layers for bugs etc. Another hint too with compost bins for chickens, the soil below where the bin was is extremely improved by the bin being there, As worms etc come and go from the bin, it stays moist, all sorts of reasons, so place the bin where a new plant or tree is going in future, or place four bins 1-2m away from a struggling tree, watch the tree come back to life as the chickens worms and biology absorb into the soil

They sure make it quick work on our place. We got a bunch of free tomato plants from the mulch. Thanks for the time mark.

Yup! Gonna get me some ladies, too. The wife’s gonna be so excited!

Hello Mark nice video i hope u will hit the 1 million subs

My mom has been composting for a few years now and loves it. She's also been talking about getting chickens, i bet she will love this concept!

Edible Acres is a great channel to watch for tips on composting with chickens! Looking good. I’m sure your chooks are loving it. 🥰

Lovely video Love the Girls supervising your work I reckon you’re on a winner there RIP Little Duck 😔 Hope it wasn’t the small one if not how’s she/he going

Lol that zoom in on “I’ve buried many things under the banana tree”.

I wish we had that material here in the U.S. I think your chicken idea will work.

Think you nailed it Mark. My chickens love turning the compost and they add a little something extra as they go.

Don't need to exactly secure that fencing on the flat trolley, screw in some L or square brackets to slip behind the lower brace and you won't have to mess around so much with tying things on. Maybe you aren't moving that pen too often but it may get tedious securing and untying. Haaaappy chickens

Yup looks good and they already started.fantastic😊

Maybe make a worm farm with some of the material you have left. Worm casting tea is a great mild liquid fertilizer!

Thanks for such a great video! I've been contemplating getting into composting but I've felt a little overwhelmed since it always felt so complex. Your chicken compost is exactly what I need! A small area the chickens themselves can churn. Perfect way to get started!

I imagine if they made kayaks from that sort of plastic they could make some money. Most people, myself including, who use kayaks and love to go out in the water also love and care for the environment. I'm sure people would buy them just to help out with the plastic problem.

Great idea.

Lots of hard work involved. Seems like a get idea.

Excellent idea.. BIG thumbs up. Thankyou.

Hello. Thank you for leaving the beautiful Snake alive.Have a good one.

Definitely gonna do this 😊 they'll also add their poop every now and again to the compost as a bonus 😁