CHICKEN-ASSISTED COMPOSTNG

Several years ago the notion occurred to me that as a keen composter and keeper of chickens, my feathered friends should be employed to transform our garden waste to fertile compost for the garden. The concept is nothing new and Lady Eve Balfour, founder of the Soil Association, discussed this briefly in her book in 1943. The virtues of well-rotted chicken manure are well known as highly fertile plant food with a good nitrogen content and relatively good trace mineral content. It is also regarded as a good compost activator. My first attempt involving the addition of spent hops and horse manure in the chicken run didn’t produce the results I desired