One seasonal activity at Gunyah garden is to harvest the composted material from the deep litter chicken run.  The material dug up is created from kitchen scraps, neighbors lawn clippings, straw, prunings and chicken poo and over a year this all breaks down  with help from the chickens digging through it to create nutrient rich compost perfect to use on vegetable gardens. First any new top material is raked aside, revealing the composted material beneath ready to dig out. Any coarser material which has not broken down can be added to a compost bin or heap to process further. 

The deep litter system produces fantastic compost and gives the chooks a space to scratch in keeping entertained looking for any insects. 

The depth harvested here is around 1 shovel deep.  In this climate with 2-3 chickens and a chicken run with dimensions of 3 x 5.5 metres, the deep litter needs to be harvested once a year.  The frequency you would need to harvest depends on your climate, number of chickens and size of the chicken run. 

This compost is going down the road to my neighbor Deb for use on her family’s vegetable patches and we will share the growing and produce.

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