Rural Gardening: Chickens and compost, 1 by brigidlily

brigidlily wrote:
Miss Jane and Miss Elizabeth, you'll be glad to know, are settling in brilliantly. I'll get some more pictures soon. Miss J will come within 2 feet of me, but Miss E is still set on that 4 ft. limit. That's fine; as long as they're healthy and happy, then I'm set. I DID get Miss J to snatch worms from my finger over the weekend, though! And, by the bye, I'm getting two eggs almost every day.

So, Sunday I turned the compost heap. I have a couple of those black hoops (see the picture, in the upper right corner). I had unfortunately put a LOT of hay in one of them and, as I turned the stuff over into the other hoop, found big clumps of spoiled hay with lots of... critters in them. It would take forever for it to compost properly, so I took half a wheelbarrow full into the chicken coop and those girls went NUTS! Two days later, that stuff is powder! I tossed another bucketful in there this morning and they went right for it. Problem is... what happens when I run out of partially composted hay!?!?? Are they going to hold the dog for ransom?