Being an older city gal, I found this great teaching video very informative! Isn’t it amazing that all the things you need to build your compost week after week God has provided and you in turn make your garden beds and grow the food for your family! Our God is truly amazing! Ben, this was such a great teaching video…thank you for your time and effort! I truly love your family and may God continually bless your beautiful family💜.
I really enjoy this I'm 65 and I think even I can do this in my backyard and I live in the city but I've got enough room to grow my own food now I see how to make compose very easy
@@purpletulips4648 I'm 66 and have had some minor success growing food for hubby and I. I live in the desert and no amount of watering let's my summer plants to survive Winter....no proclem!
I'm sure you have thought of it, but those corn stalks are gold! cow feed, pig feed, shredded up for silage and chipped up for compost....great stuff, would love to see how you use them!
Leaf mound is such a beautiful compost, or as we up here in Canada call it composted shredded leaves. Lawn mower works great to shred those leaves. Then we dump them on the garden beds so the worms stay busy all winter. We also have contained areas for piles more of it. Makes awesome soil
The smaller the pieces in a compost pile the faster it breaks down. Charles Dowding has good videos on compost. Having a closed loop system is beneficial to any garden.
I've got the most amazing soil because I feed the worms!!! After digging or harvesting all my plants I use the hole that was made to put greens back in it. Then I go to my chicken coop compost pile and top all of my garden area with the compost. Then I COVER FOR THE WINTER. OMGosh guys/gals....if you want plants on steroids...trust me it's awesome!!! This was only my second year on my new homestead and the results I had for a new garden was amazing!!! In spring....Just plant.
Also I am in Wisconsin zone 4. When I plant my tomatoes I do add calcium and bone meal and blood meal only because they are such heavy feeders. You should see my tomatoes this year. 7 plants and so far 125 big tomatoes so far.
BEN , I LOVE THIS VIDEO! So simple! So effective! So money-saving, soul-improving, waste-reducing, inflation-proofing, self-helping video! Thank you! Love it!
You keep doing what you are doing free compost and not free because you are putting the work in and man isn't there something special about a labor of loving what you are doing. Congratulations 👏 👏 👏 our friend
If y'all get enough compost together, you'll be able to feed a plot of corn that's large enough to make more than one batch of tamales!! Lol. I sheet compost, mostly, with my chickens because I am able to let them range. They still love kitchen scraps and I have some girls that love to garden along with me. No matter what, all weeds go to the chickens. In fact, I don;t think we've thrown away anything that was the least bit biodegradable in years! Even when we had a "plumbing issue" and a case of TP got soaked, that went into the compost pile and got churned up by the chickens.
Such hard workers are you all. I wish I’d married a homesteader minded guy. I try to do what I can in a small way but hard work being good for the soul is bad on my back 😞. Still, watching y’all inspires me 🤗
There are few better smells than that rich, pure, glorious soil. Thanks for sharing again today, folks! Totally loving seeing your guys so often! Heather🇨🇦
Compost is 100% the reason we have chickens. Eggs are just a bonus. I really like the concept your using here. Might have to try it out. Thanks for sharing!
Hi, Meg your a sweetheart. You remind me of my daughter. I enjoy your videos so very much! We can't free range our Chickens because of dogs and other predators. Lost 53 Chickens this year neighbors dogs!!! Very upsetting So we put a electric fence and a Camera around our coup and run.We do deep litter in our coop and our run. Wood chips in the coop and in the run adding more when it needs it. The chickens keeps it turned .We clean the wood chips out 2 times a year from the lot. Chicken coop gets cleaned more often.which they have already broken down a lot and we put them on our compost piles. It's healthier for the chickens than being on just dirt! I just thought I would tell you how we do it now lol. I'm 57 had chickens almost all my life! I can remember how we free ranged them and nothing ever bothered them.That was the good old days! can't wait to see your next video!!!!!
Wow, very informative; thanks for sharing! I have a pallet compost, two bins, & have made soil by continually adding veggie peelings, grass clippings, etc. I have learned a lot by watching your channel. Hey, I’m almost 70 yrs. gramma; if I can do it, anyone can! Many blessings to your family 🤗❤️🇨🇦
Ben, this is a fantastic video and your composting skills are off the charts. Thanks for showing us your hands-on and step by step method. Your family farm is a real working homestead. 💪 Take care and God Bless
Good video on composting your channel is getting better and better do more stuff like that it's very interesting whatever you can do to reuse get something for free that's what people are watching these days they all don't want to pay for it on everything so expensive great job keep up the homestead 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🍉🍉🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Really informative. I enjoyed seeing all three stages at once. You got the timing perfect for this video. Sounds like there is need for good compost; so, if you have more than you need, sell it. Another income stream is always a good thing. 😉
I have NEVER seen anyone more excited than me about compost until you started making video's a number of years ago now! It's a Wonderful feeling knowing that you made that compost & had a say about what went into it! Yes!!!! your right about the level of compost that's being sold right now across the USA!!!!! Even bagged compost is basically nothing but wood chips!!!
R E S P E C T ! I am a dirt lover from way back. I have been composting for gardens for 30 years. My latest goal….. I call ‘my compostable life’ I want everything I own to be compostable. I am working on it. Ashes to ashes…..
Two things get me excited is, compost and chickens. I also compost by using my chickens and a compost area in their run. Fantastic way of making compost using the girls. It gives them a job through out the day and makes for happy chooks, not bored chooks. Great video. Blessings from Australia ❤️
You need 6 inches of compost to start a no-dig (raised) bed, but the next years you only need to top dress with 1 inch of compost. Moreover: no-dig beds increase in fertility during the years, my oldest beds (6 yrs) produce tennisball sized hardneck garlic, and my most recent beds only show pingpong ball sized bulbs. So once you stop expanding, you will need less compost.
It is amazing how many places you can find material to compost. We intend to give our number to people with fall decorations on their porches (pumpkins, straw) and will go pick it up at the beginning of winter. Our chickens will eat the pumpkins and the straw will go in a thick layer in their coop to keep them warm during the winter while it is composting below them. In the spring we will dig out the compost and cover the garden. We also pick up bags of leaves and grass clippings from our little city dump. Local coffee shops give us their used coffee grounds. Lots of free resources!
We've never been able to source good, quality compost here. The stuff we've bought in the past has not made good soil the first year or so after putting it down. Making our own is something I've been experimenting with for the last several years now and I'm finally starting to be successful with it. I love your methods and plan on trying your chicken piles
Wow I wished I knew all of this 30 years ago when I started my Farm, Love your family and Buggy she is so sweet and your wife sure knows how to feed the family Have a Gson name Cortland think you have a son with the same name
This video was very informative. Thank you. I do want to mention, my grandma taught me to rotate what you plant and where. One adds where something reduced planted the previous year. (she tried to explain that to a farmer who planted corn, year after year after year. He wondered why his corn was looking so bad.) She studied animal husbandry and horticulture and rocked it.
My son passed his first driving test today, yay! He worked hard and did a good job. I'm so happy and proud. Compost with chickens, cool! Nice system Ben. Not having the bits of plastic in your compost is another great by-product of making your own compost. We have bits of plastic in everything we buy in bags to use in the garden. It's disappointing. Your soul must be feeling really good right now! Thanks for this Ben.
This is a very great opportunity for so many people - put those chickens to work! So glad you are video-ing and sharing and keeping us up to date with progress. So cool producing good from just waste. Now just invent three portable compost bins that can be installed over a slightly raised bed hooked to a chicken tractor and instead of moving the piles, just fork them into the next bin and the next until you have to move them up the slightly raised bed. Mulch in place for a future garden bed and moving the chickens along the production disassembly line. Whoa! what a concept.
5 years after my static chicken run off the coop was built, I am still mad at my husband and neighbor for ignoring me when I said to make the door wider! It is 1 1'2" smaller than my narrowest wheelbarrow. It is at least twice the size of yours and impossible to fill with chips or remove the finished compost except for a shovel at a time. I am still after him to dig up the 4 x 4 post that they put 2' in the ground and enlarge to opening! There are yards and yards of finished compost I need on the garden just sitting there. Add to the fact that the new chips have to be put in a shovel full at a time while our tractor and bucket sit by idle. LOL He should have just listened to me!😊😊
love all your videos and have been following for years, keep up the good work!!!!! we just got 1.2 acres 8 chickens and today we are starting our compost pile !!!! thanks for the motivation!!!
I'm getting excited that it's almost the season for leaves! Didn't collect any last yr because I was busy moving out of my house so I'm really itching to rebuild my pile!
this grandma learns something BIG every time I watch your videos!!! Tell Buggy we wish her a very big blessed birthday!!! She is so beautiful, just like mommy and daddy!
Hey Ben. Add gypsum to the surface of the ground before you compost,, it will help break down the clay, and make it easier to change into soil with the addition of the compost your making Keep up the great work guys your awesome
Excellent video! Compost is one of my love languages too. Thank you for showing just a little bit different way to do things by keeping chickens in a static coop rather than moving them regularly.
Y’all have a great system! Never really thought of the process of composting but it is interesting. Work smarter not harder, the chickens do the work! Amazing!
Something to maybe one day consider. You now have enough wood chips to start this, if you ever wish. Where before I hesitated, even as I said he's making too much work for himself there, because browns are very important, and always in short supply. Line the inside bottom edge of the chicken coop/yard with something solid, more resistant to composting than wood and, about 3 ft high. Even thick, aging, slightly worn out weed fabric would work for a bit. Dump the chips in on one half the yard. Add weeds, stalks, trimmings and such as they are available. Every so many months, or when you have a bunch more chips/browns, shift everything to one half, and fill in the other half with fresh. From then on it's just haul out half a side and refill every so often. It's a way nicer faster product, if things are chipped, chopped or shredded before it goes in. however having run small trees, branches attached and all, through this concept everything eventually turns into crumbles. If using over a bed where you won't plant for a bit, or somewhat established trees, can simply haul it straight there, or in beds with corn/melons/squashes/etc., they can handle the half raw compost as side dressing. Adds warmth for them in spring, if planting a bit early. Also works for raised beds, the bottom first half of a bed can be half raw compost. Good starters for new raised beds are onions. They sit nestled on the surface of the bed, yet the roots can go down and get that rocket fuel. Usually comfortable fall weather coincides with when you'd feel like building a new bed, and time to plant out baby onion seedlings. My entire coop floor was run this way. They jumped up on a table like thing where the egg boxes were, or climbed up to roost over another section. I dug out a roost size rectangle about 3 ft deep, under that section. In the pit, under some tightly spaced grates (old fridge/upright freezer shelves I think?), I put in half the population of a rubbermaid worm bin. Then covered with mostly rotted compost. You couldn't see this pit in the daily operation, but it protected a massive population of worms to work the chicken roost section, fast. Chickens were productive for at least nine years each, with only two yearly short breaks, after about three years old. They did get let out a few hours before dusk, or early morning before feeding, most days, but there were a number of years at the end, before leaving that place, where letting them out wasn't safe. (First a pack of dogs, then a wildcat.) Everything they got for egg fuel was in that coop.
Good stuff right here. I do direct fertilization in my flower beds. Plastic coffee can, put holes in the bottom, bury in soil, put in kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps, put on the lid, check once in a while to refill. It doesn't smell, because any opening is under the dirt.
The only thing I do different in compost piles is that I save some good rich completed compost soil around, and whenever I add anything new to a compost pile I shake a layer of completed compost on top of it and water it in. The reason I do that is that completed compost already has the ideal assortment of microorganisms to break down the new stuff most quickly. If you did one stack with and one without you'd be amazed. Just adding some completed compost on top lessens the time to full compost by more than half. It gives it the best chance. You'll get high temps in a pile you would have thought too new to heat up like that.
Your composting work is great. You need to make a how to video for newcomers and put it in your store so they can order it and have it in their home reference library. You guys rock.!!!
Dont forget you can use your grass clippings. Whatever the cow doesnt eat. Thats the base of my compost & its black gold! I ❤️ compost too lol. Nice vid!!
I love your videos and admire the way you are learning to be self sufficient! What a great way of life and wonderful way to raise children. Plus, I learn from your experiences.
I get leaves from all over. Even picking up ones for recycling. Every time I'm out during the fall I come back with my mini van full. I lay down a tarp so it doesn't get too messy. I'd love a pickup.
Wow! That's amazing!!! I've always wanted to start a compost pile. I need it so badly for the garden. And though I've watched so many videos on it, I'm afraid I won't do it right at all and it won't compost or I'm going to catch the place on fire. lol
If it’s moist it won’t catch on fire. Just do it! Just start. If it’s dry, it’ll just take longer to break down. If it’s too wet it’ll smell stinky. I’ve learned from others that when it starts to stink, add things like shredded paper or dry leaves (I save bags of them every fall). I keep a garden fork by my composts & use it to twist/mix things now & then. Even stinky compost (I just spread a mostly-finished pile yesterday & the bottom half was stinky) will still do great things for your gardens. Once you spread it the smell should dissipate within a day. So if it’s dry, add water; if it’s wet, add dry stuff like paper, cardboard, sawdust or dry fall leaves. I hope you give it a try!
Being an older city gal, I found this great teaching video very informative! Isn’t it amazing that all the things you need to build your compost week after week God has provided and you in turn make your garden beds and grow the food for your family! Our God is truly amazing! Ben, this was such a great teaching video…thank you for your time and effort! I truly love your family and may God continually bless your beautiful family💜.
I really enjoy this I'm 65 and I think even I can do this in my backyard and I live in the city but I've got enough room to grow my own food now I see how to make compose very easy
😊👍.
Amen!
As a Chicago girl I agree. I'm not sure if I could dispatch a chicken as I'm very fond of birds but I have no animosity to others than can.
@@purpletulips4648
I'm 66 and have had some minor success growing food for hubby and I. I live in the desert and no amount of watering let's my summer plants to survive Winter....no proclem!
I'm sure you have thought of it, but those corn stalks are gold! cow feed, pig feed, shredded up for silage and chipped up for compost....great stuff, would love to see how you use them!
Yep my main compost filler at the end of harvest. Shredded they make awesome compost and so much of it.
Damn it Ben!! Now I’ll never get the inside of my house clean because I have another reason to play in dirt with my chickens. 😝
Leaf mound is such a beautiful compost, or as we up here in Canada call it composted shredded leaves. Lawn mower works great to shred those leaves. Then we dump them on the garden beds so the worms stay busy all winter. We also have contained areas for piles more of it. Makes awesome soil
Blessings on the Hollar family and homestead!🥰🌻🐛🌼
Compost for a gardener is like wood clamps for a carpenter. You never have enough.
True!
😊👍.
I'm doing both. SMH
This cycle of the land is fascinating.
The smaller the pieces in a compost pile the faster it breaks down. Charles Dowding has good videos on compost. Having a closed loop system is beneficial to any garden.
Excellent way of making compost and also being more self reliant.
Love chickens, love compost and love watching/hearing you talk about chickens and compost. 🥰
I miss living this way and cannot wait until we are able to buy a house with land. Chickens will be one of the first things I get again!
I've got the most amazing soil because I feed the worms!!! After digging or harvesting all my plants I use the hole that was made to put greens back in it. Then I go to my chicken coop compost pile and top all of my garden area with the compost. Then I COVER FOR THE WINTER. OMGosh guys/gals....if you want plants on steroids...trust me it's awesome!!! This was only my second year on my new homestead and the results I had for a new garden was amazing!!! In spring....Just plant.
Also I am in Wisconsin zone 4. When I plant my tomatoes I do add calcium and bone meal and blood meal only because they are such heavy feeders. You should see my tomatoes this year. 7 plants and so far 125 big tomatoes so far.
Thankyou for showing the in and outs more of composting. I understand a little more about composting!
This is a whole lot of work to me. Do you do it part time or what?
@@collinssouth3761 🙃
BEN , I LOVE THIS VIDEO! So simple! So effective! So money-saving, soul-improving, waste-reducing, inflation-proofing, self-helping video! Thank you! Love it!
Hi.... Meg and Ben, thank you for showing your video homestead 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 🏡🎥👍👍👍
You keep doing what you are doing free compost and not free because you are putting the work in and man isn't there something special about a labor of loving what you are doing. Congratulations 👏 👏 👏 our friend
Can not wait for the next spring to see your hard work paid off 😍👍🏼
If y'all get enough compost together, you'll be able to feed a plot of corn that's large enough to make more than one batch of tamales!! Lol.
I sheet compost, mostly, with my chickens because I am able to let them range. They still love kitchen scraps and I have some girls that love to garden along with me. No matter what, all weeds go to the chickens. In fact, I don;t think we've thrown away anything that was the least bit biodegradable in years!
Even when we had a "plumbing issue" and a case of TP got soaked, that went into the compost pile and got churned up by the chickens.
Such hard workers are you all. I wish I’d married a homesteader minded guy. I try to do what I can in a small way but hard work being good for the soul is bad on my back 😞. Still, watching y’all inspires me 🤗
Another really good project!!! God Bless.
There are few better smells than that rich, pure, glorious soil. Thanks for sharing again today, folks! Totally loving seeing your guys so often!
Heather🇨🇦
I just want you guys to know I look forward coming home after 11 hour work day and watching you !! Love your family !!!
Compost is 100% the reason we have chickens. Eggs are just a bonus. I really like the concept your using here. Might have to try it out. Thanks for sharing!
Hi, Meg your a sweetheart. You remind me of my daughter. I enjoy your videos so very much! We can't free range our Chickens because of dogs and other predators. Lost 53 Chickens this year neighbors dogs!!! Very upsetting So we put a electric fence and a Camera around our coup and run.We do deep litter in our coop and our run. Wood chips in the coop and in the run adding more when it needs it. The chickens keeps it turned .We clean the wood chips out 2 times a year from the lot. Chicken coop gets cleaned more often.which they have already broken down a lot and we put them on our compost piles. It's healthier for the chickens than being on just dirt! I just thought I would tell you how we do it now lol. I'm 57 had chickens almost all my life! I can remember how we free ranged them and nothing ever bothered them.That was the good old days! can't wait to see your next video!!!!!
Wow, very informative; thanks for sharing! I have a pallet compost, two bins, & have made soil by continually adding veggie peelings, grass clippings, etc. I have learned a lot by watching your channel. Hey, I’m almost 70 yrs. gramma; if I can do it, anyone can! Many blessings to your family 🤗❤️🇨🇦
I started this video around 6am.....then went a built a 6'x5' compost pile!! Such an inspiration! Thanks guys!
Ben, this is a fantastic video and your composting skills are off the charts. Thanks for showing us your hands-on and step by step method. Your family farm is a real working homestead. 💪
Take care and God Bless
That's awesome deal! 52 cubic yards per year!!!! Magnificent! Thanks for sharing! 🤗💗🤗💗🤗
Black gold for gardeners. Pure organic , beautiful!
Compost is also my love language 💕 and the fact it correlates to my other love language: food 💕
Good video on composting your channel is getting better and better do more stuff like that it's very interesting whatever you can do to reuse get something for free that's what people are watching these days they all don't want to pay for it on everything so expensive great job keep up the homestead 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🍉🍉🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Chicken coop for the soul! 😊
Really informative. I enjoyed seeing all three stages at once. You got the timing perfect for this video. Sounds like there is need for good compost; so, if you have more than you need, sell it. Another income stream is always a good thing. 😉
Please keep filming chicken and composting videos. You may think we might get bored with them but we don't, we love them.
True!
"Compost is my love language" I would so wear that on a shirt!❤
I have NEVER seen anyone more excited than me about compost until you started making video's a number of years ago now! It's a Wonderful feeling knowing that you made that compost & had a say about what went into it! Yes!!!! your right about the level of compost that's being sold right now across the USA!!!!! Even bagged compost is basically nothing but wood chips!!!
Valuable information. Very doable. Thank you for teaching this skill. I love building soil.
This is a whole lot of work to me. Do you do it part time or what?
@@collinssouth3761 😵💫
R E S P E C T ! I am a dirt lover from way back. I have been composting for gardens for 30 years. My latest goal….. I call ‘my compostable life’
I want everything I own to be compostable. I am working on it. Ashes to ashes…..
Good Job ya'll. You are a great family. I love watching your channel.
That chipper is worth it’s weight in gold , you will never regret it !
Feeding the compost to feed the soil to feed the crops to feed the family.
Compost is my thing too. I love making it. Its my favorite smell, new earth~
Two things get me excited is, compost and chickens. I also compost by using my chickens and a compost area in their run. Fantastic way of making compost using the girls. It gives them a job through out the day and makes for happy chooks, not bored chooks. Great video. Blessings from Australia ❤️
You need 6 inches of compost to start a no-dig (raised) bed, but the next years you only need to top dress with 1 inch of compost. Moreover: no-dig beds increase in fertility during the years, my oldest beds (6 yrs) produce tennisball sized hardneck garlic, and my most recent beds only show pingpong ball sized bulbs. So once you stop expanding, you will need less compost.
Tyfs love your little family hugs and prayers and much love ❤
Years ago I learned about composting. Then I made my own compost pile and couldn’t believe the rich, gorgeous soil that it turned into. 😎
My chicken compost is out of pallet - works great and the garden loves it. Beautiful Family you have!
Look at those happy chickens🐔🐔
It is amazing how many places you can find material to compost. We intend to give our number to people with fall decorations on their porches (pumpkins, straw) and will go pick it up at the beginning of winter. Our chickens will eat the pumpkins and the straw will go in a thick layer in their coop to keep them warm during the winter while it is composting below them. In the spring we will dig out the compost and cover the garden.
We also pick up bags of leaves and grass clippings from our little city dump. Local coffee shops give us their used coffee grounds. Lots of free resources!
We've never been able to source good, quality compost here. The stuff we've bought in the past has not made good soil the first year or so after putting it down. Making our own is something I've been experimenting with for the last several years now and I'm finally starting to be successful with it. I love your methods and plan on trying your chicken piles
At over 100 bucks a yard around here I've gotta be on my compost game. Deep bedding under the chickens helps quite a bit.
Another 'win-win' is you have very content chickens. They are busy and less likely to pick on each other.
I sure do love watch every video. Thanks for making every day a good day!
Wow I wished I knew all of this 30 years ago when I started my Farm, Love your family and Buggy she is so sweet and your wife sure knows how to feed the family Have a Gson name Cortland think you have a son with the same name
I love your enthusiasm Ben. Your personal way of sharing information on composting is a win, win, win, thanks.
This video was very informative. Thank you. I do want to mention, my grandma taught me to rotate what you plant and where. One adds where something reduced planted the previous year. (she tried to explain that to a farmer who planted corn, year after year after year. He wondered why his corn was looking so bad.) She studied animal husbandry and horticulture and rocked it.
My son passed his first driving test today, yay! He worked hard and did a good job. I'm so happy and proud. Compost with chickens, cool! Nice system Ben. Not having the bits of plastic in your compost is another great by-product of making your own compost. We have bits of plastic in everything we buy in bags to use in the garden. It's disappointing. Your soul must be feeling really good right now! Thanks for this Ben.
"Chicken compost for the soul!" Thank you for the tutorial. 😊
This is a very great opportunity for so many people - put those chickens to work! So glad you are video-ing and sharing and keeping us up to date with progress. So cool producing good from just waste. Now just invent three portable compost bins that can be installed over a slightly raised bed hooked to a chicken tractor and instead of moving the piles, just fork them into the next bin and the next until you have to move them up the slightly raised bed. Mulch in place for a future garden bed and moving the chickens along the production disassembly line. Whoa! what a concept.
This fall ask landscapers if they need a place to dump leaves? Just a thought. Love learning from your videos!❤
5 years after my static chicken run off the coop was built, I am still mad at my husband and neighbor for ignoring me when I said to make the door wider! It is 1 1'2" smaller than my narrowest wheelbarrow. It is at least twice the size of yours and impossible to fill with chips or remove the finished compost except for a shovel at a time. I am still after him to dig up the 4 x 4 post that they put 2' in the ground and enlarge to opening! There are yards and yards of finished compost I need on the garden just sitting there. Add to the fact that the new chips have to be put in a shovel full at a time while our tractor and bucket sit by idle. LOL He should have just listened to me!😊😊
love all your videos and have been following for years, keep up the good work!!!!! we just got 1.2 acres 8 chickens and today we are starting our compost pile !!!! thanks for the motivation!!!
Woohoo!!
That was a great teaching of how chickens can get food and make excellent soil to boot, Blessings to y'all.
Hey Ben. I’m surprised you don’t have your boys doing this. That would be a great project for them.
💚 Hurray for woodchips and chickens making compost gold! 💚
Hello beautiful people!
Well said and done...young man.
Your chickens never get bored and start pecking on each other. You keep them busy.
Thank you! This was the best explanation of making compost I’ve watched. And I’ve watched a lot. You answered all of my questions!
Great video Ben. Y’all are so resourceful!! Inspiring family! God bless!
Just curious if you ever got power back out to the farmhouse? Still hoping for the studio for Meg 😊💖
I'm getting excited that it's almost the season for leaves! Didn't collect any last yr because I was busy moving out of my house so I'm really itching to rebuild my pile!
Would you consider doing a new farm and animal tour for the newer views like myself?Everything has changed so much since the last one!! Great content
One man and his compost - lovely to see
this grandma learns something BIG every time I watch your videos!!! Tell Buggy we wish her a very big blessed birthday!!! She is so beautiful, just like mommy and daddy!
Hey Ben. Add gypsum to the surface of the ground before you compost,, it will help break down the clay, and make it easier to change into soil with the addition of the compost your making
Keep up the great work guys your awesome
Awesome video of show/tell,and it all makes sense and ty for sharing this imformation 👍 😊...
Great video today about composting. I learned so much! Thank you.
You learned so much, are you trying to do one?
@@collinssouth3761 not this summer but next. I’m trying to learn all I can this year.
That is mind blowing 🤯!!! Hats off to you for sharing this knowledge👌
This is a whole lot of work to me. Do you do it part time or what?
@@collinssouth3761 😆
Love those chickens. They are happy and having a good time making compost. ♡
Sooooooooo interesting and you guys are great teachers! Love your more frequent videos!
Excellent video! Compost is one of my love languages too. Thank you for showing just a little bit different way to do things by keeping chickens in a static coop rather than moving them regularly.
Y’all have a great system! Never really thought of the process of composting but it is interesting. Work smarter not harder, the chickens do the work! Amazing!
Something to maybe one day consider. You now have enough wood chips to start this, if you ever wish. Where before I hesitated, even as I said he's making too much work for himself there, because browns are very important, and always in short supply. Line the inside bottom edge of the chicken coop/yard with something solid, more resistant to composting than wood and, about 3 ft high. Even thick, aging, slightly worn out weed fabric would work for a bit.
Dump the chips in on one half the yard. Add weeds, stalks, trimmings and such as they are available. Every so many months, or when you have a bunch more chips/browns, shift everything to one half, and fill in the other half with fresh. From then on it's just haul out half a side and refill every so often. It's a way nicer faster product, if things are chipped, chopped or shredded before it goes in. however having run small trees, branches attached and all, through this concept everything eventually turns into crumbles.
If using over a bed where you won't plant for a bit, or somewhat established trees, can simply haul it straight there, or in beds with corn/melons/squashes/etc., they can handle the half raw compost as side dressing. Adds warmth for them in spring, if planting a bit early. Also works for raised beds, the bottom first half of a bed can be half raw compost.
Good starters for new raised beds are onions. They sit nestled on the surface of the bed, yet the roots can go down and get that rocket fuel. Usually comfortable fall weather coincides with when you'd feel like building a new bed, and time to plant out baby onion seedlings.
My entire coop floor was run this way. They jumped up on a table like thing where the egg boxes were, or climbed up to roost over another section. I dug out a roost size rectangle about 3 ft deep, under that section. In the pit, under some tightly spaced grates (old fridge/upright freezer shelves I think?), I put in half the population of a rubbermaid worm bin. Then covered with mostly rotted compost.
You couldn't see this pit in the daily operation, but it protected a massive population of worms to work the chicken roost section, fast. Chickens were productive for at least nine years each, with only two yearly short breaks, after about three years old. They did get let out a few hours before dusk, or early morning before feeding, most days, but there were a number of years at the end, before leaving that place, where letting them out wasn't safe. (First a pack of dogs, then a wildcat.) Everything they got for egg fuel was in that coop.
Good stuff right here. I do direct fertilization in my flower beds. Plastic coffee can, put holes in the bottom, bury in soil, put in kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps, put on the lid, check once in a while to refill. It doesn't smell, because any opening is under the dirt.
Compost is magic! Turning trash into a valuable resource!
The only thing I do different in compost piles is that I save some good rich completed compost soil around, and whenever I add anything new to a compost pile I shake a layer of completed compost on top of it and water it in. The reason I do that is that completed compost already has the ideal assortment of microorganisms to break down the new stuff most quickly. If you did one stack with and one without you'd be amazed. Just adding some completed compost on top lessens the time to full compost by more than half. It gives it the best chance. You'll get high temps in a pile you would have thought too new to heat up like that.
Wonderful video; thank you Ben. You are so knowledgeable and I can see your compassion! Have a lively weekend!!!
Your composting work is great. You need to make a how to video for newcomers and put it in your store so they can order it and have it in their home reference library. You guys rock.!!!
Dont forget you can use your grass clippings. Whatever the cow doesnt eat. Thats the base of my compost & its black gold! I ❤️ compost too lol. Nice vid!!
Your doing a fantastic job composting ✌️💙🙏
For the love of compost; black gold. 🥰👍
Thanks for sharing~I miss my worm bins(red wigglers)~ the video was really relaxing time for sleep me nite nite 👍🤗❤✌
good for the soul, and good for the soil, too!
I love your videos and admire the way you are learning to be self sufficient! What a great way of life and wonderful way to raise children. Plus, I learn from your experiences.
Your one smart farmer / compose the best I’ve seen yet!
Make a big gate on your chicken pen. So to save yourself some steps. You could use your tractor to pull out your compost or stir up with your bucket.
I get leaves from all over. Even picking up ones for recycling. Every time I'm out during the fall I come back with my mini van full. I lay down a tarp so it doesn't get too messy. I'd love a pickup.
Wow! That's amazing!!! I've always wanted to start a compost pile. I need it so badly for the garden. And though I've watched so many videos on it, I'm afraid I won't do it right at all and it won't compost or I'm going to catch the place on fire. lol
If it’s moist it won’t catch on fire. Just do it! Just start. If it’s dry, it’ll just take longer to break down. If it’s too wet it’ll smell stinky.
I’ve learned from others that when it starts to stink, add things like shredded paper or dry leaves (I save bags of them every fall). I keep a garden fork by my composts & use it to twist/mix things now & then. Even stinky compost (I just spread a mostly-finished pile yesterday & the bottom half was stinky) will still do great things for your gardens. Once you spread it the smell should dissipate within a day. So if it’s dry, add water; if it’s wet, add dry stuff like paper, cardboard, sawdust or dry fall leaves. I hope you give it a try!
My husband and I really enjoyed this video. Totally informative and cool as heck!!!