Walnut shell bedding revisited:compost question
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2020 1:45 am
You guys must be tired of hearing me rave about walnut shell bedding. I am on year six and happier than ever.
The two Main advantages are: 1. my coop never smells and 2. (related) it stays dry as a bone. For years! After four years, I decided I should change out the bedding “just because”, and to check if anything weird was happening on the bottom or something, but no. It was totally dry and odourless all the way.
Some of you were wary about using it in compost, given that nothing grows within several metres of a black walnut tree. Someone (@baronrenfrew ) pointed out that only black walnut has the herbicidal chemical. But since I don’t know what kind of walnut shells they grind up to make this, I put it in my compost and used it on my Vegs to find out - with fine results.
HOWEVER, this Compost was with the small amounts of walnut shell that went into the compost clinging to . It disappeared into the lovely mixed (kitchen scraps and chicken mostly) compost, not a large amount. The time I cleaned out the whole coop to replace the bedding, I put everything in a barrel and left it two years. So I go to use it this year, and find the whole barrel is exactly as it was two years ago, that is, bone dry. It did not decompose. I ended up sifting it, so I have a barrel of ground walnut shell, and another barrel of desiccated chicken and duck manure. I will be using the manure as fertilizer. I will experiment with using the walnut shell to loosen up my hard clay soil. I will see if it works as a pathway medium so I can save on mulch. I would not put a large quantity into compost, and I am afraid to put too much of it in the veg garden in case it sucks up all the moisture!
Meanwhile, I had bought three more bags with the intent to change the bedding again, but what I ended up doing was sifting all the manure out and putting the used walnut shell back in after scrubbing down the coop. Its still dry and odourless.
For those new to the group, Princess Auto sells 50 lb bags of ground walnut shell for blasting applications. People use it to clean their guns, and I’ve read that it is good for cleaning up wet greasy spills. (They don’t specify duck ....)
The two Main advantages are: 1. my coop never smells and 2. (related) it stays dry as a bone. For years! After four years, I decided I should change out the bedding “just because”, and to check if anything weird was happening on the bottom or something, but no. It was totally dry and odourless all the way.
Some of you were wary about using it in compost, given that nothing grows within several metres of a black walnut tree. Someone (@baronrenfrew ) pointed out that only black walnut has the herbicidal chemical. But since I don’t know what kind of walnut shells they grind up to make this, I put it in my compost and used it on my Vegs to find out - with fine results.
HOWEVER, this Compost was with the small amounts of walnut shell that went into the compost clinging to . It disappeared into the lovely mixed (kitchen scraps and chicken mostly) compost, not a large amount. The time I cleaned out the whole coop to replace the bedding, I put everything in a barrel and left it two years. So I go to use it this year, and find the whole barrel is exactly as it was two years ago, that is, bone dry. It did not decompose. I ended up sifting it, so I have a barrel of ground walnut shell, and another barrel of desiccated chicken and duck manure. I will be using the manure as fertilizer. I will experiment with using the walnut shell to loosen up my hard clay soil. I will see if it works as a pathway medium so I can save on mulch. I would not put a large quantity into compost, and I am afraid to put too much of it in the veg garden in case it sucks up all the moisture!
Meanwhile, I had bought three more bags with the intent to change the bedding again, but what I ended up doing was sifting all the manure out and putting the used walnut shell back in after scrubbing down the coop. Its still dry and odourless.
For those new to the group, Princess Auto sells 50 lb bags of ground walnut shell for blasting applications. People use it to clean their guns, and I’ve read that it is good for cleaning up wet greasy spills. (They don’t specify duck ....)