from what I've been able to dig up laying hen's poop is between 6:1 and 10:1

straw bales vary between 40:1 and 100:1 (most sources have 80:1)
anybody able to do the calculations based on this?

I don't know exactly how you would figure that. I think the optimum N:C ratio is 1:30. But if you are trying to get a ratio based on USED chicken feed to straw, I wouldn't know how to figure in the amount of chicken waste produced, or what the chicken was subtracting from the mix in the form of gained weight, maintenance and eggs.

If you are just curious, you might contact one of the agricultural colleges. SOMEONE must have wondered about that!

But for real-life, I wouldn't bother trying to fine-tune it to that degree. I clean out the chicken's pen when it looks like it needs it, and put the mixed debris in the compost pile. If it looks a little "light" on manure, I'll toss in some alfalfa meal to boost the nitrogen.

Since the feed I buy already has calcium included in it, I just save the egg shells, dry them and grind them up in a little coffee grinder and sprinkle them over the compost when I'm in the mood.

Mother Nature has a plan, but I suspect she doesn't have an exact recipe. She strikes me as one of those "whatever looks good today" kind of gals.

Sue

Yup Belgianpup, and after a year of sitting/composting it always LOOKS good, I just want to get roughly enough carbon in the mix to make sure most of the N I'm paying for is staying on the farm.

Just need an estimate for when I'm out buying feed and litter, for instance if its 1 strawbale for every 4-5 sacks of feed thats do-able, but if its more like 2 bale per bag then I'll need to start looking into sawdust and shavings or some other cheap really carbon heavy material. I might post this over in the farm forum, stay tuned.

Maybe Im underthinking this, but, If it was me, Id start by doing the basic layering technique of however many inches of one thing followed by the same # of inches of the other thing and see if that made the pile heat up.

Sounds like you might have a much larger operation going than I do, so what do I know? :)

"compost nut"??? Please, address us as "compost enthusiasts" if you don't mind. :)

As to your query, bale of straw weighs what, 50 pounds give or take? Pretty high in C. Trying to figure out how much manure based on how much you have fed them could be tough, especially if they are eating bugs, seeds etc. I would suspect that it would be nigh onto impossible to get an accurate read. If it were I, I wouldn't sweat it too much. Do you clean the pen or whatever to "harvest" the bedding/manure to put into a pile? If so, add water and experiment. If it doesn't get hot pretty quick, you needed more N. If it really stinks then you needed more C. I think this what Sue was saying upthread as well. As for balance, I would adjust C/N (if I had to) using leaves and UCGs adding an inexpensive source of varied nutrients.

In any case, if it becomes too problematic, I would be willing to take it off your hands if you want to ship it up here.

Just trying to be helpful.
:)

For those that can't recognize the "tongue in cheek" humor, I was trying to be funny 'bout the "composting enthusiast" comment.

Lloyd

ok fellow nuts!, er, enthusiasts! Here's the results of my somewhat obsessive hunt through the ether

A typical two string STRAW bale does indeed weigh ~50lbs dry
A hen makes a lot of high N poop.
The consensus ends there.

I had to start making averages of all the averages I found, but when the final tally was in it looked like a not too economical 3 bales per 50lb bag MIGHT get me in the ballpark, but even that depends on what kind of "straw" or "hay" bale. Around here the farmers let their fallow land grow up to whatever mostly volunteer grass starts to seed then bale it, it has a lot more N than "straw" bales and a lot less than "hay" bales. These "Str-ay" bales are too expensive to buy in those quantities, so I'm going to have to aquire some wood shavings to acompany them.

A hay bale per bag, and as much wood shavings as the smell indictates, is how it'll probably work out.

If you can figure out a way to get 'em, I have a couple hundred bales of wheat straw left over. I have given some away to fellow compost wingnuts in the past.

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: Under the blue tarp