Composting Poultry Litter Safely: A Heap That Works in Ghana

Why raw litter needs a rest before it goes near a crop

Used litter is a mixed bag. It holds manure, spilt feed, feathers, the bedding material and whatever the birds were carrying that week. Some of that is useful. Some of it is not. The unhelpful part includes bacteria such as Salmonella, the resting stages of parasites, and weed seeds from the bedding and the feed.

Raw litter also has an ammonia problem. Fresh droppings release ammonia as they break down, and a heap rich in ammonia scorches the roots of anything planted in it. That is why a barrow of fresh litter tipped onto a tomato bed looks like a good idea and ends with dead plants.

Composting turns the mess into something you can use. Warm, moist, aerated material breaks down. The heat kills most of the pathogens and weed seeds, and the nitrogen settles into a form the plant can take up slowly. A well-run heap takes a few months and very little money. A badly run heap takes just as long and makes the whole compound smell.

What you need before you build the heap

• A flat, shaded, well-drained spot away from the water source, the houses and the flock's routes.
• Used litter, collected dry where possible, from a house you have cleaned out.
• A dry, carbon-rich material: maize stalks, rice husks, sawdust, dry grass or shredded cardboard.
• A fork or spade, a bucket or hose for wetting, and a tarpaulin or old sheet to cover the heap.
• A fence or wire mesh to keep out goats, dogs and free-range birds.

Keep the heap several metres from the house. Put it on the far side of the water tank and off any path the flock uses. A heap beside the brooder is a quick way to hand the chicks a disease they would never have met. If you are costing the whole project, our starting budget guide lists the small things, such as tarpaulins and fencing, that sit outside the main costs.

A simple recipe for a first heap

Use one barrow of wet litter to one barrow of dry, shredded maize stalk or sawdust. Mix them as you build the heap, rather than laying them in separate bands, because the heat comes from the mixing. Wet the dry material before it goes in, so it soaks up moisture rather than pulling water out of the litter. Aim for the feel of a wrung-out sponge. A handful squeezed should release a few drops, not a stream.

Build the heap at least about a cubic metre, roughly a metre wide, a metre high and a metre long. A smaller heap loses heat to the air faster than it makes it. Build in one go if you can. A heap that grows slowly over several weeks heats unevenly and goes rotten at the edges. Water each layer as you add it, and keep the top covered once the heap is built.

If your litter has been sitting in a pile and turned sour, add more dry material and turn it before it joins the new heap. A sharp ammonia smell is the first warning that the mix is too wet, too rich or too packed to let air in.

Reading the heat and turning the heap

Heat is how you know the heap is working. Push a long metal probe or a thick stick into the centre and leave it for a minute. Pull it out and feel it. If the probe is too hot to hold, the heap is cooking. A dial thermometer with a long stem is better, and it costs little.

The target is 55 degrees Celsius or more, held for about three days. That temperature, kept up through turning, is the benchmark most composting guidance uses to reduce pathogens and weed seeds. Turn the heap when the centre starts to cool, which is usually every few days early on. Move the outside material into the middle and the middle to the outside, and wet any dry patches as you go. Then let the heat build again and repeat.

A heap that never gets warm is not doing the job, even if it looks like compost after a month. Measure it. Do not guess from the look of the surface.

Running a heap through the harmattan and the rains

Ghana's two extreme seasons push a heap in opposite directions. In the harmattan, dry dusty air pulls moisture from the surface within days. A dry heap stops heating, and the microbes that do the work go quiet. Water the top and the sides, cover the heap with a tarpaulin to hold the moisture in, and check it every few days. Do not drown it either. Water should soak in, not run off the bottom.

In the rains the danger is the reverse. A heap that sits in standing water turns into soup, the air inside goes out and the smell turns sour. Build on a slight slope, put a roof or tarpaulin over the top, and leave the sides open enough to breathe. A shallow ditch on the uphill side keeps runoff from pouring into the heap and carrying the nutrients off with it.

Flies and rodents come in both seasons, but they favour the wet heap. Keep the cover on, and check the edges for rat burrows after each rain. Our biosecurity guide sets out the wider routine for keeping pests out of the houses and the heap alike.

Keep the birds out of the heap

Chickens scratch, and a scratched heap spreads whatever the birds are carrying. A flock that wanders in will pick at the feed, spread the litter and eat the grubs that thrive in warm compost. If any of the birds are sick, the heap becomes a shared home for the disease, and the flock picks it up again every morning. The fix is simple: fence the heap with wire mesh, and make it a rule that the flock does not go in.

Dogs and goats cause the same trouble in a different way. A goat will pull a tarpaulin off and eat the dried stalks, and a dog can open a loose heap in an afternoon. Keep the enclosure tight, and check it after every storm.

Keep the finished compost apart from the raw litter as well. Never let a new batch of raw litter touch a finished pile, and keep the tools clean between the two. Put a footbath or a bucket of disinfectant at the heap gate if the flock's pens are close, and follow the routine in our guide to disinfectants and footbaths. The finished product is the part you spread or sell, so it should never pick up what the raw material carries.

How to tell when it is ready

Give the heap two to three months from building before you use it on food crops. Finished compost is dark brown to black, crumbly, cool to the touch and smells of wet earth. If you can still see straw, feathers or the shape of the litter, it needs more time. If the smell is sharp or sour, the heat phase has not finished, so turn the heap and let it reheat.

Use a simple test before you rely on it. Put a handful in a closed jar with a little water, leave it a day, and smell the jar. Earthy is good. Ammonia, rot or a chemical sting is not. A tray of seedlings in a mix of compost and soil is a fair test too. If the seedlings yellow or the roots burn, mix in more soil and wait a few more weeks.

Screen the finished compost through a mesh before use. The big lumps that will not pass through can go back into the next heap as starter material, where they help the process along.

Where the finished compost earns its keep

Use compost where the effort pays back: vegetable beds, nursery trays for seedlings, potting mixes for pepper and tomatoes, and young fruit trees. For beds, spread a layer about 3 to 5 centimetres deep over the surface and work it into the top soil before planting. On a single 10 square metre bed that is roughly four to six wheelbarrows. For a potting mix, a rough mix of one part compost to three parts soil works well for most seedlings. For trees, spread the compost in a ring around the drip line, not piled against the trunk.

Compost gives the soil body as well as food. Sandy soils hold water better after compost goes in, and heavy clay cracks less when it dries. Expect the gains to build over a few seasons rather than appearing after one.

Keep a simple tally of the compost you spread and the fertiliser you no longer buy. Over a season the saving can be large enough to notice, and the record tells you where the next heap should go.

A composting checklist for the first season

1. Heap site chosen away from the water source, the houses and the flock.
2. Dry carbon material gathered before the heap is built.
3. Wet and dry material mixed in one go, about one to one by volume.
4. Heap at least a cubic metre, covered, with a fence round it.
5. Centre temperature checked daily during the heat phase.
6. Heap turned when the centre cools, with moisture checked at each turn.
7. Finished compost smelled and tested on seedlings before use.
8. Build dates, turns and temperatures recorded in the farm notebook.

Where composting fits the whole farm

Composting is the last step in a clean litter system, and the earlier steps decide how easy it is. Dry, well-managed litter from the house makes a better heap, and our broiler litter management guide shows how to keep it that way. That is why so much of our advice on the house goes into bedding and ventilation, and our deep litter guide is the place to start if you run the house on litter. If you are setting up a farm now, plan the heap into the site layout, as our site selection article describes.

When the chicks come next, the number to use is +233 24 915 1503 on WhatsApp. Give us the batch you want and we will send the figures back. The order form on the homepage takes it from there, and the day-old chicks page covers what each breed needs.

If you plan to use the compost on the same crops as manure, our piece on using and selling poultry manure compares the forms and their uses, so you can choose the right product for each bed.

Questions farmers ask