Help! Deep litter chicken manure compost pile smells like ammonia

I've been using the DLM to compost my chicken poo for a couple years now, and until a week ago was passively just letting it sit for a year or more and turn into dust.

Last week I decided to do an experiment: what happens if I clean out my coop and set up the litter like a regular compost pile; ie, wet it down and turn it every few days? Would it compost faster?

Today I went to turn it and the smell of ammonia was unbearable; I could barely breathe as I was turning it, and thought, "this can't be good......"

So... anyone have experience with this? And if so, is it par for the course, or do I need to do something to fix what is a serious problem?

Thanks in advance.

That's what happened when I did the same thing last year.  My deep litter was bone dry so I watered it down very well when I piled it up.  It was very stinky for a few weeks, then it settled down.  I couldn't tell you the ratio of chicken turds to wood shavings so I'm not sure if I was anywhere near ideal.  

This year I just took the bedding and shoveled it around plants in my food forest.  I'm expecting the nutrients to filter to the roots whenever it rains.  I hope...

Possibly you need more browns and or more frequent turning? We use leaves and woodchips as duck bedding that gets wet in their outdoor run. I can't begin to describe how many browns go in. I've been shovelling out many wheelbarrows of beautiful rich dark compost with hundreds of worms this spring. Just my thoughts from my wet composting bedding experience. Chicken droppings are far hotter than waterfowl too.

Ok good, that’s reassuring. Were you able to use the compost after the smell calmed down?

Thanks for responding!

Mike Haasl wrote:That's what happened when I did the same thing last year.  My deep litter was bone dry so I watered it down very well when I piled it up.  It was very stinky for a few weeks, then it settled down.  I couldn't tell you the ratio of chicken turds to wood shavings so I'm not sure if I was anywhere near ideal.  

This year I just took the bedding and shoveled it around plants in my food forest.  I'm expecting the nutrients to filter to the roots whenever it rains.  I hope...

Yup, ammonia smell means you need more carbon in the pile... The brown stuff, wood chips, sawdust, small branches... Good luck!

I did consider that, and think it’s probably likely - there’s a year’s worth of poo in there and only maybe 15 cubic feet of pin shavings...

Thanks for responding!

Noel Young wrote:Possibly you need more browns and or more frequent turning? We use leaves and woodchips as duck bedding that gets wet in their outdoor run. I can't begin to describe how many browns go in. I've been shovelling out many wheelbarrows of beautiful rich dark compost with hundreds of worms this spring. Just my thoughts from my wet composting bedding experience. Chicken droppings are far hotter than waterfowl too.

Great, thank you!

Rene Nijstad wrote:Yup, ammonia smell means you need more carbon in the pile... The brown stuff, wood chips, sawdust, small branches... Good luck!

Shawn Madden wrote:Ok good, that’s reassuring. Were you able to use the compost after the smell calmed down?

 Eventually...  I put it in the compost bin likely in July.  By September it was not hot anymore and I put it on the garden but I could still see the wood shavings in it.  So it wasn't finished composting.  I also didn't turn it much (if at all).  

So if you turn in some browns (easy to break down ones like shredded dry leaves, shredded paper/newspaper or chopped straw) it should help compost better.  And if you turn it more or let it cook longer, you'll eventually get something great.

If you can get some biochar in there it will stop the ammonification process almost instantly.

As long as the deep litter stays dry its mixture isn't critical.  If you don't want to add enough carbon to get rid of the odor, keeping it spread enough out enough to the air will mostly keep it from making as much odor as it is anaerobic decay make the ammonia.