On a homestead, nothing goes to waste if you can help it. One of our favorite ways to close the loop is by turning used duck coop straw, kitchen scraps, and even rabbit droppings into rich, usable compost. It’s not just practical—it’s part of building a self-sustaining cycle that supports our garden and reduces waste.
🐓 Why Used Straw Is Compost Gold
After cleaning out our duck coop, we’re left with a lot of used straw—soiled, but full of potential. It’s already mixed with nitrogen-rich manure, which jumpstarts the composting process. Rather than toss it, we layer it into our compost pile or use it as a sheet mulch in garden beds.
Tip: The straw breaks down faster when chopped up a bit or mixed with other greens like grass clippings.
🐇 Bonus Fertilizer: Nutmeg’s Contribution
Since welcoming Nutmeg, our Rex rabbit, to the homestead, we’ve added another powerful tool to our compost system—bunny poop. Rabbit manure is a gardener’s dream:
- It’s cold manure, which means it can be used directly on plants without composting first.
- It’s rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—perfect for boosting soil health.
- It’s dry and pelletized, making it easy to handle and mix into soil or compost piles.
We collect Nutmeg’s droppings and either sprinkle them around our plants or add them to the compost for an extra nutrient kick.
Homestead hack: Line your rabbit’s area with straw or hay that can go straight to the compost pile when cleaning up—double the value!
🥕 What Scraps We Add from the Kitchen
We keep a dedicated compost bucket in the kitchen. It collects:
- Fruit & veggie peels
- Coffee grounds & eggshells
- Leftover greens and ends
- Stale bread (in moderation)
We avoid meat, dairy, and anything oily—they tend to attract pests and take too long to break down.
🌿 How We Build the Pile
Here’s our basic method:
- Base layer: Coarse straw or sticks for airflow
- Greens: Kitchen scraps, fresh weeds
- Browns: Used straw, leaves, cardboard
- Repeat: Keep layering and turn occasionally
We try to maintain a good balance of greens (nitrogen) and browns (carbon) to keep things hot and breaking down quickly.
🐛 What to Watch For
If the pile gets too wet or smelly, we add more browns. If it’s dry and slow to break down, we sprinkle some water and mix in more greens. Ducks do a great job of “pre-charging” the straw with nutrients, and now Nutmeg’s contributions are adding even more value.
🌱 How We Can Use It
Finished compost goes:
- Into garden beds before planting
- Around plants as a mulch
- Mixed into transplant holes for an early boost
- Rabbit pellets even get added directly around heavy feeders like squash and corn
It’s satisfying to know our flock—and now our bunny—help feed the garden that, in turn, helps feed our family.
Whether you’re running a full homestead or just keeping a few backyard animals, reusing coop bedding, rabbit manure, and kitchen scraps is one of the easiest, most impactful habits you can build. It’s simple, it’s sustainable, and it’s downright satisfying.
Thanks for reading
~G’s Homestead