G'day Everyone, just a quick note about Plastic Forests (who make the material for my compost ring) their website is plasticforests.com.au/ (not sponsored) I just like the recycling concept and their growing list of products. I (like many others and probably you too) think reusing/recycling soft plastics (such as plastic bags) is one way to help clean up the waste and pollution on our planet caused by discarded plastics. Cheers :)

Mark, as a fellow Australian I just want to say thank you. For being such a bloody top bloke, a role model for us all looking to improve our lives and gardens. Cheers

Chickens are one of the most underrated garden helpers ever. As long as you keep them away from small plants and seedlings.

I like the comments on this channel, people exchange ideas in a civil manner.

I wonder if I can do something similar in Croatia... the soil is very different, but chickens are chickens and kitchen scraps are kitchen scraps... hmm

A friend of mine did a similar thing and planted their fruit trees in the spot of the ring. Every time they wanted to plant another tree they would move the ring and the chickens prepared the ground for them. A great idea!

I wish I found this channel a lot sooner. Before the covid thing, my priorities are to find a house in a sub-urban subdivision for my family and continue with my life as an employee to buy things and pay my mortgage until I'm 70. Now I got my mortgaged house but when I came across this channel during quarantine, I realized how important and fulfilling it is to be a farmer just what my father and I used to be. Back then we had vegetables and chooks, we eat healthy. Now my own family is stuck in a corporation-supplied consumerism. All are bought, the only thing reminding me of self-sufficiency is my 4 sqm garden in front of my house. But I know it's not too late. I am now pursuing to buy even a 1 acre property to start my long forgotten passion. Thank you Mark, from the bottom of my heart!

Here in California USA a new law was passed for home owners to compost! Love it!

Request: On your second channel, put a 1 hour video of compost ring chicken action. Footage that you're not present for.

Love the chicken hanging around at the back, probably thinking hurry up, I want a good feed

A great way to use the chickens to compost Mark. That soil is going to be awesome as time goes on. Great video

good morning brother. for the first time ever I put up raised beds this week - 12 total raised beds. I used your method from your other video - wood stumps, branches etc, layers of dirt and old turf before finally topping off with 400mm of lovely manure soil. I learn a great deal here about providing organic foods for my family. cheers mate.

This makes me want chickens. Look how helpful they are.

Mark is the type of guy you want as your neighbour

Mark, you have no idea how comforting your videos are. I wish you the best in all of your experiments and life!

You often make the comment "I know what you're thinking," but I don't believe you do know what I am thinking. When watching your videos I most often think about you standing upside down on Earth. Yeah, I know about gravity and such, but I still think about the people living far south of the equator that are, in my book, really upside down. A ridiculous thought that has stayed with me since childhood...and I am 73 years old. Oh, your videos are excellent, and you are always so positive...and oddly calm, like when a large venomous snake visited the chicken coop.

"I'm actually really 'digging' it," he says. 😆😀

When you get some grass clippings put some in there. The chickens will love it and it will heat and create more moisture in there. The eggs you get from those chickens will be awesome!

Will you plant a fruit tree there when the ring is filled with that beautiful compost? It would be a very tempting ready made planting situation...and you could do that on repeat 😊 Great idea by the way 👍🏻

It’s rare to see animals living their best life while helping humans at the same time. Love this idea!!

I wasn't trying to make life hard for you, but as an environmental teacher I would like to show my interest to my children and students. I love your videos and am an avid follower! Keep it coming!

We do this same thing here in Florida, but we do not shy away from putting meat in there. It is the first thing that goes when he chicks dig in. They love it. I wish we could get that plastic stuff that you are using though, it looks great for a variety of things on the homestead! Thanks Mark, we love watching your videos.

Newbie gardener here. Learning so much!

We use big truck tires. We cut around the ring on both ends and turn it inside out. They are sturdy and tall enough for the chickens to keep the stuff they turn in. It's about the same size as yours. I know, it has chemicals and what not, but they are free here and the compost the chickens make goes to a cliff we have on the side of the house where we grow deep rooting grass in order to help stop soil erosion (landslides are a thing here). For our garden compost we use a different area. We use our goat, chickens (a different set) and the compost bin. Our goat eats some of the organic hay, but some always falls on the floor. We let that hay get pretty gnarly under the goat (for about a month) and then move it to the chicken area. Before moving it to the chicken area, we spread crushed corn and other grains on the chicken area and add the gnarly hay on top, we leave it there for a good month and a half or so. They have to scratch the hay to find the feed. They poop on the hay and it breaks down even more. Then it's moved to the compost bin, along with the goat poop pellets we collected, where it "cooks" for 3 months or so. We get a good 10 gallons of compost for the garden every 6 months.

Thank you for your service...both as a soldier and as an environmentalist...land and country!

I love how the chickens were just hanging out waiting for you to put those scraps in.. lol

that worm is so metal! living right in the feeding ring of chickens.

That ring is a great idea, Mark! It keeps the chickens from scattering it everywhere. Looks like you may be transforming your dead dirt too. Thanks for another great idea! 💜

Hey Mark - tried this with an old colorbond raised bed inside chicken run - it worked ok but went gangbusters after I put old tarp over it for a few days out of each week - earthworms galore appeared - chickens got the ones near top but couldn’t get to lower ones - after about 8 weeks it was a great addition to compost heap (started with weeds, tree pruning, scraps and some wood chips). Love your willingness to experiment !

Mark: I know what you’re thinking. Why you sweating so much. It’s a hot day and I’m looking to the sun! Me: mark, I’ve always come to you for wholesome content now please move to literally anywhere else but that tiny sun spot and keep making these awesome videos.

I have a similar size box in the chicken pen shade/greenhouse I do pile it up every couple of days adding presoaked corn and sunflower seeds in layers they love it and tear through it in a couple of hours, also in there main run I have another uncontrolled compost pile for large amounts of weeds, leaves and citrus fruits and anything else they don’t really like eating directly once the citrus fruits have finished for the season I will then start to turn it and pile it once a week so they can get to the grubs and bugs, compost will be ready by spring and I’ve cut my feed bill by half. Great video ❤

When I was younger we would dump the scraps right on the ground in the chicken pen, then a couple times a week I would rake them all into a pile. Granted my chicken pen was much bigger than yours. If you keen the compost a little moist it attracts bugs for the chickens to snack on.

If I ever get to own a garden, keeping chickens would be one of the first priorities.

We are basically doing this but in our chicken run. We live on a 10th acre. we turned our carport into chicken run. I think I will have to add this idea of containing to one spot though. we actually spend very little on food but I really wanted it to build up faster but the whole run is now 5 inches or so in places. We are also going to be doing bean sprout fodder and maggot feed by the end of summer.

So happy to see this! I didn't make a ring, but have handled my kitchen scraps the same way for 5 years now. My husband thought I was wasting my time because I didn't "cook" it and turn, etc. All my garden weeds and spent plants go there too. We had to move the pile last year to a different spot that had more sunlight.... oh my! Veggie volunteers of every description. I guess I would need to cook it to kill off the weed seeds to add to our garden beds, but even if it just enriches the area where it is, it's far better than organic produce going to a landfill!

I have basically been doing the same thing for about a year now. I was tired of just dumping kitchen scraps on the ground for my chickens because it looked ugly and anything they didn't eat was left there drying instead of composting. So I made a box inside my chicken pen and that's where I dump the leftovers now. I haven't dug in yet to see what it looks like, but I imagine it's composting nicely.

I'll likely never get chickens for my yard, yet here I am.

I'm a huge fan of composting but we also use it for heating

Mark your so funny. “When you said your in the sun on a hot day”. The video looks like your in the only non shaded area.

I really want to know why people click unlike button, as this guy is so fantastic. Are they scared to show their faces or at least say why they don't like it.

I live in an area with black bears and I haven't had a single one ever get in my compost bin. But I have had a wild pig and lots of turtles get into it through.

Hey Mark from Tennessee, USA. Perfect timing! I love this concept! My teens & I just finished rebuilding our garden fence yesterday to keep the chickens out of it & the compost. We felt guilty because they really enjoy the compost & they work it for me. We're going to tweak your ring with old boards...square...rectangle shapes. I stopped breathing when I heard you say rice then meats, but I know my flock will eat it which will save on the feed bill. Thanks for this great idea!

Chickens and turkeys are the best turners I’ve ever found, Mark was the guy who got us into in composting originally.

sir as an american i love learning from you ONE cause youre a bit hippy dippy like myself and two its awesome to hear about the other struggles you have compared to my own yard

Found your channel some time ago, I love revisiting some of the older videos, now that I've bought an acre property to farm self sufficiently. I found a large metal ring laying around the backyard yesterday. It now has a purpose. LOL Chickens are high on the list, once we get fencing and containment sorted for them.

He's a big composting thumbs up for ya Mark. Thanks for the video.

Really cool compost ring! Idea> maybe a water drinking point on the edge of the ring pointing in. So the birds naturally go into the ring, have a drink, snack, scratch and poop. So you don't have to shovel it?

Loving this videos!!! You showed life style of small towns and villages in western Ukraine where I grew up before moving to USA …. 30 years later and I have nostalgia for a first time in my lifetime… You remind me my late father (electrical engineer) and fishermen by hobby , gardener by nature…

Love the idea that this is also enrichment for the chickens - gives them something else to do! This is a cool idea. Thanks!

Excellent audio of chickens and ducks. My cat spent the second half of the video on his hind legs, batting at the screen every time Mark moved.

Who the hell gives a thumbs down to a composting segment. Wackos. Mark, another 3 months until the heat comes to south Florida. Planting and harvesting now. Keep up the great content!

So great!! I got to use my 1st made at home compost in my new veg bed. Only us gardeners can u stand how happy I am! Thanks Mark you're the best!!!

I still remember your fish-head tomato plant experiment. Love your channel.

😅At first when i read the title i thought "wow what are those crazy cartels up to these days?!" (thinking it was some illegal underground chicken-meat compost-making ring) But then i saw the thumbnail and realized it wasn't so bad, i am just imaginative...i am glad people are normal. i had a good laugh at that.

the material is like day and night compared to what is outside the ring :)

For all those wondering if it works in other places around the globe, I’m doing it in France and it works perfectly

Hope you are enjoying your summer. Its winter in my area. The only gardening I do now is in low tunnels and high tunnels.

I use this concept in my gardens in Alaska, works great.

We have a hybrid between this and a 3 bay system, the chickens have access to bay 1 with the fresh scraps, then I turn it into the other bays when I fill it up, it works so well for us as we only have 4 chickens so they scratch it up but not enough but it stops the large amounts of grass clippings from matting up and is working really well for us

My chooks get meat and seafood put in the compost too. They LOVE shrimp tails. They will even eat chicken. It's all protein to them, they don't care. Same as slurping up a broken egg. Grains, greens, protein. I'm amazed at how alike our soils are. We have loamy, sandy soil here in the rolling piney woods of SW AR. It's hot and humid here too. We cook alive in summer. Temps in 90 - 100 plus and doesn't cool much at night. I make my own nutrient rich soil using the same methods you do. I love it.

thanks for update. love the creative ways you use scraps to make soil. work with the earth.

Great Mark,I’ve been waiting for a follow up with that ring 👍🤣

Absolutely beautiful. Mate, please keep on keeping on

From an Irishman in Georgia, USA, thanks for the awesome videos Mark. I'm about to get into chickens and growing my own. Researching the bejaysus outta everything. Are you still a fan of your invention, no waste feed bucket from years ago?

Love your videos. I live in Canada so we obviously can't grow all year round outdoors so I'm just waiting for spring to be able to use all the info I've gotten from you. I could listen to your voice all day just talking about your garden. Keep up the good work :)

Commiserating in Florida, where it's the middle of winter and 82*! Nice job on the bin 👍

Shared in NC. While I'm wear my "self sufficient tee".

Lovely Cumpust :) Not been online much through the cold. Happy to hear your reassuring and encouraging voice again.

You probably know: you mentioned tea bags; best to avoid teabag strings and small staples which can cause problems in their digestion. Really enjoy your info! Keep up the great work💜✝️🛐

I love it that the little cute wild birds understand what I’m doing in the garden. When I plant or sow stuff they watch me do it, to then check the area out when I’m gone, and they poop only in that area. It is like they understand that the plants give them food as well, since it attracts insects. This way I dont have to fertilize as much since the top gets covered with poop. These birds eat seeds and insects only, so quite nutritious poop as well

Awesome video. Thanks

I woke up delighted about a new video from SSM!!!! Thank you !!!!!

G'day Mark, so happy to see an update. Great job!

Oh good a new video! I was beginning to fear that the kangaroos might have carried you off Mark! Good to see that you're still vertical and breathing. It looks like you made a productive composting pile, especially given that it was so broken down after such a short period of time. I can "dig" that.

Mark that the best environmental video I have witnessed ever. I would really like to know if you are amenable to an experiment? If so, turn over the compost at the maximum depth of the curtain each time you add scraps. Then after 4 weeks, before you add more scraps, take a 1liter sample after a soil turnover. Take this sample and saturate it in water for 48hrs and then heat a portion (strained) of it for 30min at 94C. Allow it to cool to 24C and then take a pH reading. This will give you a soil pH needed for what you are growing. Love the videos! From Texas!

Mark I have finally figured out who you remind me of.......good old Aussie Icon Peter Russell Clark!!! Thanks for the video mate!!

I feed my chickens kitchen scraps but it never occurred to me to put them in a confined area so I could easily gather the compost. Definitely trying this! It looks like the sides are too high for ducks, but ducks are great in the garden too. They love cleaning up bugs and last years leftovers!

I was waiting on this! Thanks for sharing Mark! Never let inputs leave your property if you don't have to! ;)

Love the content Mark. I do not have the space to tackle the project you do but I really enjoy watching you self-sufficient projects.

This is brilliant!! Not only will it make great compost but it will entertain the chickens. We love to have our chickens (12) roam around the yard all day, eating what looks good to them and having a good time. They usually made three trips around our property in a day, saying "hi" as they passed by. But since we live within a large wooded area (200 acres) our chickens were one by one falling prey to coyotes etc. So we had to fence them in. Although we made it as big as we could, it still is somewhat boring. (I'm considering a swing and/or vegetable tether ball!) This ring would be great in so many ways! Thanks, Mark! Love your videos. Greetings from southern Ohio.

Love it!! Your videos are helping me gather ideas to take back to my home country, Cuba. There is so much food insecurity and lack of access to information, amongst all the systemic issues with the government. When I go back, I plan on helping them learn to be a little more self sustainable.

Thank you! I've been doing this in a half of a five gallon bucket, but omitted stuff chickens won't eat. Now I will just do all my scraps!

Could be a good way of starting a small raised garden bed if you had the time to wait.

Hi from Maryland USA... I totally geek out on all things compost!!! Chickens are going to love me even more now 🌱

I have similar rings from old used conveyor belt tossed away by a company I worked for back in the early 90s. turns kitchen scraps and waste food into eggs and earth, its a wonderful thing

Hi Mark. Mick from south East Victoria, love your videos mate. I have a very healthy vegie garden thanks to you and your compost tumbler review inspired me to spend a little bit of extra coin and I purchased a Swedish made joraform compost tumbler-highly reccomend. quick tip: im currently 33 when I was 5 years old I lost 2 fingers (my pointer and the tip of my middle finger) to the sharp edge of a peice of corrigated iron like the edge running down the posts in your "chillies in raised garden bed" vidio. if you have children in the garden I recommend covering these edges. I would love it if you could make a vidio to raise awareness of Such a dangerous yet often unthought-of or un noticed thing. A slip or trip and running there hands down it can have severe consequences, Speaking from experience, If your vidio could prevent this from happening to someone else's children or even themselves I would be a happy man. Loosing fingers really is a life changer. Cheers.

I recently came upon a large supply of pigeon manure - free from a large-scale homing pigeon business - and decided to compost it rather than just spreading it and composting the green manure grown on it. Like most small farms, such a job can get put off in favor of other pressing issues. When I finally got around to creating my compost bins I discovered a lot of manure was missing -- crows had feasted on it because it had a high percentage of undigested corn!

That is amazing use of scraps, dry soil, twigs, leafs , and duck and chicken poop mate. Kudos! Continue on farming.👊👍

Thx Mark...I like gardening ...its relaxing and watching your vids over current events is helping to keep me sane LOL... so thanks again and cheers from "Up Over"

Good to see I'm not the only one. I used an unused square raised garden bed frame and its about the same height and it keeps it all in there just like yours. Makes a really nice dirt.

Have you thought of mowing over with a catcher. I did that in Canberra with oak leaves. It cut them and they composted well

heii, I'm subscribed but i haven't seen a video in months, good I just remembered and manually searched the channel

I appreciate when a grown man isn't afraid to use the word "yucky." 😁👍

Fantastic Mark you have convinced me l will be setting this up in my chicken run its a win win situation lovely compost and gives my girls something to do.....thankyou again🙏

Great job Mark. The kitchen comes full circle.

You are the Bob Ross of farming.

... hello Mark ... I love your videos! ... I'm thinking this compost ring would be a great addition to the garden for smaller raised beds... when it"s ready to plant just add another ring for the chickens to shuffle and eat through ... besides eating food scraps the chickens can clean out any unwanted bugs from the garden as well ... !

I do use my original compost frame to feed the kitchen waste to the chickens, but to actually make compost I had to come up w/ a new system. In the Spring I put down about 4" of wood chips in the Chicken Run. The chickens dig through it all year and mix it w/ the soil. In the Fall, I layer the half composted material w/ grass clippings and a few dozen Halloween Pumpkins making excellent compost by the following Spring.

There's a red chicken standing in the background going, "when is this guy gonna be done?" Chickens are chickens everywhere

I love that idea. I find plastic swimming pools that people throw away and I was planting in them, but I like your idea about using it as a chicken compost better