Fresh poultry manure and vegetable gardening.

[columbiacritter]

I have my garden divided into 2 sections.
The biggest section is where I have nothing planted durign the winter. From the day I take out the last edible in the fall until about the end of january all the coop cleanings, poop and whatnot go straight into this area un composted. With all the rain and snow we have all winter it's not "HOT" by spring. After january I put everything onto a compost pile until fall again.

The other garden is where I have artichokes, garlic, and other winter dormant plants. This bed only gets the well composted stuff in the late fall.

 

[GardenerGal]

Quote:
My coop cleanings also go right on the garden beds as topdressing, uncomposted. Works great when I lay down a thick layer of it, then it snows and covers it up for weeks. When the snow melts and the water gradually percs into the soil, it carries the nutrients down with it. When the soil warms in the spring, the earthworms and microbes chomp up the straw, shavings and whatnot, and by late April it's all rich brown garden soil. Even without a snow cover, it decomposes and works down into the soil quickly and doesn't burn.

 

[danbaum]

In all this talk about letting chicken manure compost for a few months, I'm wondering if people have several piles going. Like, one for each season. Otherwise, if you're throwing your manure on the same pile all the time, how do you know what part of the pile is old and usable in the garden, and what is too fresh?

 

[CARS]

Yes. A few piles every year. One fresh, one from the previous year, and one ready to use.

 

[jdog]

Great stuff here. Thank you.


I am wondering about letting the poo dry, then blending it with the soil. Drying it will allow the poo to be more evenly distributed. I am in the process of doing this now as I have a VERY small garden and am using the space for composting to grow corn. So, my dilemma was what to do with the chicken poo? I am putting it into planting trays and placing it on the my roof (in San Jose, CA) to dry. I was then going to pulverize (and powderize) it to be spread on top of the soil in a very fine layer. I will try three different locations: one on the garden, one on the lawn and one in the strip along the drive I like to call my orchard. I will start with small amounts but would love to hear from anyone else who has tried, successfully or not, to dry and apply chicken poo.

Thank you

!

 

[peterlund]

I second the compost tea method. I use 3 month old droppings and let them stew in water for a day... I dilute it as if it is a concentrate, and give a drink to all my veggies. In the diluted form I have never had a "burn" issue. Good luck in your solution. I think the drying out method would be great but I have yet to try it, but it is now on my list!

 

[woodmort]

I once used manure directly from the brooder and planted broccoli and cauliflower in it--got heads as big as dinner plates. However, I try to clean my coop in the fall and again in late winter, dump it in the garden and let Mom Nature leach it out before rototilling it in. If I have to take care of manure, which is always well mixed with pine shavings, during the summer I compost it until the next year. Either way it is a good enough fertilizer that I never use anything else on my 80 X 100 foot garden.

BTW, I have a cousin who is an organic farmer and he uses nothing but manure from commercial turkey farms.

 

[Siler]

I remember growing up my mom would use the tea method. Her mother taught her how to do it when she was growing up on a working farm. They would take the animal manure and put it in large troughs and add water. The manure would break down and then it could be used to water the plants. That was what my mom called "early Miracle Grow". Don't forget to put a screen cover on it or birds or other animals will get curious and get trapped in the muck. She does say they put it in a burlap bag as well and dunked it in the water. Isn't that just appetizing? It sure worked tho.

I've worked in the pet business dealing with aquariums for many years and in the same way I would explain to someone about setting up a new aquarium I would explain the tea method. When you first get an aquarium and fill it with water and add fish you first have to "cycle" the aquarium before you can put in a bunch of expensive fish. The fish will give off waste and the ammonia will spike. Natural bacteria must be present to break down the waste and in manure it's already there. With an aquarium you buy the bacteria then add the fish the same day. The bacteria breaks down the ammonia and turns it into NITRITE then to NITRATE. So it goes from Ammonia>Nitrite>Nitrate then it's good to go. Ammonia burns so by the time it's nitrate then it's fertilizer....makes the green stuff grow. When you know the aquarium cycle then it makes you think twice the next time you buy hot dogs or bacon where they actually add Nitrites and Nitrates to preserve the meat.

You would only want to use manure that doesn't have parasites or other illness present nor would you want to use anything where there's medication present. The tea breaks down a lot faster than a dry compost pile. I also use the manure from the coop in the fall and add it to the garden where it sits all winter. In the spring we till it up and plant.

You would need several buckets going from the newest to the oldest. Put dates on them or something and make sure they're downwind from your home.

 

[woodmort]

I've worked in the pet business dealing with aquariums for many years and in the same way I would explain to someone about setting up a new aquarium I would explain the tea method. When you first get an aquarium and fill it with water and add fish you first have to "cycle" the aquarium before you can put in a bunch of expensive fish. The fish will give off waste and the ammonia will spike. Natural bacteria must be present to break down the waste and in manure it's already there. With an aquarium you buy the bacteria then add the fish the same day. The bacteria breaks down the ammonia and turns it into NITRITE then to NITRATE. So it goes from Ammonia>Nitrite>Nitrate then it's good to go. Ammonia burns so by the time it's nitrate then it's fertilizer....makes the green stuff grow.

I wrote that book.

 

[Finn's Mom]

Since we are talking about chicken poop and gardens, I am in the process of laying out a fence -- 500 sq ft for garden and about the same for my chickens. I was looking at the area this morning and realize that the chicken area is slightly above grade to my garden area. Will the runoff affect the garden negatively? I'm not talking about a river, but water will drain in that direction, generally. I was planning on raised beds, and it won't be a huge amount of chickens in that run area (I have about 9 and I say about because you know how that goes

), but still the thought occurred to me. Thanks for your thoughts on this subject!