what to do with manure in cold weather

[gadus]

I don't believe there's a great deal of composting action possible here in Maine during the winter months but hopefully I'm wrong about that. I will have 30 hens worth of manure over the next three months that I'm not sure what to do with. I have until last month dumped the manure directly on my raised garden beds but am now more than a little shy about that due to reading that high nitrogen can cause more flowering than fruit (veggies) which has been the case for me in my garden the last two years. I am currently putting all the manure in a big pickle barrel.

I imagine you can put too much chicken manure on a garden?

What are cold-weather folk doing with the manure during winters? I use poop boards so the manure is 100% without bedding.

The only brown matter I have available currently is leaves-which, if I hurry could be bagged and mixed in but there's no heated space and so will mixing these two in an outdoor bin (with cover) result in anything useable come April?

With 30 birds, I'm sure I'll have a barrel full before the winter's out.

thanks.

 

[Trish1974]

I don't think it will be broken down by April. I usually let my compost piles degrade for at least a full year. I continue to compost through the winter, but since it composts at a much slower rate I make a pile way out of the way of anything, and let it cook all summer long. I start my "winter" pile in November, add to it until about March, then just maintenance it (flip and add water if necessary) through summer and fall. I never put hot manure directly on my garden any time of year. I bed with straw in the winter and pine shavings in the summer, so it probably takes a little longer for my pile to breakdown than yours. Do you have room to start another barrel?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Yeah, I just add to the pile with leaves and straw and use it in the fall garden or the spring after next.

 

[cmom]

I compost my poop along with leaves, grass, coop litter (I use shaving on the coop floors because some of my coops have floors in them and it makes it easier to clean the floors), hay, vegie scraps (that I don't feed to the birds), coffee grounds, tea leaves. We do let it compost for a year before we put it on the garden beds. We started our compost for next year this summer while the grass was growing and that goes into the compost. We have a fairly large compost that my hubby turns regularly with the front end loader.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I don't get the type of extended freeze you do, but I have compost bins and cycle between them yearly, so stuff gets a year to break down. As I have more poop than I need my in laws also take buckets of it for their compost.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I shovel mine (from my droppings board) into an old feed bag and put int the trash can headed legally for the dump... YES in my opinion you can have too much poo for one property.

Some gets composted. But with chicken math (which includes too many other animals to name), there does come a point of no return! I drink my well water and get a LOT of rain in the PNW... so I'm a bit conscientious about some stuff on the land.

 

[WthrLady]

the chicken manure and paca poo with the hardwood dust and straw from the stalls goes into my compost set up. I have a 3 section set up. A hot pile, a cooking pile, and a finished pile. I stir it all once a month with the tractor.

When we had donkeys too, we had more manure than we could move on a daily basis. It went to the local village composting site. They were thrilled to get it.

Ask your neighbors and see if any of them want some chicken poo and feathers for their compost. It's gold.

I actually sell the paca poo in the warmer months. You can use it on the garden right from the animal, no composting time needed.