Aging of chicken poop question

[Sefirothe]

I have two new raised beds I’m putting in next to my garden. One was finished being built in the fall and I filled the bottom with all the spent plants I cleared out of my garden, some wood chips, two 5 gallon buckets of chicken poop that I’d scooped from my poop boards then topped with the soil I had in potato bags once the potatoes were harvested.

This bed has sat all winter, things have settled and the soil needs topping off.

In the meantime, I’ve accumulated three more filled 5 gallon buckets of chicken poop I’ve scooped from the poop board.

Does the chicken poop get less “hot” while sitting in plastic buckets over time? Or does it need the exposure to bugs and microbes when mixed into compost?

I was wondering if I could dump these current buckets directly in the raised beds in the spring before planting strawberries in the beds?

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I've always heard that you should let it "sit" for a year before putting it on your plants, otherwise it'll burn your plants. I've also read that keeping it in a well maintained compost pile at a certain temperature will speed up the process so it can go on your garden a lot sooner.

For my own compost piles, I'll add to one pile for a season (which is typically a year, but I don't clean out coops during the winter as I'm doing deep litter compost in my coops), till it once a week and ensure it's heating up as it should, then use it the following year. By then, the compost has taken on a different color and looks closer to dirt than shavings (I use shavings in my coops). I will note, I usually only do flowers, and often will still be using the previous year's compost before I get into the fresher stuff, and I'll get into the fresher stuff come closer to fall (which is usually when coop cleaning ends), as that's when the previous pile is getting too low and I need to build up my flower bed for the winter and next spring.

I don't recommend putting chicken poop on your plants right away, especially on plants that'll be used for food. Most animal poops cannot be put onto plants right away as it will burn the plants, though I have heard that goat and rabbit poop can, if that is available to you.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

I've always heard that you should let it "sit" for a year before putting it on your plants, otherwise it'll burn your plants. I've also read that keeping it in a well maintained compost pile at a certain temperature will speed up the process so it can go on your garden a lot sooner.

I think it is 6 months minimum in a compost pile. But yes, chicken poop absolutely needs to sit for a while before applying.

 

[Sefirothe]

I think it is 6 months minimum in a compost pile. But yes, chicken poop absolutely needs to sit for a while before applying.

Yea, I was just wondering if sitting in buckets for a couple months would work or if it needed to be mixed with other organic matter in a compost pile.

I might dump the oldest couple buckets in the raised beds and then cover/mix with soil/other organic matter and see what happens.

Worst case scenario I just replant the beds again next year.

 

[Sefirothe]

I don't recommend putting chicken poop on your plants right away, especially on plants that'll be used for food. Most animal poops cannot be put onto plants right away as it will burn the plants, though I have heard that goat and rabbit poop can, if that is available to you.

The poop wouldn’t be placed directly on existing plants. It would be sitting in 5 gallon buckets for 3-6 months then mixed in with other organic matter plus soil to fill/top off raised beds. Then plants would be added.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I think if you throw it in the bottom layer (or as "bottom" of the space you have left) and then cover that up well with soil and compost, you'll probably be fine, as long as there's enough of a buffer. Especially with strawberries which I don't think root all that deeply.

I've thrown uncomposted fresh-ish chicken poop directly on the bottom of new raised beds and then topped it with a good foot or so of soil and seeded pretty much immediately, but that's a lot of soil.

 

[Sefirothe]

I think if you throw it in the bottom layer (or as "bottom" of the space you have left) and then cover that up well with soil and compost, you'll probably be fine, as long as there's enough of a buffer. Especially with strawberries which I don't think root all that deeply.

I've thrown uncomposted fresh-ish chicken poop directly on the bottom of new raised beds and then topped it with a good foot or so of soil and seeded pretty much immediately, but that's a lot of soil.

I can do that in the second bed with the newer buckets of poop. That bed hasn't even been constructed yet so will need lots of fill.

 

[paintedChix]

Another way, in existing beds, could be to open up the bed by moving your top layer of mulch & growing medium. Pull all that towards the outside wall s of the bed. Digging down about a foot, then add your buckets of not composted chicken manure & spread it out. Then cover it back up with your garden medium (soil) & your mulch.

Similar to digging a trench in the beds to bury kitchen compostables. I would do this in the fall rather than the spring, giving the chicken manure time to "cold compost" in your beds.

I haven't used just chicken manure this way. I use DLM, but still put it at the bottom of my beds as im building them. I have a lot of shrinkage over the winter. Currently have several beds that aren't filled yet to be planted.

I have also put juvenile chicks directly in the beds, to sift & fertilize as they grow.

Unfortunately, due to life & health issues, these beds have yet to be fully filled w/ garden soil & planted to veggies. BUT fruit trees planted in ground between the beds have gone CRAZY growing (so have weeds - wild dog fennel & others above my head)...

My beds have a layer of cardboard, then limbs & chunks of cut trees, layers of pruned trees/bushes, shredded cardboard & paper, grass clippings & kitchen compostables. Treating the beds themselves (since built) as compost piles...



I am planning on getting at least one bed (have 4 so far, with plans to build some more) actually finished this fall & plant with greens, broccoli, cauliflower etc. Do winter cover & mulch & see how it goes... Plan on sharing on BYC, so ...

Thinking of investing in a wood chipper, to help w/ the weeds. Haven't been able to get anyone to come out to take care of "wild yard" that we haven't physically been able to "tame".

 

[lagrange chicks]

I spread the shavings and poop from my coop on my garden 3 or 4 times through the winter, last time in March. I do spread it thin though so it is not to hot on the plants. I noticed the 1st green bean leaves to show some burning but otherwise I don't see much problem.