Can Chicken Bedding be Applied Directly to Garden?

[Ridgerunner]

I don't live in suburbia and I'd bet a lot of your money and a little of mine that our coops look a whole lot different. You can't go by what I do.

Last fall I cleaned mine out for the first time in four years, not because I needed to but because I wanted that stuff on my garden. I do have a droppings board that collects the poop from the roost. That pure poop goes in my compost pile.

I don't know what the right frequency for you would be. It could vary depending in time of year and whether your weather sets in wet or not. If you can keep your coop dry it generally won't smell unless the poop builds up a fair amount.

We are all in different climates and keep them in different conditions with different kinds of coops. You might try going longer between clean-outs and see what works best in your unique situation.

 

[farmer boy]

after we got our plants out and got all we could to eat we put our bedding in from ducks/chickens and we just left it in 2 big piles because then the chickens came and spread it out for us so we didn't have to do anything .. chickens/ducks can be pain but helpful with gardening i had problems with my birds they always ate my plants lol but its worked out in the end only got a few stuff though the chickens ate the rest of the garden

 

[Eggcentric NanaJ]

Great advice!! Thanks all for the feedback.

@Ridgerunner, I guess I'm not sure why I'm cleaning it out that often, lol, it doesn't stink or anything. I suppose I read it somewhere, and I want to be sure not to give any neighbors reason to complain. How often do you guys clean out the coop? The bedding definitely isn't that dirty when we change it out...

This is my 2nd spring with my Lovely Ladies. I wanted to check in and see how using your coops bedding worked in your garden beds. I have 16 hens, a large coop (8'x10') with an attach covered run (10'x 18') that I use pine shavings on the floor/ground. I was hoping to use the "Spring Clean" to amend my garden beds this year. My poop board is cleaned weekly (for the most part) and goes directly into my compost bins, it won't get to the garden and beds for about 6-8 months.