Can I safely use this chicken poop?

[MoonShadows]

I have 4 - 5 gallon pails of chicken poop that was collected last summer. I never composted the poop. It has just been sitting in these pails all this time. Would this be safe to work into my garden soil around my young plants or might it burn them because it was never composted?

 

[Trish1974]

Chicken manure is HOT! I don't think I would use it if it was never composted. My oldest compost pile is almost a year old. It was composted with chicken poop, straw, a little wood shavings and egg shells. Its broken down into dirt so I put a trowel full at the bottom of each hole I planted a pepper or tomato in. For the next 3-4 days I had some yellowing of all my leaves and the plants just didn't look right. They are okay now, but apparently it was still too hot for the young roots although it appeared beyond ready.

 

[MoonShadows]

Thanks @Trish1974. That's what I was afraid of. What about side dressing the plants so it seeps in gradually? Otherwise, I'll dump the pails in my compost pile.

 

[Trish1974]

I'm not sure about side dressing. To be on the safe side I would go ahead and throw it in the compost pile.

 

[Saaniya]

I use my chicken poop in my garden I don't have a big garden a small one I think my plants are healthy

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed with @Trish1974 on this. I'd consider those buckets of poo to be a valuable deposit on next year's garden. If you are doing a poop board, and that is where your buckets o' chicken nuggets are coming from, you can either compost them now, and use the resulting compost in your garden this fall... or next spring. Or you can save them and broadcast them on the garden in the fall so they will be broken down and incorporated in the spring.

Chicken poo is very hot. If you have a small garden, you may not even be able to use it all safely. Even if you wait until the "heat" has dissipated, the N and P content of repeated applications of chicken manure in a small area can overload the soil.

Other options to spread the wealth: ornamentals, lawn, share with friends. You could even fill your old feed bags with compost and sell the stuff. I bet you could easily get $5 to possibly $10/ bag of well composted chicken poo.

 

[drewskimac]

I agree with both Lazy and Trish. I wouldn’t risk putting it on right now - let it compost and reap the bounty next season. I like to keep a rabbit around so I can have manure readily accessible that I can use fresh while my chicken manure is composting down.

 

[Percheron chick]

It's a year old. Use it.

 

[TK421]

It should compost for at least 6 mos otherwise it will burn your plants. Right now it’s a bucket of nitrogen.