can I use chicken manure from coop in my garden??

[Mac in Wisco]

Fred's Hens :

This is pretty much what the Ag Extension folks and the State Ag Universities all recommend.

To me it's common sense... why would a person apply raw manure to their vegetables and then eat them? You might as well serve lunch in the chicken coop.​

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
To me it's common sense... why would a person apply raw manure to their vegetables and then eat them? You might as well serve lunch in the chicken coop.

I've seen the Ag Extension guideline published by almost every state and state Ag university. Here's a good synopsis.

http://umaine.edu/publications/2510e/

 

[chickiepie]

I think letting it 'age' for a few months is sufficient. Someone previously stated that tomatoes may set fruit later, and I believe that is because too much nitrogen for tomatoes can cause them to expend all their energy on foliage to the detriment of setting fruit. If the poop is mixed with shavings, that will hasten the composting process because the shavings provide the carbon that is needed for the process.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I see that with some of our bell pepper plants this year. In one area of the garden they are growing as normal and we have picked a number of good sized peppers this past week. In another area of the garden the plants are large and ridiculously bushy with leaf growth, but haven't flowered yet.

The pumpkins seem to love it though...

 

[Buff-Island-Australorp]

I started a pile of "whatever" in the very far corner of my garden. It includes rotten watermellons, all of my corn shucks, a small amount of pine shavings, and a lot of chicken poop. I scrape a dustpan full of manure off the poop board in the coop every other day. I will till my garden about 5 times between fall and next spring. I'm excited about using "free" fertilizer for next springs plantings.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

SuburbanSue, here is a good article on composting chicken manure:

http://seattletilth.org/learn/resources-1/city-chickens/compostingchickenmanure

I make my bins out of old hay bales. I arrange them near the garden to make about a 4 foot square pit in the center and just add materials all year (manure, straw, lawn clippings, broken eggs, dead hens, weeds from the garden, etc.). The bales insulate the pile, keeps the outermost materials from drying out, and contribute materials to the process. In the end the whole thing can be pushed into the garden and worked into the soil.

 

[Gullygarden]

Check out the hencam blog and look in archives. She composts hers and has a great series of pictures and explanations. I've also used my grass clipping and poop bedding but I always compost it along with a lot of leaves and stuff and use it the next year when it is completely broken down. It is high nitrogen so the bedding materials and leaves help balance that.

 

[Yonaton]

Tilling it into the soil in early fall and throwing some lime on it to keep the soil 'sweet' works wonders and keeps the raw manure from having to 'cook' to be okay to use. Till it deep and mix it with lots of vegetable matter and your garden will be the kings pajamas next spring.