chick poo and gardening?

[birdbrain2]

sorry not sure where to post this but i was reading up on cold frames for my garden and i read you can convert them to hot frames by putting fresh horse manure and hay and 6" of compost. it will heat up the soil above it and provide fertilizer when roots reach manure. will chick poo and pine shavings do the same? does chicken poo compost hotter than horse manure or about the same? i only have 6, 3 week old chicks so I wouldn't have a whole lot.
anyone do this themselves?

 

[patandchickens]

Six three-week old chicks are not going to produce enough poo to create meaningful or lasting heat, sorry.

You *can* use chicken manure for a hotbed if you have *enough* of it, but you'd want to mix it with a bit of straw or shavings, not just use it pure, off the droppings board. (Dirty bedding will not work well, as having insufficient poo in relation to the amount of shavings or straw).

By reputation (I have't tried it myself) manure-fuelled hotbeds require a considerable learning curve before you can predict your hotbed's temperature curve well enough to not do dire things to your plants. It can certainly be done, but there is a *reason* that electric cables and mats totally replaced manure-fuelled hotbeds as soon as the technology became available

Pat, who periodically thinks about trying it (I have 3 horses) but hasn't gotten around to it yet.

 

[birdbrain2]

Quote:
thanks for the advice, its sounds to me like i should just stick to cold frames and use my brooder waste in compost bins.