Chicken litter compost?

[RaZ]

You can also make liquid fertilizer, here's how I do it.
I drilled a bunch of 1/4" in a 5 gallon bucket, fill the bucket with the manure and bedding both. Snap the lid on the full bucket then drop it into a larger vat or bucket (I use my rain barrel). As the water soaks in the smaller bucket it will start to sink. Usually by the next day, the 5 gallon bucket is submerged. For the next couple of days, I swoosh the bucket around in the water to help mix the nutrients whenever I walk by the rain barrel.

I try not to let the mixture sit for more than 3 days (it can get stinky). I use a watering can or the attached drip irrigation line to fertilize my plants. You can do this on a smaller or larger scale, your goal is to dilute the high nitrogen content down to a 1:1 ratio before applying directly to the plants.

After the bucket has soaked, I'll dump the rest of the litter into the bigger compost piles.

There are more ways to compost but this gets me a lot of compost tea in a short time.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

We generally add it straight to the garden. Just as Fred said about 30 days before planting. I don't clean out the coop as often in the summer months because they are usually free ranging. So it works out perfectly! I begin adding to the garden again in the fall.

 

[savilcr]

does anyone take compost from their pile and add it around various plants during the spring? any other tips?

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
I do. I described above how I do it.

1. I lay newspaper, or shredded paper around the plants (I prefer shredded paper). These keeps water in and weeds out. It also provides a barrier from the next layer to prevent the plants from burning.

2. I "mulch" with straw/chicken manure or shavings/chicken manure.

3. I add "manure mulch" or grass clippings or weeds that have been pulled from elsewhere through out the season. When it's time to till, all the aged manure and mulch gets tilled in and is ready for planting again.

 

[NanaKat]

We let the chickens compost their manure the easy way. Beginning when the leaves are falling, we gather them into bags and begin dumping three black bags each week to the floor of the hen house. The girls crush the leaves as they dig thru the leaves for little bugs and tidbits. Any manure gets mixed in at the same time. The floor of our hen house is dirt. An added benefit is the warmth the leaf/mulch insulating layer gives in the hen house.

In the spring we shovel this garden gold into either the wheelbarrow or into feed sacks/mineral bags and cart it to the garden to be used as needed. The bags are stored in the gardenshed in the dry.

Any leaves left over are added along with straw/hay for the summer in the henhouse.

What is carted to the garden is added to some of the the other compost we make from cow manure and old hay. This is then mixed into the garden beds depending on what will be planted in the beds. Lettuce and edible roots get the cow manure compost while other veggies get the chicken/cow compost mix.
As the growing season progresses, wheat straw is used as mulch and the chicken bags are then scattered on top to sift thru the straw.

Because the leaves are already mixed with the chicken manure, it is fluffy and less acidic so it doesn't burn plants even if added directly to the beds. I simply like to reduce the burn affect by mixing with other compost.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
Beautiful! It is gold posts like this one that cause me to say a "gardening with chickens (poultry)" forum is worthy.

Good work! Nice composting!

 

[savilcr]

or maybe a section on BYC focused on Gardening with Chickens.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
???

Isn't that what I just said?

*where is that smiley with three questions marks over the head?*

 

[savilcr]

it would be a section within the forum

 

[RaZ]

As an Advanced Master Gardener and Master Composter, I think this could be great stand alone feature. I like it because I know more about this than I do about raising chicks and ducks. I'm getting lots of great information from experienced chicken folk and I'd like to repay their help if I could.