Chicken poop and the vege garden questions...

[NYREDS]

Can I take the shavings right from the coop and apply it to the garden?

I do & always have. I clean my pens in the spring, spread the manure & bedding on the garden & then till it all in at least a couple of weeks before I'm ready to start planting. If I clean any pens during the summer I spread that between the rows as a mulch.
I've heard that "burn the plants" thing for years but it's never been a problem in my experience. It's the same way my Grandfather did it so I'm working from over a hundred years experience.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Our growing season is short here. Late May through early September, best case scenario. Thus, I can and do spread chicken manure/litter right onto the garden during the long "off season". I do not compost in a pile or tumbler. I have a front end loader on the tractor, so turning it wouldn't be a big chore, but it still would be yet another unneeded, unnecessary chore. Straight from barn to field. Keeps things simple. I personally believe in maintaining safe handling policies, in that we do practice the cessation of all raw manure within 30 days of planting.

There are pathogens in manure and waste. Salmonella and e-coli to name a couple, but such things exist everywhere in nature. Chicken manure mixes easily in our soil type and we've never had "burning" issues. But again, we follow the Best Practices guidelines because we are commercial sellers of organic produce. We do not spread fresh manure during the growing season. The greatest concerns are ground contact vegetables such as lettuce, radishes, and the like. These can and do come into direct physical contact with the soil.

If you look carefully, you can see chicken litter/manure being spread in this garden. Straight from the coop, all during the off-season.

 

[NYREDS]

Our growing season is short here. Late May through early September, best case scenario. Thus, I can and do spread chicken manure/litter right onto the garden during the long "off season". I do not compost in a pile or tumbler. I have a front end loader on the tractor, so turning it wouldn't be a big chore, but it still would be yet another unneeded, unnecessary chore. Straight from barn to field. Keeps things simple. I personally believe in maintaining safe handling policies, in that we do practice the cessation of all raw manure within 30 days of planting.

There are pathogens in manure and waste. Salmonella and e-coli to name a couple, but such things exist everywhere in nature. Chicken manure mixes easily in our soil type and we've never had "burning" issues. But again, we follow the Best Practices guidelines because we are commercial sellers of organic produce. We do not spread fresh manure during the growing season. The greatest concerns are ground contact vegetables such as lettuce, radishes, and the like. These can and do come into direct physical contact with the soil.

If you look carefully, you can see chicken litter/manure being spread in this garden. Straight from the coop, all during the off-season.

I envy you your soil. Just a few more rocks where I have to do my gardening.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I envy you your soil. Just a few more rocks where I have to do my gardening.

Bill, our "soil" isn't soil at all, in it's native state. Just sand with gravel down about 6". Porous and quite unable to sustain growth, really. Which is precisely why chicken litter is soooooo important. With it and the leaves? No chance to grow anything but jack pine.

But, I've farmed on rocks and blue clay, so what you say is quite true. As long as you have lots of water, sand is better than many other soils at working/growing, once you've poured the humus to it. Takes about 4 years to get it close to what is needed.

 

[NYREDS]

Rocks & clay is what I contend with. I till in as much organic matter as I can find to lighten the soil. Been her for 24 years & I haven't made much of an impact. Also pick rocks every spring but over the winter new ones grow & when I plow in the spring there they are. We moved here from a place on the river where I gardened in what looked like pottig soil. I miss it.

 

[JeffOeuf]

My thoughts on this thread...coming from a good bit of garden experience, but only a beginner on the chickens.

The "burning" stories originate with using chicken manure from huge factory farms where the quantities are massive and there's little or no bedding mixed in. Without composting and blending, you can certainly burn plants with large quantities of straight, fresh chicken manure. But a flock of 17 on bedding isn't likely to generate enough manure to burn much, unless you put every bit of it on one or two plants.

I like Fred's idea of a 30 day period between adding manure and planting. Being a brand new chicken owner, I haven't been following that advice, but I likely will next year. Now I'm putting the tiny bit that my 5 7-week old pullets are producing as a side dressing on my tomatoes and peppers, which are weeks away from producing fruit any way. I'm using rice hulls for bedding and mixing in some DE. The clean-out product is tailor-made to enrich soil and reduce insect damage in the garden. I have dreams at night about having a vast stock of this stuff to spread this winter. Once my side-dressing is done, I'll start stock-piling it.

I actually think the shirt should read "Embrace the Poo" rather than just "Touch the Poo".

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Right,considering the burning part, when the green manue breaks down it heats up, if you pile it on your plants the temp goes up...composting heats up a big pile as vegetation breaks down, the heat in that pile also kills alot of bacteria, I don't want to spend a day turning over a huge pile of compost to aereate it and I'm not compulsive obsessive enough to turn the compost or bin everyday...now here's where chickens come in...I spread out the chips and manue in a 4 or 5 inch thick pile, it goes unnoticed for weeks, given some rain, next thing I notice the chickens are scratching in it and turning it over and I have a layer of good looking soil.
Once you have plants started you can add all your chips I between the rows without a problem. It will keep weeds down and benefit the roots of the plants. Chicken manure is the best fertilizer money can buy.
If you have chickens, eventually you'll get poop on your hands...it's everywhere, I don't know how they do that...I keep an old rag in the coop and like to have baby wipes there too. Some people are just too phobic for my liking..just wash your hands before eating, and wash any produce that contacts the soil and all will be fine. Yes, you can touch the poop, it won't kill you.

 

[JeffOeuf]

Right,considering the burning part, when the green manue breaks down it heats up, if you pile it on your plants the temp goes up...composting heats up a big pile as vegetation breaks down, the heat in that pile also kills alot of bacteria, ...

You're exactly right, but the "burn" I was talking about was a chemical burn from too much nitrogen. It's not really a burn, but it kind of looks like that, because the plant will shrivel up and dry out.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Right! My memory is returning now, and is it true that chicken poop doesn't have as much nitrogen,but more potassium?

 

[NYREDS]

Of the various manures used as garden fertilizer only rabbit manure has more nitrogen than chicken manure.