Chicken poop as fertilizer

[pattee]

I'm so glad to see this thread, as I was going to ask a similar question.

I too wondered

how you could just get the poop and not all the shavings.....

So let me see if I got it right~Ok?

I use shaving and straw (I finally figured out not to put toooo much in) Now, I can take this mixture of poop, straw and shavings and compost it with other things grass clippings, etc. and the next year I'll have soil! I just have to turn it so often.

Shavings are harder to break down.

How many times do you clean your coop? I clean mine about 2 times a week. That's with 8 chickens.

I really want to use my chicken poop but am confused how... I think you all are in the know and I'm so happy to reading this!

 

[DawnSuiter]

I am buying sand for the floor, wood chips to layer in winter and straw/chips for the nest boxes so in that way, I hope to autmatically diversify my chicken coop contributions to the compost pile.. here in my hard clay, sand is going to be a great addition.

I just found this "other" website article that seemed to fill in some of the gaps for me.. http://usagardener.com/breaking_ground/composting_manure_and_fertilizer.php

more assurance or experience from the experts here who have been doing this for so long though would be so perfect still....

 

[JennsPeeps]

My understanding about pine shavings is that they are too acidic to compost on their own, hence the chemical problems with one poster's dirt. You can add lime into the mix to help make it more alkaline.

From http://usagardener.com/breaking_ground/composting_manure_and_fertilizer.php

Liming
It is normally not necessary to add lime to your compost pile to improve the breakdown of most yard wastes. Finished compost is usually slightly alkaline. If you add lime during the decomposition process, it will probably be too alkaline when completed. If your pile contains large amounts of acidic materials such as pine needles or fruit wastes, you might add lime, but no more than one cup per 25 cubic feet of material. Excessive lime application can lead to loss of nitrogen from the compost pile.​

 

[Oblio13]

I use leaves and pine needles as deep litter in the coops. By the time I clean them out, the chickens have broken the leaves into pretty small pieces and incorporated a lot of poop into it. I dump everything in the garden and around the fruit trees as mulch. I don't dig it into the soil, I just leave it on top. Seems to work just fine.

 

[bigzio]

Backyard Poultry Magazine has a wonderful article in the June/July issue on this topic. The article is called The circle of life-using chicken manure as the base for compost. Chicken manure is higher in nitrogen than any animal manure....that's a good thing.

I simply use a large wire cage to collect my poo all summer long, then spread it on the gardens in spring.

During the Winter months, I spread it on the gardens up til 3 months before planting, to avoid burning. I try to keep things as simple as possible.

bigzio

 

[SproutGirl]

You could also try making chicken poop tea. Just get a little chicken poop, not too fresh, put it in a watering can, let it sit a while, dilute it if it looks too strong, and water your plants with it. Don't pour it directly onto the plants though, just onto the soil around the root area. Good stuff! Stinky, though!

http://poultryone.com/articles/chickenmanure.html

 

[sharone]

I am an organic gardener so I use poop of various types in my garden. Shavings or not, the only concern really is whether the shavings or other organic material will have any chemical in it that garden or flower plants may not like (like pine needles suppressing other plants).

Any poo can be used but it most definitely has to be old. Dried out and crumbly is best. If you do not, you will *burn* your plants. If it smells it is too fresh. The "tea" suggestion is a good one too.

I make my own soil with sand, organic composted waste, and dried moss that I buy in bulk bags. I am still waiting to get my chickens, but I will probably experiment with this with their waste.

 

[suburban farm girl]

Vermicomposting (using lots and lots and lots of worms to create compost - a method that works more quickly than the traditional decomposition method) Deep Litter Method and DE question.

We are brand new to chickens (just brought our babies home last night). We have been composting our yard and kitchen stuff for about a year and have been excited to bring the benefits of chicken poop into it as well.

We love the idea of of the deep litter method using DE. (Thanks to everyone for the amazing experience and wisdom shared in the posts!) However, I am wondering if the DE won't also kill the worms we use in our composting? Does anyone have experience with this?

I'm thinking it might be safer to have a separate traditional decomposition compost bin for the chicken coop stuff.

And another question related to that - what happens to the DE when it is put in the garden soil? It seems it would kill the good bugs as well as the bad...?

 

[Tuffoldhen]

My wood shaving/chicken poo is tilled into the veggie garden twice a year .. Fall and Spring....in between times is composted to a pile... it composts up nicely in a veggie garden.....and I see no differnce in the DE thats used in my shavings...we still have lots of bugs and worms....

Hubby and grandsons dig in the compost pile for fishing worms all the time...

 

[d.k]

* Compost tea is the BEST!! Only problem is you only need a very little chicken poo. My bin is now so concentrated (with just 1 hen!!!) that I use a hose end spray to dilute 4 oz. to 4OO gallons. And I am starting to see some evidence that even that may be getting too strong in weeks when we don't have enough rain.