Chicken waste for compost question

[oldwynooche]

Hi Sequel! Nice to meet a neighbor. We're near Aberdeen. I also am composting coop droppings and shavings, adding them to the used coffee grounds I get from a local coffee stand, wood chips and kitchen scraps. The coffee grounds seem to call the worms!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Looks like you got some advice but here's mine;

Some plants won't mind it much. Some are gonna mind it a LOT.
As manure and compost breaks down it releases chemicals that inhibit seed germination. It also creates an unstable climate of microbes in your beds that's not good for growing plants. The microbes that eat and process the manure explode, out competing the microbes that are needed for things like getting the nutrients to your plant roots.

I've had some luck getting some harder seeds to germinate in fresher compost. But some seeds, like carrots, won't germinate at all. You better scratch carrots off the list for any bed you've put fresh manure in. They're VERY sensitive to it and you'd be lucky if one out of every ten seeds germinated in that bed for the rest of the year.

So it's always better to compost it first, just always. It makes the nutrients more available, the soil microbes more stable, nitrogen washes away less, and things germinate better. One of the ways I know my compost is done is if I lay it out and see the last weed seeds that made it through the composting sprouting in the top layers.

Now that it's in the beds already you can try to throw down something to help it compost in the soil directly. Some sawdust would go a long way. You might have some slower growth for a bit on your plants until it finishes breaking down but most things will LIVE through it if transplanted. But some things are just NOT going to germinate in that soil any more for the season if you till it in and some more sensitive plants will shrivel up and die. :T (Personal experience and research.)

For future compost just mix it with some carbon (straw, wood chips, sawdust) then leave it sit for 6-12 months. Once a month go out and poke some holes in ti in case it settled. Maybe turn it a couple times a year. If it's dry and crumbly water it, if it's raining for weeks on end drop a tarp on it. And just let it sit until it looks less like manure and more like dirt.

 

[Sequel]

Hi Sequel! Nice to meet a neighbor. We're near Aberdeen. I also am composting coop droppings and shavings, adding them to the used coffee grounds I get from a local coffee stand, wood chips and kitchen scraps. The coffee grounds seem to call the worms!

You too! My dad used to say your area was wet country. Cardboard is also very attractive to worms I noticed.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Wow - that's a January thaw! We are supposed to see some potential record high's too -but more like 40's - though that's Concord. We'll be cooler than that. But lots of rain coming too.

We have 56* predicted high over the weekend. And yesterday morning, it was exactly 1* F.

Vermont. Gotta love it to live here.

 

[oldwynooche]

You too! My dad used to say your area was wet country. Cardboard is also very attractive to worms I noticed.

Good point on the cardboard. Recently I covered the ground in the orchard with cardboard and put wood chips over that. Keeps the weeds down, reduces mowing and the chickens love to forage there. I'll add some to the compost pile too, thanks for the reminder!
We are wet country, seems like extra-wet this year so far.