chickens pooped in veggie bed!

[medinam]

hi!
my chickens spend the day roaming my backyard until the coop gets here in a week. I have a small veggie bed. Up until today they haven't messed with the greens - today I saw them INSIDE the raised veggie bed and found some poop on the soil, not the leaves.
Can you all share your wisdom with me about salmonella concerns I should have, whether my veggies are contaminated, etc.? It won't be a big deal for me to toss what I've grown into a pile for them to nibble.
m.

 

[Abriana]

Chicken and duck poop is AMAZING fertilizer. Lots of ppl use it and it makes the garden lush and green.

 

[medinam]

Thanks Abriana for the reply. Chicken feces is considered safe in a vegetable bed (that is meant for people to eat from) before it’s fully composted? It was my understanding that if the feces gets on Food it should be considered contaminated, tossed because washing it doesn’t remove possible salmonella...? So I’m wondering if this is said about feces on veggies, would it apply to the soil (before being completely composted...)?

 

[medinam]

Also uncertain if this question belongs here or in another thread group....?

 

[fur-mum]

Salmonella is a very fragile bacterium. If you’re cooking veggies that will take care of it. If not, wash well. The uncomposted poop can be an issue because of nitrogen burning of the plants. But I’ve not noticed any problems with mine as yet.

 

[junebuggena]

Honestly, the risk of getting salmonella poisoning is slim to none from a backyard flock. Unlike commercially raised poultry, backyard flocks do not spend their days confined to a very small space filled with their feces. Salmonella is everywhere, and in everything. In order for you to get sick from the veg, the chickens would have to have very high levels of salmonella, and the plant would have to absorb enough of that bacteria to pass to you. If your flock has salmonella levels that high, you've got bigger problems than a bit of poo in the garden.

 

[Below frigid]

If the poop was just left there for a day or two, scoop it up and don't worry about it. Root vegetables are a little more worry some than leafy vegetables. Still I would not worry too much.

 

[TheDirtyLawyer]

Thanks Abriana for the reply. Chicken feces is considered safe in a vegetable bed (that is meant for people to eat from) before it’s fully composted? It was my understanding that if the feces gets on Food it should be considered contaminated, tossed because washing it doesn’t remove possible salmonella...? So I’m wondering if this is said about feces on veggies, would it apply to the soil (before being completely composted...)?

No, not safe. It's how people get sick in third world countries a lot.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks Abriana for the reply. Chicken feces is considered safe in a vegetable bed (that is meant for people to eat from) before it’s fully composted? It was my understanding that if the feces gets on Food it should be considered contaminated, tossed because washing it doesn’t remove possible salmonella...? So I’m wondering if this is said about feces on veggies, would it apply to the soil (before being completely composted...)?

Best practice is to keep chickens out of the veggie garden, especially the veggies that are meant to be eaten raw. That being said, if it were my garden, and I had chickens enter my salad green bed, I would do a surface cleaning of the poo bombs that I could find. Then, I would spread some mulch, and gently water over the surface of the mulch. I might cut the greens back, and move forward from there. Consider this: birds fly overhead all the time. They drop bombs in their flight path! So, while, in theory poo in the lettuce patch is a bad thing, in practicality, I'd not get overly worked up about it unless I or a family member have a compromised immune system.

Also uncertain if this question belongs here or in another thread group....?

This is a fine place for your question. While you are here, be sure to browse the other gardening related threads.

For future reference, best practice: compost that poo for 90 days before applying it to the garden. My flock gets to glean the garden after I'm done with fall harvest, and I let them in for a bit in the spring before I plant, unless there are still some beds that I don't want them to trash. They got kicked out recently b/c they wanted to shred my mushroom and parsnip beds.

 

[TheDirtyLawyer]

hi!
my chickens spend the day roaming my backyard until the coop gets here in a week. I have a small veggie bed. Up until today they haven't messed with the greens - today I saw them INSIDE the raised veggie bed and found some poop on the soil, not the leaves.
Can you all share your wisdom with me about salmonella concerns I should have, whether my veggies are contaminated, etc.? It won't be a big deal for me to toss what I've grown into a pile for them to nibble.
m.

I went out and dumped chicken poop on asparagus patch and later was like ... that doesn't seem right... asparagus growing up through poop while we are washing our hands and mopping w antibacterial disinfectant lol! I looked it up and there are a LOT of studies on this showing how this is the biggest cause of food borne illness and contamination in countries where the do this and don't know better. I think it can be managed by cleaning food and maybe cooking if it's asparagus but the point is that it's def a bad idea to do this as a practice. I'll be learning to do the compost the right way . Not the end of the world but having bloody diarrhea sounded pretty uncool... lol