Composting and using chicken poop

[FlyingFChick]

Hi,
I have heard that you are not supposed to use hot manure on your plants, which I totally understand. I have also heard that you can't use composted manure on food plants while they are growing but to put it in the ground in the fall for next summer's planting because of salmonella issues. Is that true? What you you all do with your bedding and manure? I have been composting what I was removing from the brooder along with my regular compost and boy did it get HOT! It was steaming and it was almost 80 outside. Wouldn't that kill the salmonella??

Thanks for your help!

 

[FlyingFChick]

Oh, another question...How long do you compost your for?

 

[cindy leigh]

I mix grass clippings, shredded dry leaves (run them over with lawnmower), aged horse manure/pine shavings, and fresh chicken manure mixed with shavings. I make a 3X3 pile of ingredients. 3 Feet tall, too. I turn the pile about every three days. It will get quite hot inside. When the compost is crumbly brown, and doesn't heat up any more, it's ready to use. I side-dress my vegetable rows with it and grow potatoes in muck buckets with it.

 

[cindy leigh]

Quote:
as described in my last post, the process can take 2-3 weeks. Without the manure, it's longer.

 

[FlyingFChick]

Thanks Cindy!
That is what I thought, so you haven't had salmonella problems, I take it? Do you think the compost's heat kills it if it is present?

 

[cindy leigh]

Quote:
I never really thought about it.
I think people have been using manure for thousands of years.
The chicken manure does age in the comost.
But I used to use fresh rabbit manure in the garden. Unlike chicken manure, it's one of the few you can use "hot" without burning plants, and was the best fertilizer I ever used.
I do wash my produce before eating or cooking.