composting chicken poop?

[chickbird]

Quote:
i live in a peanut growing area in georgia and we have lots of commercial poultry growers and they use peanuts hulls in the chicken houses and it breaks down with the chicken manure very well, it is purchased by the farmers to spread over the crop fields, although they have to be careful because it will burn if manure is not aged or tilled in. the areas where they dump the loads of manure will not grow anything for several years. i have a compost pile i've started but haven't used it yet as it has not aged enough.

 

[95yj]

we've got two compost piles, one for regular house stuff and the other for chicken waste and yard crap. The one for house trash is in an actual barrel and stuff, the one for all the birds shavings and hay are fenced into a massive pile.

 

[ellyn]

Great thread. I'm getting my pallet composter put together before the snow flies. Sounds like layering shavings/chx poo + household scraps will make a fine garden mix by next spring. We'll find out. I'm encouraged that a lot of us are just experimenting!

 

[CSWolffe]

An active compost pile needs two things: Nitrogen and Carbon.
Chicken poo is a GREAT source of nitrogen, one of the best around; and both pine shavings and straw are great sources of carbon. If you want to slow compost, don't worry about ratios, just dump the droppings and bedding right on top of your compost pile, or keep a separate one. Hot composting takes a lot less time, but you need a LOT more carbon compared to nitrogen.
You do need to compost your chicken poo for about six to nine months before you put it on anywhere near food crops. I use a three bin system, so my poo gets composted about two years before it gets put into the garden.

 

[bobbi-j]

You do need to compost your chicken poo for about six to nine months before you put it on anywhere near food crops.

I have a question about this. When I clean out my coop before winter, (straw and poo accumulated since last winter - my birds free range so it's not *that* thick in there) I was thinking about putting it all on my garden and tilling it in, hoping it would "cure" before I plant in the spring. But now I'm wondering if the manure would break down enough over winter to be safe, or if the cold would inhibit that. I live in MN, so it does get pretty cold here at times.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
Thousands of us do exactly that, we apply in fall, till it in then or till in early, early spring. Plant in late May. Again, do not spread fresh manure within 30 days of planting or 90 days of harvest, whichever comes first.

Dairy farmers spread manure all winter long, on top of the snow. They too cease applying, using the same "window" restrictions above.