Composting Chicken Poop

[galanie]

Quote:
If the stuff is a couple feet thick or more, yes. Let the looks of the stuff guide you. If you're talking something like a 3x12 pile 6 inches thick, it's still a nice idea but you'll just sort of have mulch left there. Most of the yummy from the doodoo will be leached out. I guess it's "just spread it around" that throws me here. Not sure if you're heavily mulching the tree or making a deep pile around it. In any event, it should be fine to put on the garden in the fall.

I tried the compost tea last year, but put the poo directly into the water -- it was really gross. Thanks for the tip about the pillow case. Think I'll give it a whirl. How often do you use it? Would this be a one shot deal in the Spring, or every couple of weeks during the growing season??

I use it every few weeks during the growing season. I don't use any other fertilizers when I do this.​

 

[Chicken Chat]

Quote:
Why radish seed in particular? Just curious.

 

[nuchickontheblock]

Galanie,
thanks for the info. I'll expect to have incredible plants this year!!

 

[lucky acres]

make sure you check your ph.. too much pine mulch/sawdust and chicken poop will make a high acidic soil..

 

[VelvettFog]

Quote:
Why radish seed in particular? Just curious.

Chicken Chat --

I think only because they are cheap and sprout so quickly. I've never used any other seed.

VF

 

[ADozenGirlz]

We've got our "Waste Recycling Center" about 25 feet behind our coop, which is at the tree line in the woods. Every day I clean off the droppings board, the major deposits in the pine shavings, the droppings from our sand-covered run and the droppings from the lawn and dump them into the WRC. When I do a coop clean-out, every 4-8 weeks or so, I put all of the pine shavings in the WRC. I've been doing this for about 2 years now.

Besides leaves, and the spent hay from the nesting box changeovers, there is nothing else organic that I put into it and nothing else that I do to it. The chickens like to scratch in the pile and stir it up for me, being the good little workers that they are. Last spring, my brother came to haul away his share of the pile and added it to his garden. Despite the record heat waves and DRYYYYYYYY conditinos last summer, he had a bumper crop of most everthing he planted. He could not get back here quickly enough this April to claim his share of the pile of our "gardener's gold!"

You'll know it's ready when it looks dark, dark brown to black in color.

Enjoy the less glamorous benefit of your chickens' labors!

 

[Barrdwing]

Our main chicken coop is an old single-stall broodmare barn with a dirt floor. In the winter I give the girls plenty of straw, which they dig through regularly. When giving the barn its down-to-the-hardpan deep-cleaning in spring, I have found pockets of powdery, perfect compost underneath and near the nest boxes (one pocket was even warm to the touch, which startled me quite a bit when I put my hand on it). I know that chickens can produce compost on a dirt-floored coop, but it was quite another matter to see it in action!

I am thinking about sinking four posts next to the fence and making a raised bin for coop scrapings and lawn clippings. If the girls work their magic as handily in a bin as they did in those corners, it would be great!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

This weekend I tilled in six wheelbarrow loads of manured laden pine shavings (brooder bedding) then planted sweet potatoes in it. I expect a nice crop come October!

 

[Chicken Chat]

Quote:
Why radish seed in particular? Just curious.

Chicken Chat --

I think only because they are cheap and sprout so quickly. I've never used any other seed.

VF

Thanks Velvettfog, I think I will try this out. Good tip.

 

[moonlyghtegirl]

Another reason to give the poo plenty of time to compost properly is to decrease the likelihood of food becoming tainted by samomella (sp?).