The composting material is broken down into "greens" (high nitrogen) and "browns" (high carbon). You need a mix of both for decent composting. Pure chicken manure is mostly green, so you need some browns. You can get as technical as you wish about getting a perfect ratio, but just guessing will work too. It does not have to be that precise to work, it just may take longer. I guess and don't worry about getting it precisely right. Most things will contain some nitrogen and some carbon, so "green" or "brown" is relative.
Some browns might be shredded newspaper or torn up cardboard, maybe wool or cotton rags (need to be natural fibers), or dead plants (green plants are considered "green" but dead plants are "brown). Hay, straw, and wood shavings are browns. If your manure is mixed with wood shavings, you are probably good to go. Mine gets a lot of dead plants from the garden.
The process works by microbes using the energy from the nitrogen to break down the carbons. To introduce the right microbes, mix in a shovelful of active compost. Or just take a shovelful of topsoil and mix that in as a starter. Soil has organic material like grass trimmings in it that is constantly breaking down. Those microbes are there.
The mix needs to stay damp. You do not want it to be soaking wet. It needs air to work properly. If it stays soaking wet, the process will turn anaerobic and will get slimy and stinky. It will still break down, but you might not like the process. If the pile dries out, it will quit working. People that live where it is so dry what little grass will grow only grows in bunches instead of making a nice green carpet and they can drive for hours without a bug being squashed on their windshield can have a compost pile last for many many years without breaking down. It depends on your climate, but occasionally adding water might be a real good idea.
You can turn it if you wish. That will greatly speed up the process by mixing the greens and browns and by loosening it up so it can get more air. But if you just leave it lay it will break down. One advantage of turning it is that it heats it up. When the microbes get working, the interior of the pile will heat up a bunch and cook any weed or grass seeds in there so they won't sprout later. But that heat only lasts a little while and the stuff near the outside will not heat up so those seeds don't get cooked. If you turn it, it will heat back up.
Hope this helps a bit. Good luck!
