Do you use your chicken's poop as fertilizer?

[imthedude]

i'm about to clean out a coop and have a big garden that needs to be fertilized. thinking of adding some shavings/poop as mulch around plants. anyone do this? also i'm making some compost tea with this same shavings/poop mix. mother jones says to steep the mix for 3 days then strain and dilute 1:1 with water. anyone do this also? if so does it work good for a weekly fertilizer?

 

[CapricornFarm]

I thought you had to compost chicken waste and add other stuff because if you use it straight, it will burn your plants. That's my plan anyways. Deb

 

[Celtic Chick]

I've never done the tea thing, but I always use the pine shavings/manure from my coop in all of my gardens, veggie & flowers. Works wonderfully. Keeps weeds down & fertilizes the garden. I keep telling my hubby that I need more chickens to keep up with all my gardens, but he isn't buying it.

Do not use straight manure on your plants or you will "burn" them, but manure mixed with pine shavings is safe.

 

[al6517]

You must age it first for at least 3 mo maybe even longer or yes it will burn them badly, shavings take a long time to break down in a garden, the tea idea is fine but you must always compost raw waste before adding it to your garden. I have 2 piles, one is a ready to use pile and one is stewing till it's ready. Your compost piles must be of the right size also or they wont make. Reaserch composting and you should find all your answers.

AL

 

[klmclain1]

My coop cleanings (pine shavings and poop) go right from the coop to the garden. I mix it into the top 2-4 inches of soil of my trees, bushes, flowers, etc. So far so good!

 

[donrae]

I dump my poo and shavings/hay/straw right onto my fallow garden bed. When it's dry enough we'll till it in and plant.

I have a raised bed I covered with chicken and horse poo, little bit of bedding mixed in but not much, last fall. I covered it with black plastic and let it cook all winter. I just pulled the plastic off and tilled it, it's beautiful! Just waiting for it to dry up enough to plant

 

[ChooksChick]

I sell mine- no kidding! Folks pay me $5 per feed bag of poo + litter.

I keep a compost pile as well, and let it age for a year prior to garden use.

 

[NYREDS]

I've aleays heard the "burn the plants" thing but I haven't seen it happen. I clean pens in the early spring [like now], spread it on the garden & till it in. By the time I'm ready to plant apparently it's broken down enough because I always have beautiful, productive gardens.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
Likewise. I spread as soon as the plants are done in late September through Early April. I don't plant until May, so it's all good.
Have to "stock-pile" during the growing season, but by September, it's about half broken down and we start all over again.

 

[mstrawn3]

If you spread it around exhisting plants there is a good chance it will burn them. If you spread it over the garden and then till it in and then plant, it works great. Just keep plenty of water on it until the plants are established...