how long does it take chicken manure compost

[Christie Rhae]

When is it safe to use chicken manure around vegetables or as fertilizer?

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/GHGS-02.pdf

This article is published by the university of Hawaii but it is probably pretty general. On the second page it talks about how and when chicken manure can be put in your garden.

 

[flgardengirl]

It doesn't take very long to compost here in the summer, maybe 3 mos or so. It takes a little longer in the winter. We put 20 wheelbarrows full of compost into the garden this spring. In the fall I will probably put that much more into the winter garden from what we compost over the summer. I also do vermicomposting (worm compost) under the rabbit hutches so I work in some of that as well. I mostly put the worm compost in my potted plants and fruit trees because I have so many of them lol.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I just shoveled all my compost onto my garden beds. LOTS of worms and it smelled so sweet and earthy. I've never had a compost pile that good before. Wish I could figure out the ComposTumbler. I do better with piles on the ground.

 

[daylily]

Hey guys, finally I can stay on one site for my gardening and birds. I raise guineas and add their coop poop and wood shavings to the pile plus what ever is mixed in. We live on a heavily wooded lot so lots of leaves in the fall! I have been doing this for two to three years now leaves, poop, greeens, scraps, and some lyme on top to help the piles to go down faster. It rains and snows a lot so the piles that were 5 ft high are now down to nothing by spring! I don't turn that often but the ground under neath is black and loose and smells so sweet! Is this okay to mix in now to my new flower gardens and potted plants?

My compost area is seven ft across by 25 ft long!!!! It was a gully type area that I've been filling this way for many years and it is finally up to the level of the other ground around it. Was about 3 ft deep in places. I have three of these in different stages of composting. I live on 3 acres in the mountains.

I mostly grow flowers and grass but would like to start a vegetable garden and plant apple trees.

 

[rgearhead]

intresting thread, soo following along...

 

[Gryphon]

Daylily, if the soil smells and looks like that, it's perfect!

 

[GardenerGal]

Here's my dirty little secret---- I clean the poultry barn twice a day, and all of the poop, shavings, spilled food, moulted feathers, etc. get swept up or scraped and dumped into a couple of big buckets. When the buckets are full, I take them out to the garden beds and dump them out and spread them out over the ground. Within 2 or 3 months, it is rich dark soil. I keep it moist and the earthworms and other critters macroscopic and microscopic feast on it and break it down quickly.
In the winter, it takes longer because the soil organisms are not around, but it makes a great mulch. And come spring it breaks down fast.

The poop NEVER stinks, either. Never have had a problem with odors.

If you make a compost pile, rather than just directly applying it to the garden, it does take longer. The more contact the manure-bedding mix has with the ground, the quicker it decomposes if there is enough moisture..

 

[Christie Rhae]

Here's my dirty little secret---- I clean the poultry barn twice a day, and all of the poop, shavings, spilled food, moulted feathers, etc. get swept up or scraped and dumped into a couple of big buckets. ..

is that a typo? you must have a lot of chickens to need to clean it twice a day. Whew!!

 

[GardenerGal]

  is that a typo?  you must have a lot of chickens to need to clean it twice a day.  Whew!!

No, not a typo - lol - but it's not as much work as it sounds. My poultry barn is 12'X20' and has a ramp up to a side door that leads to a covered run 6'X18'. The inside of the barn has two stalls: one large and one small, and an open area of concrete floor where I keep rabbit hutches used as brooding and infirmary coops. The stalls have layers of wood shavings as bedding, and I leave the lower layer and remove the top couple of inches and replace it with fresh shavings in the morning. By the end of the day, the chickens scratching around in the shavings, pooping on the stall rails and concrete aisle floor, flapping around to scatter shavings onto the concrete area, etc. requires another sweeping. Once a week I sweep out the outside run and the waterfowl pen to get rid of poop, debris and rocks they dig up.

At night the chickens roost in the rafters, and the waterfowl (4 ducks, 1 goose) come in from their waterfowl pen and stay in the large stall. In the morning, the floor and stall rails have chicken poop on them, the waterfowl have flapped their wings and blown wood shavings around the barn, and if everyone is moulting, then there are plenty of feathers too. So.... I clean in the a.m. and p.m.

In all it takes about an hour in the morning to clean plus give fresh food and water and all that. At night it's only around a half hour of cleanup and bringing the waterfowl in with a bucket of water for the night.

The 25-30 chickens (many are bantams) and 5 waterfowl produce a few buckets of "sweepings" a week.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Well thats awesome. It sorta sounds like me except for the floor sweeping, I have a 38 x 12 chicken "structure" that has 5 separate pens in it. Because I live in Hawaii it is all open and has dirt floor. There are concrete footings all around to keep neighbor dogs from digging under.
I spend at least 30 mins every morning taking care of them. And about 20 minutes minimum every night making sure their every need is met. lol
I throw straw on the dirt floor of the pens. The birds scratch and turn everything so there is seldom actual poops on the surface. I go in and shovel 5 gallon buckets of the dirt mix and put it into the garden every few weeks.

Here is a pic when my coop was nearly done.


I love hearing about how people take care of their birds. Makes me not feel so cuckoo...lol. I am not sure how my husband and I are ever going to go on a vacation together. My animals need a lot of attention! I usually have about 50 birds including growing up chicks.