Is it okay to apply chicken droppings directly to plants?

[Junkmanme]

Chicken Manure is HOT!

Applied during the growing season, it will BURN your veggie plants!

One Fall, after growing Season, in Colorado, I put a large pickup bed of chicken manure on a garden that was only 16 feet by 32 feet. Then I tilled it into the soil.
We had a wet winter the following Season, with much snow acummulation in my yard.

The garden, however, never had any snow on it.....it quickly melted! All Winter, on the coldest days, you could lay your hand on the garden soil and it was WARM!

The following Spring/Summer I had "bumper crops!"

Perhaps this will give you some idea of whether you wish to "compost" the chicken manure BEFORE you use it!

I personally think "horse-manure" is ok IF it's aged (not necessarily composted) USED sparingly with a growing garden.....water more!

Cow-manure, on the other hand, tends to have many seeds that will germinate as WEEDS in your Garden.

Rabbit manure, sheep manure, all are very good in compost.

For applying directly, CHICKEN MANURE is the worst! It WILL burn your plants! (It's also the BEST fertilizer..but, you should "compost" it [dilute with soil, scrap, organisms, etc.]).

just my experience......

-Junkmanme-

 

[mmwb]

The free rangers are distributing their droppings over large areas, not in concentrated spots. Directly from the bird there is also a high moisture content. What is gathered from the coop has less moisture and I expect more concentrated.

 

[chookchick]

If it is mixed with a good amount of bedding, as it usually is when you pull it from the coop or dropping board, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I throw the stuff all over my yard and have never had any issues--did that with rabbit poo too. BTW I am a landscaper, and love to debunk many of the myths about gardening that are around. You never really know until you try something, so don't believe everything you hear if it doesn't make sense--try it for yourself!

 

[rainbowgardens]

I've put my coop litter directly on my corn bed and the squash/pumpkin beds and they did great. I mainly did it because I desperately needed mulch, but the plants really perked up and produced a wonderful crop.

These are really nitro-hungry crops. I probably wouldn't do it with other crops.

 

[halo]

I put it directly on my flower beds, but a few caveats.

I put shavings in my coop floor, and clean it out periodically...probably not often enough, but oh well. Maybe every 2-3 months. When I do, I spread it on my flower beds (I have a lot). I dont put it up next to the flowers directly, I leave a good couple of inches right next to the plant bare. Now this has been in the coop for several months for the most part; of course some of it is fresh. But the shavings act as mulch, and the chicken poop gets worked into the soil by organisms.

Do not dig it into the soil and then plant over top of it, you will cook your plants. But as mulch, it works sweet.

Ive had absolutely no problems with it, the flowers are incredibly gorgeous and healthy, and people can't believe I actually have worms in Florida. I dont use it that fresh on vegetable plants. For veggies, I plan ahead a few months where Im going to plant something, then make a compost pile right where Ill be planting; let it sit a few months and compost down, then when time to plant, I dig the pile into the ground and plant over top of it.