mulch with chickens

[Akane]

I'm building the bantam chicken pen for seramas and japanese bantam crosses right next to the garden and would like to utilize some natural weeders and tillers in the form of chickens. The beds are raised so there are 6" or more of board on all sides of the paths that I want to put mulch on so majority should stay in but no doubt some will end up on the beds. So I'm looking for a mulch available in Iowa, rapidly decomposing so my beds gain more soil not turn to more mulch every year, and safe for chicken ingestion or not interesting/too big to ingest. Cocoa shells would be perfect if it wasn't for the whole theobromine and toxicity issue. Corn cob is out because all corn products are prone to growing a toxic mold which will kill anything that ingests it and corn cob looks too much like food to chickens. I've been looking for peanut hulls or buckwheat hulls without any luck.

Any suggestions where to look or what else to use?

 

[Mattemma]

I use a mix of leaves,grass,and shredded paper.I run the leaves through a mower.Grass I get when I bag a row or 2 while using my mulching mower. I don't use a lot of grass since it will heat up and/or mat up.

I use old straw too,but the stuff goes all over when I try to shred it with the mower.

In one of my garden books they recommend a straw mulch bed.You just push aside the straw where you want to plant,and then cover up again in the fall with the straw. I cover some beds not in use with chicken manure and pine shavings.Let it compost till the next year when I add soil to the top and plant. I let the hens work all areas until I get seedlings going.

 

[Akane]

I'm not mulching the beds. I'm mulching the walking paths. Some of it is just going to end up in the beds and if it's a fast decomposing organic I might add it to the beds after it sits for a year or 2. Straw and so forth would be a real pain to get a wheel barrow through and slick to walk on when wet. At this point I'm debating just dumping a bunch of pine pellets on the plastic I have down. It would end up the same sawdust as what is already composting at the bottom of my raised beds.

 

[Kittymomma]

Some of the cocoa shell mulch has been processed to remove the toxic stuff. I can't remember what the brand name is or the cost off-hand, but I looked into it a year or so ago for my MIL. She wanted to use it but had just gotten a JRT.

This one is supposed to be pet safe---http://web.archive.org/web/20060614125415/http://www.cocoamulch.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=browse&id=25996&pageid=109

I like the look and smell of cocoa mulch as long as it's not going to hurt any of the critters.

 

[Akane]

That link wouldn't load but I did a search and found there are a few pet safe ones. Namely the "Cocoa Mulch" brand and home depot supposedly only sells the pet safe version. I'm not sure if there's a home depot around here. I'm going to check a garden store hopefully today to see what's available.

 

[patandchickens]

I use yer basic cedar mulch for most of my pathways and ornamental beds, the undyed natural stuff that is moderately coarse, and it is a SPLENDID soil amendment as it starts to break down (which it really does, and even the larger chunks are an *asset* to the garden soil). And it makes nice pathway mulch. So I would suggest that. Yes, it is nontoxic to chickens even though it is cedar

JMHO,

Pat

 

[Kittymomma]

Sorry about the broken link. That is the stuff I was thinking about that MIL ended up using. Good luck with your project, I'm going to try to chicken/cow proof my new garden this weekend. I LOVE Spring!

 

[cobrien]

I get free wood chips/mulch from tree trimmers. I put some in the chicken area and they love it. I also use it around my veggie boxes like you are talking about. I put cardboard down, then the mulch ("sheet mulching"). The cardboard breaks down in 3months to a year depending on how wet, etc., at which point, like the mulch, helps add organic material to the soil. However, the chickens do spray mulch around and tear up the cardboard sometimes. So I tend to only do this around the veggie garden as it is fenced off from the chickens.

I think any kind of wood chips / bark nuggets would be fine.

 

[Akane]

Wood mulch takes nitrogen from the soil as it breaks down. You need to mix it with very high nitrogen compost or counter it with other greens to avoid it ruining your soil over time. My aunt has been mulching with wood every year and tilling it in every year. Her soil is complete crap and only grows this ground covering weed. Instead of adding greens she decided the soil was used up and moved the garden 20' over to start doing it again. Cheap wood mulch may be from treated wood that can leech chemicals in to your garden. Also some wood mulch will raise soil ph (we already start with alkaline soil here) but occasionally deep wood mulch can create anaerobic conditions that cause a ph of less than 3 possibly as low as 1.8 which will burn plants. Plus wood mulch attracts spiders and other things I'm allergic to.

Reasons I will not use wood mulch.

Unfortunately I could not find pet safe cocoa shells. I'm debating going back for some barley straw or leaf compost with the truck. My husband wouldn't let me put straw bales in the back of his suv. I already filled it with sand when a bag of the desert sand I use for hamsters tore. That made me think of using fine grain sand. I'm walling the paths in so it can't wash away and it's like $2/50lb bag. Soft to walk and kneel on and if spilled over the edge will do nothing to the soil except make it drain a little better. It would probably be a good addition with all the composted manure and bagged top soil I'm using.

 

[cobrien]

umm...chicken poo is very high in nitrogen.