We are looking into doing something benefit backyard poultry keepers, especially those using organic approaches. I have an idea that could result in feces that is easier to "harvest" from flat surfaces like below roost. Anyone here use the feces for gardening / composting? A particular fiber source I think makes for better feces, but do not know what is the range of amounts that provides benefits with causing troubles. Most interest here is in meat birds (Cornish cross) but I could likely swing some effort towards "free-range" laying hens. I also have access to biochar, but do not know if it can be classified as organic.
Yes, I compost my chicken poop for gardening. I prefer horse manure, though. It seemed to have more nutritional value but on the down side it always made for a weedy garden.
Are you going to be doing a study to see what works best or do you already know? We raised 12 meat birds last year, and they certainly poop A LOT!
I do not know what works best. I have not even tried approach that might with with meat birds, unless you count my heritage birds that take 12 weeks to mature and operate much more free-range that Cornish cross can do.
It is a given we will be trying to round up locally available organic feed stuffs. I hope to mill feeds ourselves to give students some experience with that process. Most milling to date has been for fish feed which is not widely practiced in the Midwest. Going to be converting some tree-huggers!
I compost to garden from two compost bins. I do not have weed problems and do not spray for weeds since organic. I just throw it in in the fall to winter over in the garden for next season.
An idea bouncing in my head has feed mixture adjusted so as to impact soil density, IEC and organic content of compost. We have done similar before without impacting performance on fish but had no way to test material in a practical setting.