Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: White Faced Black Spanish sorry

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:
The mix means that the future hens should lay eggs in the green to khaki range, and if you wish to know my plans, I would also like to add a favorelle or two as then they make for pinkish egg layers. nuff said

but I am so ignorant to genetics, I guess I will take a gamble

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

White Faced Black Spanish sorry

Thanks! We newbies are still learning...pardon the ignorance.

 

[LisaYolkUm]

Its not spring yet but lets just talk about it like it is..............OKAY?

I was reading about using chicken manure compost not too long ago and I recall it said something like the stuff needed to be in the compost pile for at least 6 months so that it doesn't burn the plants etc.


I have a very simple composting method.............its empty the coop bedding and run stuff into a pile on the compost heap and let nature do its work.

So considering this winter and all.............maybe the top of the pile has some early Feb additions coop bedding etc...............6 months from feb is August!

I want to use the stuff in like April.

So do I just mix it all up and add some other dirt to it?

Or just use from the bottom of the pile.............

anyone have any experience with this.

I am clearly not ready to use it yet..................but am mentally planning my veggie garden.

thought I would ask you all

 

[dheltzel]

Its not spring yet but lets just talk about it like it is..............OKAY?

I was reading about using chicken manure compost not too long ago and I recall it said something like the stuff needed to be in the compost pile for at least 6 months so that it doesn't burn the plants etc.


I have a very simple composting method.............its empty the coop bedding and run stuff into a pile on the compost heap and let nature do its work.

So considering this winter and all.............maybe the top of the pile has some early Feb additions coop bedding etc...............6 months from feb is August!

I want to use the stuff in like April.

So do I just mix it all up and add some other dirt to it?

Or just use from the bottom of the pile.............

anyone have any experience with this.

I am clearly not ready to use it yet..................but am mentally planning my veggie garden.

thought I would ask you all

Fertilizer of any type "burning" plants is often misunderstood. Plants absorb water by osmosis, which requires that the water is the soil around their roots (think tiny film of moisture, just slightly damp to us) have a lower concentration of salts than the fluid inside their cells. Any sort of salt has this effect, and fertilizers of all type counts as salts. If the concentration of these salts is too high, the plants lose water out of their roots rather than absorbing it, hence the "burning" effect.

No manure can ever burn unless it is too concentrated in the area immediately around the roots. And the quick fix for too much fertilizer is to add water, which dilutes the salts and restores the flow of water into the roots. So use the manure carefully, spread it thin and mix it well with the soil.

Composting actually gets rid of the fertilizer chemicals in the manure by 1) offgassing (smell that ammonia? It's drifting off into the air instead of adding N (nitrogen) to your soil 2) leaching (weeds grow great downstream of the manure pile as rain washes the nutrients away) 3) uptake into the bodies of organisms that are rotting the carbon components of the pile, like straw or wood shavings. This last one merely ties up the N and it will be released later when the organisms die, so it's not a real loss, and it creates other good things in the process.

I'm not trying to denigrate composting, it works, but it does not magically make manure non-burning after 6 months. Understanding what's really going on can help you avoid problems, and I think it's fun to know what's happening.

 

[LisaYolkUm]

so I think you are saying..............its okay to use the compost if

I mix it well with other soil

use a lot of water

keep it not too close to roots

don't put too much of it on...........spread it thin.............

does this sound right?

 

[dheltzel]

so I think you are saying..............its okay to use the compost if

I mix it well with other soil

use a lot of water

keep it not too close to roots

don't put too much of it on...........spread it thin.............

does this sound right?

Pretty much. If you think about manure as a good thing that is very concentrated, you can work wonders with it. Pile it up now and try to prevent rain from washing the good stuff out. Then when you plow or till the garden, put a bunch on and mix it up well with the soil. After the plants are growing well, add more manure, but not too close to their stems -- or make and use "manure tea" for your plants. Places that have depleted soil, like around long standing landscape plants, can take quite a bit more manure than new seedlings, because there is much less in the soil now, so you can pile a lot around shrubs and trees and let the rain leach it into the ground all season, like a combination of slow release fertilizer and mulch.

Manure is valuable stuff, use it sparingly because every plant you care about needs some.

 

[Reyvaughn]

sorry! I so hate to disappoint

I am satisified with the CCL hens laying abilities thus far, praying it continues.

Now talk about amazingness..... I can tell you how impressed I am with our WFBS! They were amazing through summer heat, through the wet weather and ACED and I said ACED this wacked out winter! not a spec on the combs, and lay like bejimminies all winter long, never had a broody either! I can guarantee eggs in those nests as all other nest are empty! Amazingly impressed all around, even incubating, they take flux in temps and I had 35 in the bator day 18 and EVERY single one hatched and over and over they hatch well! I am waiting for larger WHITE eggs so far I have 48/50 mg average, no one is helping me with an average egg size for them, I had one hit on a WFS group and said 50-55 is their average. I am rambling on these guys, but they do deserve justice as they are simply amazing.



ps..... I have found some with help of Freds Hen gorgeous HRIR to boot

I saw your WFBS on FB. I have always kind of wondered about them. They are very pretty birds and different. I haven't seen anyone that actually breeds them in the 4yrs I've had chickens, except you, of course, Sally.

 

[BullChick]

Quote:
This conversation reminds me that I have a question. What do you do when you are running out of places to put the dirty bedding? I have reached that place, and I need to figure it out quick.

 

[dheltzel]

This conversation reminds me that I have a question. What do you do when you are running out of places to put the dirty bedding? I have reached that place, and I need to figure it out quick.

Pile it somewhere and tell your gardening friends to come get some. Or advertise on Craigslist, but giving away anything for free there can draw out some odd folks, so you might want to charge a nominal price. Friends are a better way.