Raised bed gardening and chicken poop

[drinkoj]

@TropicalBabies
My ball obsessed boy, Obi

My daughter's girl, Fayrrn

 

[TropicalBabies]

@TropicalBabies
My ball obsessed boy, Obi
View attachment 2409075

My daughter's girl, Fayrrn
View attachment 2409082View attachment 2409083

My DH would go nuts over your puppies! And probably they-him! He can play for hours with his boy. Sounds like you need a bat and a softball or a frisbee!

 

[Ridgerunner]

A tradition on farms is to empty the hen house or barn in the fall and spread that poop so it has time to decompose before spring. The chicken coop stuff (poop and bedding) goes on the garden, the barn stuff more for hayfields or pasture because of all the seeds in horse or cow poop.

In South Carolina your winters are certainly mild enough for that stuff to break down by spring. That's how I did in when I was in Arkansas, winters are probably somewhat comparable to you. I tilled it in so it stays more evenly moist, that helps the bugs break it down. So maybe in your raised beds you turn it under. The areas I did that showed a big difference the next year. Not just in nutrients but in tilth. The soil was easier to work.

I use droppings boards under the roosts. I scrape the pure poop off of those and put it into my compost pile. If you have a garden and chickens and can manage at all, you need to be be composting garden wastes and chicken poop. I use a compost pile but my son uses a barrel composter. I once killed some tomatoes by putting what I cleaned out from the coop directly in the garden. I thought I'd kept that stuff far enough away but I think a rain washed it in too close. So now I make sure I compost it first.

 

[Dephora]

I love adding fresh chicken poop to my compost piles, it really helps keep my hot compost piles real hot in the middle. If you let the poop over winter directly in the garden bed, that should be long enough to "age" the poop and allow it time to decompose enough it wont burn all your roots. So long as you aren't smearing fresh chicken poop over all your veggie leaves I wouldn't worry too much about pathogens and parasites. Certainly make sure to wash whatever you bring in from the garden no matter what you do and you will be fine. Sometimes hubby eats right out of the garden and while he hasn't given himself anything bad yet, no man is that lucky all his life. When it eventually happens and he is holding on to the porcelain throne, I will remind him of that nice tomato he ate straight from the bush.

 

[Phneyda]

For those who put the poop in the bins, does it matter what kind of bedding you use?

 

[Dephora]

For those who put the poop in the bins, does it matter what kind of bedding you use?

If you add straight to your garden beds, I would avoid wood chips. In general, sawdust takes longer to break down. I wouldn't add it to hot compost in large amounts unless you are going to be turning it and keeping it hot. If you think you are more the cold compost type, straw would be better, or sand. But still be aware that adding even too much straw or dry material will throw off your "green" to "brown" ratio. Though droppings are considered "green" so as long as your ratio is 2:1 you will be good.

I have started experimenting with mushrooms in the garden to help break things down quicker. If you have lots of sawdust and chicken droppings creating "paths" with it and adding mushroom spores could be a fun experiment with wine caps.

If you are looking for only a manure bed. They talk about the mushrooms that love a pure manure bed.

 

[rosemarythyme]

For those who put the poop in the bins, does it matter what kind of bedding you use?

I was using wood chips (not shavings) and then picking out the chunkier chips, so pretty much just poop going into compost. But I also compost for a year before use so stuff gets decently broken down.

Recently switched to hemp under the roosts so we'll see how that works with the compost. Supposedly it composts better but I won't know until I see how it breaks down in the bin.

 

[seeingreen]

I’ve been experimenting. Last summer I put bedding and chicken poop directly on the rows between my corn. It covered the pathway and helped suppress any weed growth. There was no damage to the corn in fact it helped retain moisture. Corn can take higher nitrogen and since it’s ears are nowhere near the ground I wasn’t worried. I’m putting more in over the winter so it can compost down though this stuff has been stored for a few months and is probably broken down a bit more.

 

[Sally PB]

I'll be throwing my poop collections out onto the squash bed. I've already put a bunch on my asparagus bed. Asparagus needs a lot of nitrogen, and the oak leaves on the squash bed are enough carbon to balance out a lot of poop.