Side Dressing with Shavings and Chicken Manure?

[jennyf]

I'm a lurker from the chicken forums hoping for some advice from the gardeners here! Can I mix in a shavings/chicken poop bedding mix with the dirt a couple feet away from shrubs? I have a bunch of Cornish chicks pooping away and I'm running out of composting room.

 

[boskelli1571]

Hi there, can't think of any reason why not. Just don't put directly on the shrubs and don't 'overload' the dirt with shavings....

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm a lurker from the chicken forums hoping for some advice from the gardeners here! Can I mix in a shavings/chicken poop bedding mix with the dirt a couple feet away from shrubs? I have a bunch of Cornish chicks pooping away and I'm running out of composting room.

I would not mix it into the soil, but use it as a mulch, being careful to keep it away from the base of the plants. Even better yet: Do you have a chicken run? Is the vegetation removed there, leaving bare soil? IMO, that is where your used bedding should go. Add other compostable materials to it, right in the run, and the chickens will churn it into beautiful black compost. IMO, bare soil, whether it's in the garden or in the chicken run is unhealthy soil. If you cover it with either growing plants, or mulch, that will feed the beneficial organisms, and help eliminate any pathogens. Your chickens will benefit many times over by having a deep litter under their feet. I've stopped buying shavings (except for when starting chicks, and only use them there for convenience sake.) Instead, I stock pile dried leaves from properties in town: One yard I visit has over 100 contractor bags of leaves for me to pick up. Hard work, but totally valuable, and incredibly superior as bedding in the coop.

 

[jennyf]

I do have a run for my layer chickens, but ground is pretty well covered still with fall leaves in varying stages of decomposition. It's 200 sq ft and I'd be hesitant to dump quite that volume of poop in there... Plus quarantine issues--I'm pretty sure the Cornish are healthy but still. Leaves are WONDERFUL--I stockpiled some too!

 

[lazy gardener]

That poop would melt right into the soil. Cornish raised on your yard? If they came to you as chicks, I"d not be concerned about quarantine. But, that's an individual choice.