Using Chicken poo as nitrogen fertilizer for straw bale gardening???

[Chicken love to infinity]

Have you sourced straw bales yet? Typically you can pick them up for $1-2 for a small 2 string bale. This year prices are nuts. You might be paying closer to $7+. Quality dirt will be much cheaper. I can get a large pickup load for $50.

I get a HUGE bale of straw at my local feed store for just $5 so I can get 10 for $50. For good quality dirt here, you pay $8 a (small) bag, which is not worth it.

Where are you? Do you have an abundance of leaves, yard waste, livestock manures, cardboard...? These items can be piled up and used as an informal raised bed. What's the quality of your native soil?

GA, We have lots of leaves but they are mixed with gumballs and acorns. We only have manure from our 20 chickens. Our native soil isn't really soil, it's GA red clay, which nothing can get planted in.

How far along is the compost pile (direct sow into the pile)? The straw will decompose into nice light soil making a great amendment for natural soil but you do need to replace them every year or two.

We started our new compost bin around 2-3 months ago.

But to answer your question, I would just make a chicken manure tea (mildly aged poop) and apply it to the bale when you cure it about a month before you sow. This will wash the nitrogen deep into the bale and not leave it sitting on the top. Cover it with black plastic if you want to warm up the straw and speed things up if you have a late spring.

Thanks

 

[Chicken love to infinity]

Have you sourced straw bales yet? Typically you can pick them up for $1-2 for a small 2 string bale. This year prices are nuts. You might be paying closer to $7+. Quality dirt will be much cheaper. I can get a large pickup load for $50.
Where are you? Do you have an abundance of leaves, yard waste, livestock manures, cardboard...? These items can be piled up and used as an informal raised bed. What's the quality of your native soil? How far along is the compost pile (direct sow into the pile)? The straw will decompose into nice light soil making a great amendment for natural soil but you do need to replace them every year or two.
But to answer your question, I would just make a chicken manure tea (mildly aged poop) and apply it to the bale when you cure it about a month before you sow. This will wash the nitrogen deep into the bale and not leave it sitting on the top. Cover it with black plastic if you want to warm up the straw and speed things up if you have a late spring.

What about worm castings? They have less bacteria and some websites say they work well as nitrogen fertilizer. What do you think?

 

[Chicken love to infinity]

It really depends upon how hot your compost gets while you are composting. We have a large compost pile that I let heat up to 140-150 before turning so it kills the E coli and ages fairly quickly. If you have a smaller pile that cool composts, you will need to let it age longer to make it safe to use.
This article talks about waiting 3-4 months from the last addition of aged manure before harvesting any crops. https://extension.colostate.edu/top...preventing-e-coli-from-garden-to-plate-9-369/


I'm not sure if that would work or not

What about worm castings? They have less bacteria and some websites say they work well as nitrogen fertilizer. What do you think?

 

[RubelliteRose]

What about worm castings? They have less bacteria and some websites say they work well as nitrogen fertilizer. What do you think?

I forgot about worm castings! I know they can be placed directly in the garden and won't burn the plants. I don't think they contain bacteria that you would need to worry about either

 

[Chicken love to infinity]

I forgot about worm castings! I know they can be placed directly in the garden and won't burn the plants. I don't think they contain bacteria that you would need to worry about either

Yay! Perfect. Would you know the amount I should apply to the bale? And how often? Every day or every other day for 14 days? I got a little worried about the possible bacteria in chicken manure. Thank you!

 

[RubelliteRose]

Yay! Perfect. Would you know the amount I should apply to the bale? And how often? Every day or every other day for 14 days? I got a little worried about the possible bacteria in chicken manure. Thank you!

Unfortunately, no. I've never used worm castings in the garden. Raising worms is on my dream list for the garden, so maybe someday.

 

[Chicken love to infinity]

Unfortunately, no. I've never used worm castings in the garden. Raising worms is on my dream list for the garden, so maybe someday.

You can also buy some organic worm casting online! Worm castings would work as the nitrogen fertilizer still though, right?

 

[Fallenone05]

I don't know if you've heard of making 'tea' for your plants, but I've used it before and so have others.

https://www.almanac.com/content/how-make-compost-tea

Here's a little bit of instructions in here! Honestly though, you can make your tea out of anything - chicken or rabbit poop, bone meal, worm castings.. nitrogen is what makes the plants super green, but there's a lot of other stuff they need too.

 

[Percheron chick]

I don't know if you've heard of making 'tea' for your plants, but I've used it before and so have others.

https://www.almanac.com/content/how-make-compost-tea

Here's a little bit of instructions in here! Honestly though, you can make your tea out of anything - chicken or rabbit poop, bone meal, worm castings.. nitrogen is what makes the plants super green, but there's a lot of other stuff they need too.

This is a very involved recipe for compost tea. It's really quite simple. All you need is a bucket, compost (manure, worm castings, a scoop out of your existing compost pile, kitchen waste...) water and a stick to stir it.
Chicken manure and worm castings both fall in the 3-4% nitrogen range. The big difference will be the micro minerals in the two products.

 

[Chicken love to infinity]

Thanks, guys! I'm just so worried. I'm afraid we will invest all this money into the garden, bales, cages, seeds, etc., and won't get any veggies. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!