What to do with poop. Is it toxic to the environment/me?

[CrazyTalk]

There's a huge difference between a couple of birds pooing in your yard, and farmers pumping thousands of tons of manure slurry - I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Those TV documentaries sell advertising and attract ratings. They have to be outrageous to get people to watch them. There is normally some truth in them but you have to watch them with a cynical eye.

I understand the difference in Organic and not-Organic methods, but to me organic means taking care of the environment more than following certain rules and assuming everything organic is safe. In certain aspects fertilizer is fertilizer. If used inappropriately is can cause problems with the environment whether it is organic or not. A main problem with fertilizer is when enough leaches out of the ground in rain to cause too many nutrients to get into the water. You can get algae blooms and stuff like that when the balance of nutrients get upset. It’s pollution, whether form manure or manmade chemicals.

The problems with manure occurs when you get enough of a concentration of it and you get heavy enough rain that the stuff can leach off. Feed lots are notorious for that but most states have laws on how they are supposed to handle the manure. Some are followed better than others and some are enforced better than others but huge strides have been made in managing that. In recent years Oklahoma sued Arkansas because Arkansas farmers were spreading chicken manure on the fields as fertilizer. The claim was that the run-off from that was polluting the Illinois River. Oklahoma did not win, by the way. Not because the chicken manure did not contribute to the pollution but because Oklahoma could not prove it was the main cause. I think there were some legal technicalities involved too.

Wild birds, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, many things are dropping manure all the time in the environment. It’s not a problem unless it gets concentrated. Chickens free ranging over a large area are really unlikely to cause any problems because it won’t be concentrated. It’s when you have stuff concentrated, like in a coop or a small run for the number of chickens that you might have a problem. That’s where composting really can help the environment. Spreading it in the garden or putting it in landscaping beds or flower beds when the plants are dormant and it has enough time to break down before they start to grow again is also a great way to use it.

You did no harm in spreading that in your garden. That was a good thing to do.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Sustainable is the word you should be using. Organic has nothing to do with taking care of the environment.

 

[islandgirl82]

Sustainable is the word you should be using. Organic has nothing to do with taking care of the environment.

Absolutely.

You can feed organic feed and have poor waste management, leading to all sorts of contamination and that is not sustainable and on the flip side, you can feed non-organic, medication packed feed and practice proper waste management and that is sustainable.

 

[ECBW]

My 2 cents... the concentration in volume from factory farm is not the same as BYC hobbyist. I compost the poop from the coop. But gathering the poop from free ranging is obvious exercise in futility. Besides, the lawn is nice and green. But 100 chickens grazing my lawn full time, will destroy and turn my lawn toxic.

It is about maintaining the balance. Same could apply to diet, exercise, even drinking.

 

[LittleBits]

Just saw this thread. Fertilizer is expensive. Use chicken poop!

I throw everything on the compost pile at the edge of our garden. Lawn clippings ( when I collect them), leaves, twigs, chicken poo, and table scraps (keeps the neighborhood dogs, cats, wild animals OUT of the garbage cans - what they don't eat will compost - otherwise, they WILL get in the garbage and make a MESS - no matter how tight the lids are!) I rake it around every once and awhile and eventually, it makes wonderful, rich soil, which I then use on flower beds and other spots.

The compost pile also makes a great place to dig worms, if you like to fish! And the chickens like the worms, too. They dig around but manage to avoid their own waste, amazingly! They scratch in the already composted areas of the pile! Smart chickies! We only have 7 chickens, but they do poop a lot! Really, what we get isn't enough for a big garden. Soil is depleted of it's nutrients pretty quick when you plant there year after year.

So go ahead and put it wherever you want to. Just not directly on plants, (just like any fertilizer) - let it compost first.