What to do with chicken manure-

Would someone please give me some advice on what to do with our chicken manure that we are accumulating after our chickens get cleaned out. Its mixed with pine shavings.

To date I have been putting it on the compost heap, but it is full to capacity, and i have had to dumpit in a secluded part of our garden.

Is there anything else we could do with it, especially as we have a large poly tunnel as well.

Many thanks

 

Hi Olivia

We used to spread our deep litter every autumn over the dug garden and let it 'cool' down over Winter,then run the tiller over the plot in Spring time.

This might help...

Using domestic poultry litter

Domestic chickens and other birds are usually kept in coops with a shallow layer of sawdust litter. The litter tends to be wet and smelly, and often has a layer of newspaper underneath it. Fresh poultry droppings are very alkaline in pH compared to the dried manure or the litter as a whole. While the deep litter produced by poultry farms might be suitable for direct garden use, domestic poultry litter is generally unsuitable for this purpose. Used fresh, it could burn plant roots, attract vermin and foxes, and would also be unattractive in appearance. However, it makes an excellent compost activator, and we advise gardeners to compost their domestic poultry litter with other garden waste.

Gardeners should be aware that fresh, wet poultry droppings can scorch both lawns and garden plants, and are (weight-for-weight) much lower in nutrients than dried poultry manure products

An average dose for top-dressing is 150g per sq m (4½oz per sq yd) for most crops. However, it is better to under-dose than over-dose, as more can always be added later. For less hungry crops or lawns at risk of scorch, 100g per sq m (3oz per sq yd) may be preferable. For greedy vegetable crops use 200g per sq m (6oz per sq yd), but split this into two doses with a four week gap between applications.

 

Hi are you growing any beans as you could dig out a trench and put that all in the bottom cover with soil your beans would love it , to be honest I would be temted to do the same in the poly tunnel dig out a deep trench and do the same. it would soon brake down and will help to retain moisture.

You could bag it up and use later in the year as well.



Spruce

 

Hi Armandii I tottaly agree with what you have said.

Also wood shavings I think? it takes nitrogen out thats why I sugested using a bean crop on top ??



Spruce

 

I've got a coment on that

As Kristen will tell us in a minute, chicken poo is very high on nitrogen so will help in rotting the wood chip down. Without the wood chip it might cause too much sappy growth, so its a good thing

 

:D I know Pete & Kristan will be against this but having a clay soil, i'd rather be having pine chippings in my veg bed than the clay, they wont last forever & will be broken down by fungus in the long run.

In the mean time, they act as great insulators, good for earthing up the spuds & keeping the frost off my surviving bean roots and the last surviving Globe Artichoke.

Its also easier to sweep up woodchip off the floor than to have to mop up clay that has been trodden indoors.

 

Many thanks for your replies. I think I am going to have to get round to building a much larger composting site. We also have a lot of straw and hay discarded from the childrens Guinea pigs & rabbit.

I didnt think of the runner beans option by digging a trench. As we are new to gardening, what depth woudl be best? Also, are you saying it would be okay for me to dump the dropings in there now?

Regards

Olivia9801

 

Well ... it did cross my mind when I read the thread first time around, but Chicken Poo isn't that strong in Nitrogen - its fairly balanced between N, P and K

having said that, there will be enough Nitrogen to fuel the composting process I reckon.

Like any manure I would pile-it for 6 months to a year to let it compost, and then use it. If there is still lots of evidence of wood-chips / pine-needles then it isn't ready :thumb:

 

Hi I was going to suggest a bigger compost heap but thought that answer to easy:D

Dig a trench 18 inches deep, put it in then use a garden fork to mix it in then put the top soil back on top its ages to plant beans yet as well , to be honest I would do it now and still time for it to leach out & soil to settle , how much poo are we taking about if you can say "barrow" size or do you have a chicken farm

What do others say ???? riight or wrong





Spruce

 

I'll stick my neck out! and say that I think its a waste of good Chicken Poo!

The Beans will fix their own Nitrogen, so don't really need a source of Nitrogen - what they need is moisture-retaining matter - typically a trench full of any old uncomposted matter - uncomposted vegetable waste, paper, and so on.

I think the chicken manure would server a better purpose elsewhere (once composted)

 

Our hens are kept in a covered run on straw that's changed approx once a month. A few years ago when we ran out out stable straw for making paths (laid on newspaper) between veggie beds, we used some of that straw straight from the hen run between a potato patch and an onion bed.

The onions and potatoes that grew either side of that path were the biggest we've ever grown, but when trying to replicate those results we've found it best to spread it over potatoes at the earthing up stage, and even more difficult to get it right for onions.