Chicken manure

[mvona]

I have an acquaintance who has chickens. He has offered me the manure for use in my garden. I've never used chicken manure and I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with it and what I might need to be careful of if I'm going to start using it?

Thanks for any advice.

Mark

 

[headfullofbees]

It is very hot and needs to be composted for a year, but it's an excellent all-round fertiliser.
I use pelleted, composted, chicken manure, to augment my seaweed and comfrey.

 

[mvona]

Thank you, that makes sense. I just did some reading about it in one of my books and that sounds about right. The books I read are good sources but I find that they cannot take to place of someone who has experience. I might see this friend today and I wanted to be ready to respond to the offer.

Thanks again

 

[Esther Knapicius]

From Ohio here, where the winters can get to minus numbers, like minus 10 degrees. With that said, keep that in mind for the rest of this tale. Had chickens growing up, and dad would clean out the chicken manure keeping it on a pile . During the summer dad had a huge veggie garden. Some of the veggies were tomatoes, now if a nightly roaming animal decided to chew on one of the tomatoes, he'd take that tomato and splat it on to the chicken manure pile. So went the months, so when winter. Come the next spring you would see little baby tomato plants coming out of that pile. He would take those and plant them in his rows. And so the cycle continued.

 

[mvona]

Thank you Esther for a nice story and some more info on chicken manure. I am thinking I am going to compost it for this summer and see how it looks. Then use it to top dress my garden for the winter. I am in Western NY state where we also usually have cold winters and I have a light soil that drains quickly.

 

[marlingardener]

We keep chickens, and I put the manure on the compost pile. Chicken manure is "hot", meaning it is high in nitrogen and when used fresh can burn plants. We compost for six months, which in our Texas heat is likely a bit over cautious. It sure helps the gardens, both vegetable and flower gardens.
Your plan to compost for the summer and then top dress for winter is a good one. You'll be so pleased with the outcome!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

remember to top dress veggie garden with Lime powder also. it sweetens the veggies for next year. In the land of Amish country where I live, you can see acres and acres of white in December where they laid the powder, which is suppose to naturally leach down during the winter with snow/rains.

 

[Peace perfect peace]

Lime also lifts the ph in the soil but think about what your wanting to grow, Lime loving plants "great" Lime haters No,

Lime is good for keeping a pest we suffer with here in this part of the world "SLUGS" they dont like Lime.

If you have a clay or very poor soil, Lime again improves the soil and breaks down clay,

If your tomatos have had end rot in the last crop "Lime" added to the soil/compost will stop it,

Plant leaves looking pale ? again lack of lime, Lime helps the foliage .

 

[Esther Knapicius]

last year as I was roaming the country roads I spied vast fields all white with lime. hope this fall I will have my camera ready to take that shot, its certainly interesting. But then in the early spring the Amish pour out liquid manure all over and if you in the wrong wind direction. Yes, and need a shot of that, with the wagon being pulled by the horses and the muck pouring out the back side. We have so many visual delights over here.

 

[headfullofbees]

You must not use manure and lime at the same time, hence lime in the autumn, manure in spring.
Lime is alkaline and takes time to break down, liquid manure is acidic and the nitrogen in liquid feeds tends to leach away quite quickly; hence the timetable.

 

[Tjohn]

I usually put aged chicken manure (3-6 months) on my beds after the first hard freeze and leave everything under the snow until spring, then turn it under as soon as the soil can be worked. By the time things warm up enough to plant, it is nicely incorporated into the garden.

 

[pinkpandagirl36]

It is very hot and needs to be composted for a year, but it's an excellent all-round fertiliser.
I use pelleted, composted, chicken manure, to augment my seaweed and comfrey.

What you said about the pellets concerns me in light of my experience here: https://www.gardening-forums.com/th...-i-poison-my-garden-newbie.17454/#post-179533

Does chicken manure need to be pelleted to be safe to use on vegetables? Or is that just one kind of safe manure?

 

[Esther Knapicius]

You must not use manure and lime at the same time, hence lime in the autumn, manure in spring.
Lime is alkaline and takes time to break down, liquid manure is acidic and the nitrogen in liquid feeds tends to leach away quite quickly; hence the timetable.

Personally I use neither. But knowing the Amish, they know what to use, when to use it, and where to use both, or not both.

 

[BereniceDoty]

Wow, I haven't used it before but hearing from you guys, I think I might use it. Thanks for the great information dear friends.