Your onions should be fine, but you have to be careful with chicken manure for many reasons. It is good that you turned the soil, as this will help to break down the manure further and reduce the likelihood of pathogens.

You are confusing two issues - one having to do with fertility (chicken manure is referred to as "Hot" because of its high Nitrogen content) - and the other to do with the transfer of pathogens, which relates to direct contact between manure and the edible portion of the crop. If you are spraying your cucumbers with fresh liquid manure, then you may have reason to be concerned, but if it is properly composted, and applied over 120 days before harvest, it should be safe to use.

Root crops in highly manured soil tend to be lower in quality because the roots send out many feeder hairs, and the plant will have excessive vegetative growth.

Drying chicken manure is less than ideal, because you will lose many of its nutritional advantages. In the interest of nutrition and general sanitation, it should be composted.

Thank you, I did know the difference between "hot" and pathogen's, I think I just read so much, I got myself confused and that is why I asked the question.

I know I wouldn't want to eat a carrot that lay in manure but with the onion, I wasn't sure, since it has an outer skin.

I need to start composting, I've just put it off!
Thanks again.

Thank you for the question and answer. I have learnt. I have added chicken to my transplanted onions. I have read that nitrogen (found in chicken manure) helps with leaf growth during the vegetative stage of the onion. Thanks again.

Samuel Daka - Lusaka, ZAMBIA.