Return to the Soil Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
What to do with chicken manure?
| | |
Posted by
tahota USDA-5 Sunst-2b (
My Page) on
Mon, Feb 7, 11 at 12:41
| We have four chickens. Every few months we scrape out their run. I've been throwing this soil/straw/manure mix onto unused flower beds and tilling it in. However, we've finally filled all of our beds so I no longer have unplanted space to put this stuff. We have two cold compost bins (this year's waste and last year's almost-finished compost) that I use primarily for leaves and garden clippings. Can I throw this chicken mix into the compost? Should I put it into the new compost or the almost-finished bin? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What to do with chicken manure?
| | |
- Posted by jolj 7b/8a-S.C.,USA (My Page) on
Mon, Feb 7, 11 at 15:30
| I would start a new compost pile, or you could put it in this years waste pile, but I would not put anything new in the 2 year pile. I would use the compost from the 2 year pile in the garden beds. I would then use the space that the compost was in to start pile #3 with new garden/kitchen waste & chicken straw/manure. You could run over it with a lawn mower to cut it up, for faster composting also. |
RE: What to do with chicken manure?
| | |
RE: What to do with chicken manure?
| | |
| Not only a compost pile, but adding worms to it will further reduce its size, and make it an even better fertilizer than without. We use to grow worms in chicken manure and then feed that to our garden and it would grow three times as well as gardens with just composted manure. |
RE: What to do with chicken manure?
| | |
There is no reason to not add that manure to the compost pile that is not yet finished as long as that compost is not used until it is finished. This fresh manure may well help that material digest faster by providing the bacteria that are munching on it with more food and energy.
If you have enough vegetative waste to properly utilize that manure you could also start a new pile with it. |
RE: What to do with chicken manure?
| | |
| I meant to say the "newer" pile, not the 2 year pile |
RE: What to do with chicken manure?
| | |
- Posted by tahota USDA-5 Sunst-2b (My Page) on
Tue, Feb 8, 11 at 10:18
| I don't have room for a third pile. I'll probably just add it to the first-year pile. It will only make up a small percentage of the total pile. We have 2/3 acres of perennial gardens that generate a lot of leaves and waste to offset the manure. I'm not sure how, but we always end up with tons of red wigglers in the compost piles. They are not supposed to live through the winter here in zone 5. |
Post a Follow-Up
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in.
If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Soil Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
