Chicken manure, and the litter used to collect it, do make a good start for adding organic matter to the soil. It would be much better to compost that manure before putting mixing it into the gardens soil but it could be mixed in as long as that is done 90 to 120 days before harvesting any crops from that garden. Very often that means the manure is piled up and valuable nutrients escape from the manure since the right ratio of vegetative waste to manure usually is not in the pile.

"I haven't set up a compost yet at my new house.. My last one didn't work so well."

What happened?

The reference to "90 to 120 days before harvesting any crops" may be somewhat misleading. It is not a range.

The NOP guidelines are not less than 90 days for edible parts not touching the soil and not less than 120 days for those plants whose edible parts contact the soil. And the guidelines say "incorporated in to the soil".

Lloyd

Any mulch, by definition, ceases to be 'mulch' once you incorporate it into the soil. Mulch is only mulch when it's on the top of the soil surface. Once you incorporate it into the soil, it's not mulch; it's a soil amendment.

Uncomposted wood shavings will use any nitrogen that comes in contact with them to aid in its decomposition. When incorporated into the soil, this can create a nitrogen deficiency and plants may yellow and get sickly. If you only used the shavings on the surface of the soil, as a "mulch", it doesn't do this because the nitrogen it uses is only at the surface where the shavings are making contact. However, fresh manure can contaminate plants, whether as a mulch or mixed into the soil, with salmonella and other bacteria, so, as Kim pointed out, it is recommended that manures be composted for at least 90 days. I wouldn't hesitate to use fresh manure with non-edibles.

Fresh chicken manure is a strong nitrogen source, so the amount of nitrogen in the uncomposted manure could offset the amount that the wood shavings use for their decomposition. Your concern, then, would be overapplying nitrogen to your plant with your strong nitrogen contribution---the fresh chicken manure. I think with just three hens, and periodic cleaning, you probably do not have to worry about overdoing the nitrogen for the average plant.

For edibles, you could compost your litter for 90 days, and after being mixed in your soil, if your plants started to show signs of nitrogen deficiency, you could supplement with nitrogen
or
you could use it after 90 days as a nourishing mulch.

I've tried, but I'm incapable of expressing this any better. The only thing I wanted to say was the first paragraph. Maybe ignore the rest.

Congratulations on your three hens. Isn't it nice to have fertilizer on site? (I only clean my chicken house out once a year, so the composting takes place there, in the house.)

Yes---what Lloyd said.

I don't think those shavings would be very good for your soil.

I think you should send them to me, post paid. Send me an email and I will give you my address.

Send me an e-mail and I'll give you joepye's address.

Thanks everyone for the info!

- My last compost was really hard to get to.. (in the trees) and I'm extremely asthmatic.. so I couldn't really stir it or even add stuff to it very often without getting sick. My husband is not into composting. lol!

So this year I'm trying the worm bin.. and so far I'm fairing much better with that. I'd still like to have a compost however.

If I set one up and added pretty much just the shavings with the manure, and grass clippings.. would I be successful?

lol! You guys are funny.. if I can't figure this composting thing out.. you just may get a big box of poo on your doorstep! ;)

You do not need to turn or tend to compost at all. You can just pile your stuff in a pile and ignore it. You don't even have to harvest it if you don't want to. My mother ran a compost pile for 20 years and never used a particle of it. You can compost just as a way to manage your household waste. I think every home should run a compost pile whether they garden or not.

But yes, you can just compost your litter. You can add your grass clippings, but if you have too many nitrogen additions (grass clippings plus chicken manure) to your carbon additions (wood shavings), your pile will get smelly.

Courtney .... Lucky you, with your hens! They are worth it just for the contented 'crooning' as they scratch for bugs... not to mention the eggs and poop. Altogether a very satisfactory creature.

Glad you can manage your asthma enough to garden at all. I'm in my 70s with a few health 'issues' and its like my personal joke to figure a way around them. I pass these along for whatever use they may be to you:

1] My compost piles are NEVER turned, but they do seem to heat up [can feel the warmth from the top] I'm just not into all that sweaty turning stuff. But I have built a worm 'sky box' on top of one of my piles...the theory being that the worms will be at home in the dirt sky box and then travel into the pile. That's experimental as yet, but I like the idea of my little guys slowly populating the compost pile. :0

2] I have made about 4 worm/compost 'cones' in different parts of the garden. Started with mostly horse manure/bedding plus tree trimmings. I populated each cone with worms and their dirt that I found under the manure pile in my side yard. Then as I have kitchen waste, I dig in the side of the cone and bury the waste. After a while when I dig in the same place [to see what's going on]these waste sites are just teeming with worms. I am very pleased with this little devise ... sort of a hybrid between a worm bin and a compost pile.

Anyway, I know you'll find your own ways to deal with whatever is at your disposal. Again ....how cool to have chickens ...

Worms love chicken poo! borderbarb I am preparing "skyboxes" for several of my piles. I am starting 3 new wormbins made out of old milkcrates stuffed inside of churt coffeebean bags. I added beding loaded with cacoons and about 50 worms to each. When the weather warms next month I will add more worms and bury into the top 1/3 of some cold compost piles and let them work all summer. I may need several thousand worms to accomplish this, which I hope to harvest from my outdoor bin. I believe this will finish off my compost very well.

So I had a wheelbarrow full of pine shaving and chicken manure that sat for about a month, and then I put half on one raised bed and half on the other and mixed it in to the soil real good. I did one about 2 weeks ago and 1 about a week ago. I then covered each one with clear plastic to "cook" things a bit. Am I going to be O.K using these beds for my garden in the next week or so? What should I add to them in order to help out if not?
Thanks,

Chris

Chicken manure is the worst smelling manure I ever smelled. I got about eight gallons of it and spread it under my avocado tree and I could smell it from 70 feet away. Even after two weeks it still smells, but now only when you get close to it.