If she has a single pile/bin and continually adds to it, I think your idea of adding it after harvest and letting it sit over winter makes sense.

If she can start a second bin/pile, she can let the first one get to about 3 ft x 3 ft, turning it periodically, then start a second bin/pile. Once the first one heats up, then cools down, and probably no longer has any bad smell to it or recognizable chicken waste, it is probably safe to use. Some people prefer to let it age beyond that point.

If the second bin gets to the 3x3 size before the first is used, she can start a third bin. Basically, she'll have compost in various stages all the time using this approach.

You know when any manure, that has been composted with 3 parts of vegetative waste to 1 part of the manure is no longer recognizeable for what it was when it went into the mix and the odor is one of good, rich earth. When we had chickens I used leaves as litter and the chickens liked that much better than the straw many people used, and when I cleaned to coop I had the right mixture of "stuff" for my compost bin, all that was needed was a bit more moisture.

When the compost no longer heats up after aerating and adding any required moisture. It is then 'finished'.

Since I have chickens too, and they roam my acre every day of halfway decent weather, I was wondering about the passing of weed seeds. But the general consensus seemed to be that because chickens have such an efficient crop/digestive system, that MOST (not all, and I do worry about wild blackberry seeds) seeds are worn down (scarified) in the crop and mostly digested before being passed out of the body.

After reading that, I collected some of my chickies poopers and smeared them on a flat surface to look for seeds. Didn't even find one, although I went through them multiple times. I didn't even find some partially-digested ones, which I did expect to find.

Sue

If your freind is living in the same zone 4 area as you are, I don't see any reason to not put down a thin layer of the poop over the annual garden right now. Don't mix it in, just let rain and weather do it's thing for a few weeks. I did this a few weeks ago becuase winter caught me by surprise so I did not put any out at the end of last season.

Like you did when you were young, I put the chicken waste directly into the garden in the fall. In the spring I add it to my compost pile for next year's containers and to add to the perenniels. I will also add it lightly to the dormant perenniels in early winter. Kay.

You know when any manure, that has been composted with 3 parts of vegetative waste to 1 part of the manure is no longer recognizeable for what it was when it went into the mix and the odor is one of good, rich earth.

Be sure to note what kimmsr said. Aged chicken manure is just aged chicken manure. Unless it has been mixed and composted it isn't compost. They aren't handled the same way.

If your freind is living in the same zone 4 area as you are, I don't see any reason to not put down a thin layer of the poop over the annual garden right now.

Zone doesn't matter this time of year. The only thing zones tell us is the average annual coldest temperature. It's not useful information in this situation. If manure were spread on the garden now and an hour's worth of torrential rain came it could all be washed away.

Tell your friend that at least one person you know spreads her fresh chicken manure on her garden every spring---with great results. I spread it about 5 inches deep and lightly fork it in in the rows in which I plant. And since hundreds of people will be telling her not to use uncomposted manure, I would tell her that she should try it in half of her garden this year and compare the results with the half without it.

Then I'd like you to post her results at the end of the season for all the naysayers to see.

Annpat, I would love to hear more about this. I have chicken manure and horse manure, mixed with shavings and hay, and would love to just spread it on the garden without composting first.

cavamarie, people have concerns about e-coli and I know nothing about that. I've used fresh manure in gardens almost every year I've gardened and I've never sacrificed fruit for foliage as you would expect. I've only had a problem once---in a spot where a ton of fresh chicken manure sat for a month before I could get it spread. Everything we planted in that drenched spot died. Mix the manure in well before you plant and I think you'll have results similar to mine, providing you, like me, need to apply nitrogen fertilizer every year.

I have 16 chickens. I clean their house once a year (where I suppose, it's technically been composting)and spread it on my garden straight from the coop prior to planting. I used much fresher chicken manure in my early 20s---sometimes with dead chickens in it---which I got from a farmer. With really fresh manure I spread it three weeks before planting per advice I received from an "Organic Gardening" course I took in 1974.

People always tell secondhand horror stories about chicken manure, but I've never heard a horror story from someone who's actually used it. I'm always worried that my experience with chicken manure won't pan out in the rest of the country, so rather than take my word for it, try it in half of your rows and see for yourself.

Interesting, Annpat. Im doing basically what you're doing. I have a chicken house...havent cleaned it out yet, but theres been chickens in there since January. I started with shavings in there; have been adding old hay from the barn to top it with, so Im thinking it probably needs a good cleaning out. I was thinking of putting it directly between the rows in my garden, not directly on the plants themselves. I was going to use it as mulch, not dig it in. I definitely need a lot of nitrogen where I am, pretty sandy here.

Oh, you'll be fine. Mine is pretty much the same stuff---shavings, hay and several bags of leaves from the local dump. (I love the deep litter method here in Maine where I actually had steam coming out of the bedding in Jan.)

Good afternoon, AnnPat....Like you we have a small flock of "girls" and a garden of raised beds. The coop is cleaned out at a minimum of twice a year and the area beneath their roost is provided with pine wood chips/shavings (we stopped using straw due to mite issues). Currently we use two areas for composting -- soon to be three. However, the main purpose of my writing to you is that one area is simply a pile of manure and shavings with some kitchen scraps piled in for good measure. This pile has been building now for about 8 months....last manure added was this past February. I am in zone 5/6 and won't really plant veggies until around May 15th. I would like to make a compost tea from this pile and then spray my beds weekly.....spray will be diluted 8oz to 1 gallon of water. Should this be safe both from a plant and human consumption standpoint? May harvest some salad fixins' 1st of May. Thanks for any advice .... Stumpy

In case annpat doesn't stop by right away I will say that manures are considered safe after 90 days from when they are 'fresh' to harvest time. If the last addition to that pile was 8 months ago it will be fine. I would turn it if you haven't to help it finish evenly. If you started it 8 months ago but are still adding, you may want to stop adding manure and make sure you wait 90 days between the last manure addition and first veggie harvest, which may not be any problem at all if you aren't even planting till May.

When manures are safe to use and when they are fully composted is quite different.

kimmq is kimmsr

Are you sure you want the chicken manure "fully composted"? That means that it will have lost the majority of its nitrogen. It would still be a fine compost amendment. But if you are planning to use it as fertilizer, then you want "aged", not composted manure. Just FYI.

Properly composted animal manures will not have lost a majority of the Nitrogen but "aged" animal manures may well loose a lot of the Nitrogen they once contained through leaching into the ground water or gassing off to the atmosphere. Composting manures, adding 3 parts of vegetative waste to the manure will help capture that volatile N and keep it from escaping.

kimmq is kimmsr