In article fc.003d094101c665943b9aca0048253d39.1c665aa@pmug. org, (Glenna Rose) wrote:
What I've used in the past was well composted before I got it so I didn't
have problems with weeds, etc., but did get *lots* of earthworms! That
was absolutely 1-A.

The soil here has a natural earthworm population of -- NONE. I've
managed to get some going in areas where I've added tons of organics
(worms need food, ya know).

Today, I received some good advice from someone who knows. With
reasonably fresh manure, put it in the chicken pen area, let the chickens
pick out all the seeds, worms, etc., then put it in the compost bin/area,
then to the garden in the spring/whenever. That way, there are no weeds
coming with it.

I once read that about 75% of the average chicken's diet is -- chicken
manure. Which is exceedingly high in urea (hence the high nitrogen
component for our gardens Chicken manure is sold by big farms for
use in livestock feed (cattle can use the urea to produce protein).

Bovine manure shouldn't have that problem since the grass/hay goes through
a more involved digestive process.

Haha, depends what they eat. I've seen plenty of weeds come from cow
manure. Horses simply won't eat weedy hay the way ruminants will, so
your major problem with horse manure is usually grass seeds.

I suspect that a lot of the blame for "weed seeds in manure" comes
from the fact that weeds are seldom cleared away from the fringes of
manure piles, so are constantly seeding INTO the manure pile...
especially around the edges, where folk with a shovel and a pickup
truck are most likely to get their compost.

~REZ~