"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
hello,

if i have a pile of straw with chook poo in it (as i do), can anyone
tell me
the minimum time i can leave it till the chook poo is deactivated to
the
point where it won't burn the plants? (i don't really want to
compost it all
down, or anything, i just want it for mulch with extra vitamins). i
watered
it, it's not dry. it's mostly straw, though, it's not a pile of
manure by
any means.

I thought about this question overnight and it's a bit hard to answer
because it's a matter of being able to
see what it looks like.

it's certainly looking less pleasant than it did :-)

Having said that, what I think I'd do is to
try to start the rotting process by watering it and turning it a few
times. If that worked OK, I'd then give it a few weeks at least (3 or
more depending on how it's going) before I spread it. I'd spread it
cautiously away from the stems of plants to begin with. And I'd water
the soil well before spreading it as if the place where you spread it
has drought stressed plants then you could still do damage resulting
from an inability to cope with rich food whilst in poor condition.

thank you tish, jonno, and farm. i'm not in any rush, anyway, so that's very
helpful to know.

i was wondering though - some bits of the manure would be older, & some
quite fresh, as it's chook house rakings incl from their yard. does the poo
deactivate a little anyway (in a dried condition) as it ages, or does it
need to compost down a bit (with moisture)? i ask because 1: i don't know
g but also 2: i got a shitload (no pun intended... well maybe) of horse
manure from a neighbour, & it was the same, mixed ages (of poo, not horses
;-), but felt more confident to just start using it straight away because
it's milder than chicken manure. i'm not 100% sure this was a grand plan,
but for the most part it seemed absolutely fine. (the several things which
came up which weren't too healthy from the beginning, i wouldn't necessarily
claim it was from too-fresh manure, as our weather's been bizarre, so there
have been deaths & stunted plants anyway, iyswim... but perhaps it was the
wrong thing to do.)

thanks for any further advice on ageing manure!
kylie
whose yard is being peppered with wallaby manure every night!! my kingdom
for proper fences!!!