The message m
from Tim Challenger "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" contains
these words:

I've got a small free-range egg/chicken farmer round the corner.
If I can get him to give me some of his animal's muck, say from the stalls
or whatever, can I use it on the garden? In the compost? Or am I wasting my
time? Does it have to be rotted like horse manure? What about diseases,
are there likely to be any problems?

In its raw concentrated state the high-nitrogen content is too strong
for putting round plants (could "burn" tissue or roots), but free-range
chickenshit (along with the woodshavings or straw the birds were housed
in and odd feathers etc) is the ideal, perfect material to enrich your
compost heap, heat it up and speed decomposition. Mixed with lawn
mowings, it's almost an incendiary device, so add plenty of urine to
damp it down :-) Matured and diluted by the other finished compost
ingredients it's perfectly safe for plants. People were always begging
us for our chickenshed cleanings as compost-activator.

The only time I'd use it raw direct in the soil, is mixed in the other
ingredients for a deep rich trench for planting beans or rhubarb...where
there's going to be a timelag (and lots of activity by soil organisms)
before the roots reach it.

As for diseases; many birds including chickens have bugs like
salmonella in their gut, so when you're handling fresh chicken shit it's
just common sense to wear gloves and not combine the job with eating
your elevenses/ rocking the baby. Composted and aged, there should be no
problem. We used composted chicken manure on our veg garden (including
salads) for decades with no problems at all.

Janet.

Mixed with lawn
mowings, it's almost an incendiary device,

Mix with water, boil it and what's left is nitrates. Makes lovely bombs!


------------------------------------------
The Hemyock, Devon, UK branch of The Residents Appreciation Society.

http://english.aljazeera.net

Thanks everyone, I feel a bit more confident about it now. I'm sure I can
wrangle a few barrow-loads out of him at the very least. :-)

--
Tim C.

"Cerumen" wrote in message
...

"Tim Challenger" "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" wrote in message
s.com...
I've got a small free-range egg/chicken farmer round the corner.
If I can get him to give me some of his animal's muck, say from the
stalls
or whatever, can I use it on the garden? In the compost? Or am I wasting
my
time? Does it have to be rotted like horse manure? What about diseases,
are there likely to be any problems?

I used to keep a large number of free range birds and always composted
their litter from the nesting roosting houses, it was very good stuff

snip

It is indeed. But if you have free ranging hens (as I have although only
two) you simply can't keep them from depositing wherever they happen to be.
They don't just wait until they're indoors.

They also scratch about and everything gets mixed in and turned over.

Of course you wouldn't put any fresh, neat manure on plants but what comes
naturally on the ground is dealt with naturally on the ground. I began
growing vegetables after we started keeping hens and I realised how much the
fertility of the soil had been raised.

My 'management' system is that the hens go where they like until I plant out
my greenhouse-grown outdoor vegetables. Some are irresistible to the hens -
cabbage family, green salads and chard especially - so they are grown in
small plots with moveable purpose made chicken wire hurdles round them. I
have a modular system so that everything is interchangeable. All small
vegetables are thus protected against scratching up but they're not
interested in some plants so when they're half grown the hurdles are removed
and the hens once more have the run of that plot. Those plants include
courgettes, runner beans and tomatoes - but I know from experience that hens
have different palates, we had one who couldn't be trusted with tomatoes at
any stage. We suck it and see.

Because we rotate our crops and they're sometimes free to the hens and
sometimes not the ground gets regular and pretty even manuring from them.
Naturally everything gets a regular spread of compost too.

We also shred all tree and shrub cuttings and clippings - leylandi, holly,
pyracantha, laurel and other unlikely things. The shreddings are left in
plastic bags for a few weeks, until they turn brown. There isn't enough room
in the compost bins for them. When they are brown they're spread on fallow
plots. The hens have a wonderful time, scratching, turning, manuring - the
shreddings very quickly turn to good earth without composting.

We have no lawns for clippings by the way, I have to sow grass on the paths
between the no-dig plots to give the hens a variety of greens.

Our system works very well for us and I recommend it but of course everyone
has to cut his coat according to his cloth.

Mary


--

Chris Thomas
West Cork
Ireland

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 13:36:49 +0100, Mary Fisher wrote:

It is indeed. But if you have free ranging hens (as I have although only
two) you simply can't keep them from depositing wherever they happen to be.
They don't just wait until they're indoors.

House-trained hens.

Unfortunately the birds pick around the meadows and under the pear trees
across the road but rarely come over to us. So I can't take advantage of
their unofficial deposits. I might be seen sneaking around after them with
a trowel during the hours of dusk though....

--
Tim C.

The message m
from Tim Challenger "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" contains
these words:


House-trained hens.

Unfortunately the birds pick around the meadows and under the pear trees
across the road but rarely come over to us. So I can't take advantage of
their unofficial deposits. I might be seen sneaking around after them with
a trowel during the hours of dusk though....

The place to look is in the shed where they sleep at night, under
their roosting bar, on the dropping board. It's called "the dropping
board" for a very good reason :-)

Janet

"Tim Challenger" "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" wrote in message
s.com...
I've got a small free-range egg/chicken farmer round the corner.
If I can get him to give me some of his animal's muck, say from the stalls
or whatever, can I use it on the garden? In the compost? Or am I wasting
my
time? Does it have to be rotted like horse manure? What about diseases,
are there likely to be any problems?

I would like to know a bit more about the pros and cons before I approach
the chap.

Any ideas?
--
Tim C.

====================
Many years ago it was used dried and powdered. Some workers doing the drying
and powdering reported that it acted as a hair restorer.

I believe I saw it somewhere recently being sold in tubs for more
conventional purposes - possibly Do-It-All.

Cic.

"Tim Challenger" "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" wrote in message
s.com...
I've got a small free-range egg/chicken farmer round the corner.
If I can get him to give me some of his animal's muck, say from the stalls
or whatever, can I use it on the garden? In the compost? Or am I wasting
my
time? Does it have to be rotted like horse manure? What about diseases,
are there likely to be any problems?

I would like to know a bit more about the pros and cons before I approach
the chap.

Any ideas?
--
Tim C.

====================
Many years ago it was used dried and powdered. Some workers doing the drying
and powdering reported that it acted as a hair restorer.

I believe I saw it somewhere recently being sold in tubs for more
conventional purposes - possibly Do-It-All.

Cic.

"Tim Challenger" "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" wrote in message
s.com...
I've got a small free-range egg/chicken farmer round the corner.
If I can get him to give me some of his animal's muck, say from the stalls
or whatever, can I use it on the garden? In the compost? Or am I wasting
my
time? Does it have to be rotted like horse manure? What about diseases,
are there likely to be any problems?

I would like to know a bit more about the pros and cons before I approach
the chap.

Any ideas?
--
Tim C.

====================
Many years ago it was used dried and powdered. Some workers doing the drying
and powdering reported that it acted as a hair restorer.

I believe I saw it somewhere recently being sold in tubs for more
conventional purposes - possibly Do-It-All.

Cic.

"Tim Challenger" "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" wrote in message
s.com...
I've got a small free-range egg/chicken farmer round the corner.
If I can get him to give me some of his animal's muck, say from the stalls
or whatever, can I use it on the garden? In the compost? Or am I wasting
my
time? Does it have to be rotted like horse manure? What about diseases,
are there likely to be any problems?

I would like to know a bit more about the pros and cons before I approach
the chap.

Any ideas?
--
Tim C.

====================
Many years ago it was used dried and powdered. Some workers doing the drying
and powdering reported that it acted as a hair restorer.

I believe I saw it somewhere recently being sold in tubs for more
conventional purposes - possibly Do-It-All.

Cic.

The message
from "Cerumen" contains these words:

I used to keep a large number of free range birds and always composted
their litter from the nesting roosting houses, it was very good stuff and
when I could get wheat straw bedding it grew amazing mushrooms around the
base of my tomato plants after being laced with spores.

Handy.

(And many other
rather more unexpected places)

Too much information?

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from "Cerumen" contains these words:

I used to keep a large number of free range birds and always composted
their litter from the nesting roosting houses, it was very good stuff and
when I could get wheat straw bedding it grew amazing mushrooms around the
base of my tomato plants after being laced with spores.

Handy.

(And many other
rather more unexpected places)

Too much information?

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in
message ...
The message m
from Tim Challenger "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" contains
these words:


House-trained hens.

Unfortunately the birds pick around the meadows and under the pear
trees
across the road but rarely come over to us. So I can't take advantage
of
their unofficial deposits. I might be seen sneaking around after them
with
a trowel during the hours of dusk though....

The place to look is in the shed where they sleep at night, under
their roosting bar, on the dropping board. It's called "the dropping
board" for a very good reason :-)

Indeed, although it is pretty much impossible to measure I would think
they drop more overnight then during the day outside, mine at least seemed
to. I used to add new straw regularly and just have a big clean out now
and again, one huge steaming pile in the greenhouse attached to the
chicken house and that provided additional heating as well.


--

Chris Thomas
West Cork
Ireland

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Cerumen" contains these words:

I used to keep a large number of free range birds and always composted
their litter from the nesting roosting houses, it was very good stuff
and
when I could get wheat straw bedding it grew amazing mushrooms around
the
base of my tomato plants after being laced with spores.

Handy.

(And many other
rather more unexpected places)

Too much information?

Nearly.

--

Chris Thomas
West Cork
Ireland

I used to keep a large number of free range birds and always composted
their litter from the nesting roosting houses, it was very good stuff
and
when I could get wheat straw bedding it grew amazing mushrooms around
the
base of my tomato plants after being laced with spores.

Handy.

(And many other
rather more unexpected places)

Too much information?

No

Mary

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/