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chicken manure
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. |
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