Info On Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, & Other Poultry.
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Ok heres go. Can you are cant you use your chicken waste for fertilizer in the garden ? Like You do with cow and horse patties.

Yes, you can. BUT it should be composted first because the nitrogen in fresh droppings is so high you run the risk of burning the plants. If there is bedding material(shavings, straw, etc) mixed in with it, composting should also prevent any unwanted seeds from sprouting in your garden. Good luck- Cedewynne

Thank you cedewynne , thank you very much.

I use shavings on the floor. When its time to clean, I just use the shavings instead of shreded bark along the house for a border. I plan to plant flowers in spring, after the stuff has time to break down a bit this winter. Come warmer weather I plan to use it to kill vegitation on an embankment nearby.

My dad used some chicken dropping to fetrilize some potted plants (tomatos and peppers, cant have a garden with chickens!) this past summer. He put...well actually he had me do it, he told me to put the droppings in a bucket with water. I put the drooping in a buckets and put hot water in then i let it soak for a while then stirred it and made sure the droppings "melted" i then poured it into another bucket with a net on top to strain the shavings out of it.I let the net witht he shavings in it hang int he bucket to make sure all the dropping were gone. My dad said to let it sit for a while (i think it was around a week and a half to 2 weeks) until foam formed on top and then disappered (boy did it smell awful). Then he would dump a cup full or so on the plants every few days or so. I think it worked well, we had some really nice tomoatoes..alot of cherry tomatoes too...

Thank you so much Lacey. You've just did for me and made 10-10-10 a hit!

? what do you mean J. Todd? Are you gonna try the mix or use 10 10 10? Maybe it is too early for me hahaha.
Anyways, that sounds like a good mix to me. I also try to put the raw manure on weeds etc. but I think I just raise SUPER WEEDS!!! LOL
Happy composting all :-)
Sally

I've done that manure tea thing and the plants LOVED it! My tomato plants went up to about 7' tall and then came back down and hit the ground -- so 14' or so before a frost zapped them. It was incredible and everyone kept asking what I was doing to them! My mom had the same plants (I grew them from seed) and hers reached about 5', so there's the difference for ya'.

However, the tea is so smelly, it'll knock you down when you open that bucket!! LOL!

I have also aged (about 6 months) the litter from the coop and then used it as a top dressing. That also works well and rain/watering seems to leach some good nutrients into the soil. I ended up with a nice mulch and combo fertilizer at the same time.

Your garden will amaze your friends and family if you utilize the chicken waste!

Susie

Just a caveat about the wood shavings. My Botany professor warned us that wood shavings will suck the available nitrogen out of the soil and to be sure to add more to the soil or compost heap to correct the situation. This fellow also teaches a Soil Biology class( can't wait to take it) so I am fairly sure he knows what he is talking about. Perhaps adding a bag or Urea to the compost heap with the wood shavings would help? Lee, if you see this, what is your opinion? - Cedewynne

hmmmm....does that wood shavings situation go for all types of manure or just poultry? We spread a lot of the waste on the pastures to green them up in summer and to keep the animals from over-grazing in the winter. We have so much sand here it doesn't take much to wipe out the greenery. I sometimes put seed down then cover it with the manure/shavings mix and the seed seems to always come up ok....Please respond if you know, anyone. Thanks
Sally