Using Chicken Manure in the Garden
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 22. 07. 2024
- Chickens offer many benefits for the backyard garden- and using chicken manure in the garden is a no-brainer!! If you're already raising a flock, it's a FREE, all-natural, high nitrogen fertilizer, as well as a soil improver. Learn how to easily convert your flock's waste into garden gold in this second video in a series on utilizing chickens in the garden.
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Check out the first 'using chickens in the garden' video here: âą Using Chickens in the ... where I share how I let my flock do the work of creating a new garden plot for me!
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00:00 Intro
00:37 Benefits of Chicken Manure
01:47 Step 1- Consider Your Bedding
02:14 Step 2- Decide on Your Composting Method
02:26 Hot Composting
05:49 Cold Composting
07:12 Tricks to Make the Process Easier!
I do NOT compost my chicken manure/straw, and have never had any issues with disease or crop burn. But, it does have time to break down before I plant. As soon as my garden beds have thawed enough to work the soil, I will clean out the coop, spreading the manure in my garden bed rows, then shallow-till it into the top 3-4 inches of soil. This is usually around the last week in April. I generally do not plant seeds until late May, and put in starts (tomatoes, brocc, cauli, cabbage, peppers, etc. the second week in June, which is after the last frost. The 3-5 weeks is plenty of time for the manure to break down, de-concentrate, and compost prior to planting. The ground is so rich, I have grown 7 foot tall sweet corn in it. I am zone 3/4a, so my growing season is short at best, and have lost tomato plants in the 1st week of June several times. If one has the time, resources, and set-up, composting is the way to go; but don't be afraid to just till it in if you have time to let it break down a bit in the soil.
Hi Jenna ! đWhen I began gardening, I used to make hot composting in a very conscientious manner. But quickly I realized that very well aged compost disappears relatively fast during spring/summer when soil biological activity is at its maximum. This made me think I would prefer to make compost last longer for the nutrients to be available to microorganisms and plants progressively and during the whole growing season. Plus, during the composting process some elements/nutrients are necessarily lost (in gaseous form due to the produced heat during decomposition, by leaching with the rain, etc). Since then, I switched to a simpler and lazier method which is surface composting. I spread some compost during automn. Then, around April and again in July as mulch to protect the soil and prevent evaporation. I have to mention I use horse manure which is quite dry and contains lot of straw. I do the same with kitchen scraps and garden waste. Now I only use very well aged compost in smaller quantities when vegetables require soil with fine structure, carrots for instance. This saves a lot of time and energy. And I think it makes sense to make work microorganisms directly in the soil and develop biological activity where we grow our plants, rather than in the compost pile. Until now I never got nitrogen hunger.
You bring up a very interesting point and this makes a lot of sense to me. I appreciate you sharing this!
"You're never too old to play in the dirt" đ lovely words. Being in the garden and working outside always makes a person feel younger and relieves so much stress. Don't you just love standing back and just taking a deep breath out in the early morning sun or late afternoon in summer when the sun is setting. So refreshing. What a beautiful lady.
I DO love it! Wonderful to hear from someone that feels the same way!
Firstly, there is nothing "wrong " with either of your methods. Obviously they work because you get good results. Thank you for sharing!
My method is the odd one, in which I use a combination of techniques to get the job done. I always have a cold pile of chicken manure going. By springtime it is a nice large pile that has aged, albeit in a cold environment. Rain will have washed some of the nutrients away and some of it is already breaking down. In this pile of manure I have layers of brown cardboard from shipping boxes. Where I differ the most is that I will mix 50/50 the cold composted manure with fresh manure for spring planting. This mixture is chopped up to be fairly light and is laid down lightly over the row after the seeds are planted. It is then sprayed down into the soil with a garden hose so only the wood shavings remain on top. I do not use this mixture in the walkways. Once the seeds sprout and are about 4 to 5 inches tall, I mulch around the plants with grass clippings. This mulch keeps the manure down where the microbes can easily get to it and brings nutrients down around the roots. Over time, the mulch also breaks down. I do not get bad pathogens. The plants are not harvested for months. If I plant starts, I spread a light layer of this manure mixture around the plant and immediately spray it down into the soil well. I follow this with a thick layer of grass clippings to keep the manure down below. The plants are not harvested for a long time, and if they are greens, the bottom half is not harvested at all. Yes, I grow my greens tall. No micro-greens with this method.
The plants do NOT burn from this manure mixture. There is too much on the internet about fresh manure burning plants. Yeah, if you put down two solid inches of manure, a lot of bad things can happen. The same thing will happen if you put down two inches of commercial fertilizer. Use common sense. Break up the manure so there are no big clods and then spread it lightly and evenly. Now water it in well. It works like magic! And for corn, you can spread it on either side of the stalks (when they are 2 to 3 feet tall) and then water it in well, without any additional mulch. Watch the corn stalks leap toward the sky! One stalk ripened 4 ears of corn this year.
I do a cereal rye grain cover crop in the fall. In the spring when it is waist high it is mowed and immediately tilled-in to protect the nutrients from evaporating. The garden is planted 10 days afterward.
This method is safe if you do the steps correctly and don't skip any part of it. Watering the manure into the soil is very important. Mulching on top of the manure is important. What is great about this method is that most of the nutrients are not lost to composting. The nutrients go directly into the soil biome where the good bacteria and fungus overpower the bad pathogens. Your soil health will improve and your vegetables will grow like they are on steroids. No commercial fertilizers will be needed and no other soil amendments will be required. There will be no bad smell in the garden.
If you are afraid of this method, then do not do it. You could also try it first in a flower bed to gain some experience with it. If you sell veggies, then you may not want to use this method if you have not gained experience from using it for a couple years. It does work, but requires that you pay attention to what you are doing. It isn't any different than using over the counter medications. If you don't follow the directions, bad things can happen. And again, this method should not be used for micro-greens because the leaves are too close to the ground and are harvested too soon.
With the war in Ukraine, there is going to be less commercial fertilizer available. It is in your best interest to begin to find new ways to safely provide nutrients to your garden. This CZcamsr gave you two ways and I gave you another. They all work, but all require some amount of work that is not required with commercial fertilizers. However, the soil health will be much better, your veggies will be more nutritious, and it is more sustainable.
Happy gardening!
Thank you for sharing your method!
Fantastic information!!! Thank you so much for sharing this đ
Love love love! Thank you for posting all that you do! I am pataskala and hope to have such a beautiful garden as you do. I grew up working at Slater Run Historical farm and at 45 years old have finally purchased an 8-1/2 acer property to love out this dream of growing my own food with abundance. The sky is the limit! With the content you produce here it will make it easier and give me confidence to move forward. As of the first year we have 26 chickens and a small 10 x 20 garden. Next year the moon. I am planning a 40 x 60 garden and have fenced in a 2 acer plot for sheep. Love what you are doing!! Maybe I should record my journey and Inspire as you are doing, that is a ton of extra work, I appreciate what you are doing.
Matt
This is amazing- I am so happy for you!! If you do decide to record your journey, please let me know!
Just subscribed a week or two ago as I saw ZONE 6. I too live in Ohio with clay soils. Thanks for the tips and knowhow. Chickens, some Comfrey, and grass clipping are my garden's source of fertilizer as well.
Hello & Welcome to the channel, David. I appreciate the sub and love to hear from fellow Ohioans! Sounds like you are feeding your garden with the good stuff!
@@GrowfullywithJenna You are doing a wonderful job with your videos. I too collect the grass clippings and put them on the garden twice a year. I pile them in the pole barn where the chickens hang out in the rain in the summer and spend the Cold winter months out of the wind. They free range 10 months out of the year using a mobile coop. It's a fun learning process I wish I started 30 years ago.
We have a different system that works for our situation. We spread about 4" of wood chips in the slightly sloped chicken run in the Spring and throw a lot of weeds and kitchen scraps for the chickens to eat during the Year. They mix everything up and by the Fall, the half composted wood chip mixture is ready to be mixed w/ more greens to finish composting in the compost bins. This produces about 2 yards of compost/year in addtion to an additional yard of manure compost that we make separately.
Sounds like a great composting process!
Great information! Thank you! I miss having backyard chickens - they were so much fun! Time to build another coop I think!
Absolutely time to build another coop! đ
Yes and a bigger one if that is the only one she has for 5 or 6 hens
Great compost recipe, Thank You Jenna for the expert touch. đ
You're welcome!
love it how the content of the video presented with very important and useful information.
Thank you!
I found the deep litter method and the cold composting are the easiest combination to use and I also make what I call " fresh pootie" to pour directly around whatever need a little extra loveđ€Ł
I watched your video carefully regarding using chicken manure in the garden . I appreciate your work very much in the interest small poultry farmer who are also orchard or garden. they can use this idea for better purpose of manure. Good luck for you.
Awesome information! Thank you đ€©
You're welcome!
Couldn't AGREE manure, AH, I mean MORE!! Our hens get moved bed to bed in the Fall and WOW you sure can tell what bed they worked in by the Veggies!!! Great Video, Gal!!!
đđ Absolutely! They are great for the garden!
Yarrow leaves are good compost activators as well. 1 yarrow leaf can spead up decomposition of an entire compost pile by half time (source The Complete Herb Book).
Thanks for sharing! I've got plenty of yarrow here!
Yes Mam chicken poop is awesome stuff. Amazing information Mrs. Jenna. Stay safe!
It is indeed- nature's Mirace Gro đ. Hope you are doing well, CB!
I do the deep little method also. I don't add extra but after 6 months I have amazing dirt. Then I put it aside for 4 to six months before putting it on a garden bed that I am growing food in.
Thanks for sharing!
Wow Jenn you have a lot of chickens :)
Yes we do! More than we actually need, but my daughter wants to start a little business selling eggs.
Grandpa Jude taught me.....
Get a lard can fill first quarter of sand
fill second quarter with old chicken poop
Fill third quarter with sand..
Put 3 holes equal space near bottom on the sides about 12 penny nail diameter.
Place containers one a hill for melons plant 1 seed 2 inches from each hole .
Add water in can letting it directly water each seed daily until melons starts to ripen .
Thanks Lady
Now that is interesting, John! I've never heard this trick before. Do you know approx. how large a lard can is? I render my own lard, but have never bought it in a can, so I'd have to find something else approx. the same size. Thanks!
Lady Grandpa taught me around 1960 and believe 1 lb.can probably 5 inches diameter and 5 inches deep in Kentucky so plenty of sand on the old farm that family had before Civil War. Lots of love from that man. Now I use gallon milk jug but no chicken poo only water it's now my "drip system " helps to keep me moving as I water each as the water is soaking. Love chickens more than dogs and cats
In September i put manuer in the garden rows in trenches and let stand till Dec. Apply a topping of dry straw (after a good rain) and burn the straw, then plow and wait until time to plant.
At this same time the chickens are prepared for winter. Their coop is cleaned and sprayed with soap and spray bleech and let dry on a good sunshine low humidity day...top with deep straw...I check all my heat lamps ands prep for cold winter temps.
Also in March I repeat cleaning the chicken coop.
Sounds like a great method!
I love your channel!
Thank you!
Great video Jenna. I use my chicken manure and employ the cold method. I have 2 piles started 1 year apart. After one year I use the compost while starting the second. What's amazing to me is that the chickens can even eat animal bones...feed your chickens a leftover chicken or turkey drumstick. It will be gone within 48 hours. This amazes me but it keeps these leftovers out of the trash or unnecessary handling of them. Kind Regards. Craig
Wow! I had absolutely no idea that chickens would eat bones!
thank you
You're welcome
I use rice hulls, peat moss as coop litter, it's economical, and easy to clean, I get a huge trailer load of cow manure, alfalfa pellet plant waste, tree service wood chips, and no special layering, want to source a truck load of chicken manure from a egg producer,
You have soil there in the midwest, here in AZ we have less than .5 % organic matter, so it takes a huge amount, but it's working here, my pile is like a large gravel truck load, composts over a year,
Love the idea of using rice hulls! I want to try this. Thanks for sharing this tip!
I just switched from pallets to geonbins. My pallets had finally broken down and didn't feel like going that route again. Looking forward to seeing how these work out.
I'd love to hear what you think of them once you've had a chance to use them for a while!
Thank you. I just started a pallet compost bin to save on buying new compost for the gardens next year. Typically I spread a layer in autumn and spring, but the chickens break into my piles without walls spreading it everywhere. Hopefully this will contain it for actual use.
Chickens do love to do that! I would think your pallet compost bins will work well!
Thank you for this, this is really helpful to me. I have just started composting and was thinking of getting chickens (I dont eat a lot of eggs though!)
Youâre welcome!
Sell the eggs to your neighbors. They'll appreciate them.
I don't have chickens yet. Probably next spring. Can't wait. I've been using pelletized chicken poop on my lawn for the past several years and have no longer had a need to dethatch my lawn because my grass clippings break down so much faster now. Putting down pelletized chicken poop is so much easier than dethatching a lawn.
I hope you are able to get some chickens next spring! Great tip for the lawn- thank you!
YT pushed this older vid to me today. Lazy Dog Farm moves his chicken tractor over his cover crops. The chickens eat/harvest the cover crop in exchange for the poop in the garden. But many gardeners have those boards that separate their garden beds. And you canât let the chickens free roam since you always also have something planted in there.
Seems to me you could work out a more symbiotic relationship with the chickens. Cover crop for poop.
Love the shirt! I keep our chickens in a large run,, deep litter, I get to harvest their coop and also run litter, they cycle and process 2 Arborist truck loads of wood chips a year. I get about 10 wheelbarrow loads of material to compost each month. I wait for them to go to bed and clean in out at night. My compost is in the garden area and thanks for pointing out the pathogen possibility, hadn't considered it. Doubtful, but it is close so will move it out. Thanks, enjoy your videos.
Thank you!
Love the idea of adding wood chips into the run!
So you deep bed with just wood chips? What is your cleaning schedule? How many inches do you add and how often? New to this but have a steady supply of free wood chips soooo very interested!
@@sophiemiklosovic6737 yes, works great, I have a few inches of wood chips, they quickly scratch and break them down and get some good litter out. About every 2 or 3 months just fork it out into wheel barrow and dump into a pile to compost and "cool" . The only bad part is they are try free range, but they are safe, so I call it even. I do bring them grass and stuff I scythe so they get greens. And throw in school of dirt with bugs occasionally to keep them busy.
thanks Jenna. I don't have chicken, but I got bags of compost from local nursery that is based on chicken refuse. Ill just mix it with 60% native soil, 10% chicken compost and 30% "Amend" soil. See, my situation is quite sensitive. I am growing a herd of cultivars all from seeds- grapes, cherries, apricots, plums, nectarines and apples.
The plan is to grow them for 2 to 3 years and graft them for betterment of fruits qualities that were already choice quality. Grapes will be inter- grafted for highest possible sugar content, and the fruit trees will be grafted to have several cultures on each root stock. So far my 2 gal container count is 156. I use HPS Hydro farm Grow lights which produce full spectrum coverage. My experiments with LED lighting did not even come close.
Very interesting!! What a fun experiment!
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the chicken manure ,a coating of lime and about an inch of sand. the deep litter method is great as long as its dry!
Jenna thank you for this very informative video. Just build my compost bins like Rusted Garden. This really helps to known what to do with animal .....chicken manure, wow the hot compost in 18 days I'm all for that. It's not that hard to have great compost for the veggies. I'm going to start on this, I can use some good compost on my raised beds. How much water to you add to this?
You're welcome, Sharon. I need to get better compost bins built... too many projects, too little time đ. The amount of water depends - when I clean out my coops the material is usually quite dry, so I either let it rain on the pile once... or I spray it all down with the garden hose for a couple of minutes... I apologize that I don't really know the amount I use in terms of gallons. I then keep an eye on it- if it seems on the wet side, I cover it with a tarp to ensure no more rain gets on it, if it's on the dry side I'll add a bit more water.
Manure isn't the best fertilizer ...
but it's a solid number two.
đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł best comment on this video!!
Great information. How do clean the chicken run? (Not coop) . I have only 4 chicken and 2 ducks close to my pond. Is there any issues of bathing in that pond?
It does not have to be that tough. Mother nature made it a lot easier, you make it sound like rocket science. I throw in hay or straw chicken bedding, leaves, kitchen waste, green live leaves from trees, and let mother nature do her thing. I don't measure, I live in the woods and the forest does not measure either. A pile of leaves will compost down all by themselves. Mother nature has a way to do everything we need without us.
Very true. This is just a way to speed the process.
She gave a few different options including the "one" you talk about. If you already know the best way why comment?
Interesting
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Amen and Amen. đ
Oh cool! On the Omlet affiliation. Nice Jenna.
Thank ya!
We are trying something new with composting. Too lazy to hot compost and concerned about attracting pests and odours with most cold composting we have been burying our compost material straight in the garden bed. We have some old garbage bins that the bottom rusted out of. We were going to chuck them but then decided to cut the rusted bottom out completely, dig a hole in the garden about 2 1/2 feet deep, put the bottomless bin in the hole and put the lid on. The top of the bin usually sticks about 4 inches above ground level. We throw all the compost into the bin until it is about 9 inches from the soil surface. Then we wiggle the bin out of the hole and backfill with the soil we removed. Three months in and so far no odours and no sign of pests. No idea yet what is happening below ground. Most of what we bury is green compost matter (banana peel, citrus, salad greens, pumpkin and potato skin, coffee grounds and egg shells). but I figure all our clay soil should count as brown compost matter.
If someone has done this and it was an epic fail let me know, like maybe worms don't want to go that deep or can't tolerate all the green compost and it turns to toxic slush below ground. So far I have no regrets but time is the real teacher.
Love this idea! I'd be so interested to hear an update once some time has passed!
@@GrowfullywithJenna I have another question, this time on chicken manure. We have a roost in the chook house which is at about 45 degrees. One side rests on an exposed wall noggin and the other end on the floor. I had a cube (Not sure if you know what this is. It is a 1,000 litre plastic cube surrounded by a metal frame. Produce stores sell them to farmers or decant product from them. They are used to store everything from poison to molasses). Anyway I picked one up cheap at a clearing sale ($20). I removed the plastic cube and cut it at a 45 degree to match the profile of the roost which I also built to match the dimensions of the cube. (Long story isn't it? We are getting close to the point). Bottom line. All our chook manure is collected in the plastic cube. It is about 9 inches deep at the moment.
And the reason I told you all this? Our chook manure is just that, chook manure. No straw, no dirt. Just manure. Now I know you already know I am too lazy to compost in any active sense. So the question is do you think I could apply chook manure into the garden bed as is? We collected a 60 litre garbage bin (probably 15 gallons?) to set aside. We tried to take most from the bottom of the pile as it is the oldest but a little from the top probably got in too. Do you think I could leave it say 2-3 months and then put it on corn when it is about 1 1/2 feet tall? Not on, but near. Sprinkled around, so to speak?
Should add we are in the southern Hemisphere so will be planting corn some time in the next month.
PS Will update you on my lazy composting idea when I finally dig up one of the area's we have done. (But remember I am lazy and there is no way to know when this might be.𩩠My eyes aren't as good with small images so if that isn't an image of a sloth, well, it is meant to be).
Donât forget Ammonia. Great for making hot peppers hotter and keeping peppers and tomatoes healthy as long as you donât use too much chicken manure.
Yep! Gotta be careful not to overdo and burn those plants!
You and i share some if the same procees...i use deep litter for chickensopen trenches in early fall and add
Poop.
I like the idea of adding this to trenches- I'm going to play around with this in my garden. Thanks!
Thank you for the video. Is that a frost cover over the chicken yard?
You're welcome! It's actually insect netting (because I ran out of the bird netting I was using)- to keep any flying predators out of that part of the chicken run.
In a trash can with drilled holes,I put grass clippings,browns, greens, and some chicken manure and I was shocked at how hot it was. I started flipping and today itâs 2x hotter and the manure pieces look ashy
Looks like you need to make dumplins out of all those roosters ;)
đ We definitely had too many! But we just lost old Bob (he was nearly 12) and we gave one to my in-laws who had hens but no rooster. Now we're down to just the black & white rooster.
I have ducks, and you can put their manure and litter directly on the garden because their manure is mostly water.
I keep thinking about ducks... not sure if I'm ready to take the leap!
What is the best type to grow in Zone 6? I tired Crimson Red this summer, I know my pots were too small so they only go the size of grapefruit. Also they got a brown spot/hole on the bottom so I picked them.
I tend to opt for early maturing hybrid varieties- not because my season isn't long enough, but because I want a chance for them to ripen before the disease & bugs get to them!
How do I use Comfrey in the compost bin? Very informative, thanks! Take care!
Hi Michael- you can either just cut the fresh green leaves and add in layers to your compost pile OR you can chop up the leaves into small pieces and crush or stir into water, then dump on your compost pile.
@@GrowfullywithJenna Thanks Jenna! Take care!
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I generally have 1/2 to 1/4 carton of chicken broth left sitting in my refrigerator. Can I add it to the compost? (Organic, no sodium)
Yes
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Quick question. My grandpa has garden and has since passed at the ripe age of 92. He only had two hens and you sawdust bedding he would take the chicken manure lay and buckets let it dry almost to a popcorn status then throw it on the garden and till it in he would generally do this around April let it sit for a week till again and plant 3days later. We to now have two hens and just tilled our first garden. Was his method bad? I have a robust pile very very very dry
In general, if grandparents or parents used a method like this for decades and decades with good results-- I say let those results speak for themselves!
Awesome thank you đ
I received a bucket of chicken manure this time last year. It's been sitting outside this whole time. Can I use it and how?
You could mix into the existing garden soil or side dress high nitrogen requirements crops like corn with it.
Did you do watermelon this year? If so, what is the status?
Yes- I've got 3 varieties of watermelon growing. The 'Lemon Drop' is close to mature, but the other two varieties are just starting to form melons, and will likely be mature in early September. All look nice and healthy so far.
Just wondering, can you make chicken poo tea from droppings?
Yes!
Going to give it a try, I have potatoes that should be ready in early OctoberâŠ.. maybe try it out on them
Freddy is pretty gorgeous
I think so too đ
A little off subject but I'm new to growing potatoes. When should I harvest them?
When did you plant them?
I checked my bags and I got nothing. Maybe next year. Thanks for responding
Iâve been storing our chicken manure from our chickens in buckets. If I just leave it in there and let it age by itself would it be okay to use in the garden? If so how long should I let it age?
My general rule of thumb is to let it age a year.
Freddie is hansum bird.
Glad you think so- I think he is too!
TMI!!!!!!!!
How much chicken manure is needed for fully grown citrus tree??
I can't grow citrus outdoors here, but for my other fruit trees, I generally try to top dress the planting area with an inch or less of composted chicken manure each spring.
Sadly, the city of Beavercreek doesn't allow chickens, though there have been attempts to get a ballot initiative for the last few years.
I did notice that you've got cicadas up there and while I had been expecting them here, we haven't had them. The noisiest creatures we are the frogs in the neighborhood creek.
Sorry to hear that- it drives me crazy that they still have this ordinance in place!
Iâm confused. Youâre not supposed to use a bed with - composted - manure for 80-120 days, but you can pen chickens and leave it for a month or you can clean out your coop and leave it from fall to spring. Whatâs the point of composting it at all then?
Great question- I'd say for folks that want to play on the side of extreme caution-- always go for hot composting. It's the best bet for killing any potential pathogens.
She said poop... lol!!
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there should be something between the manure and the building. it will eat right thru it!
Back to Eden.. Wood chips
Mix some chicken manure with those wood chips and you're really on to something!
When you set it out to cure in fall for several months the issue is pathogens survive cold, they are just paused. People who put it out in fall in cold climates can't count those winter months as part of their break down/cure period, it won't be food safe come spring.
I appreciate you bringing this up, and I'd certainly advise folks to err on the side of caution, but will say from personal experience, I've never had any issues with my compost causing any kind of contamination when leaving it sit over the winter.
@@GrowfullywithJenna Well good because honestly I like how you're doing it and will try it.