On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 16:34:15 -0500, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>Tim Challenger wrote:
>
>> 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?
>
>It depends on what you are planting. Chicken manure is much to potent for most
>vegetable gardens. However, I once helped a friend of mine with his new
>garden. He dug a trench about 18" deep and laid a layer of chicken manure on
>the bottom, put a bit of the soil back an and mixed it up a bit with the
>manure, then filled in the trench and planted raspberry canes and asparagus. He
>had a tremendous crop of raspberries the first year and outstanding asparagus
>the next spring. His theory was that the plants would grow fast to get away
>from the shit :-).

Too bad cows can't run from it. Tons of the stuff is sold (cheap,
$30-40 per ton) to feed beef cattle. Seems it would be cheaper to just
mfg your own Manure Burgers.