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.

Oops, as you all probably realised I meant to send this to another group.
Sorry.
--
Tim C.

That is O.K. Tim, there is a lot of shit on this newsgroup. I treat chicken
shit like gold. If properly composted, it is magical stuff. Learn how to
compost it right. You could do a Google search and see what p(o)ops up.
Depends on the type of litter the farmer has put on the floor. Straw adds a
good amount of nitrogen necessary for the pile to cook. You must turn the
pile inside out at least 3 times. Put a shovel full of finished compost
under any fast growing plant like a tomato, pepper or squash and stand
back!!! I never had any disease problem because a properly cooked pile is
usually pathogen free. I have used uncomposted, raw chicken manure on corn
but it was turned into the field the fall before planting. I would view
chicken manure as a valuable garden resource. You might offer the chicken
farmer some of your produce as barter for his chicken manure.

Farmer John

> You might offer the chicken
> farmer some of your produce as barter for his chicken manure.
>
> Farmer John

I could grow wheat to make flour to feed mealworms for his hens....
;-)
--
Tim C.

In rec.food.cooking, Tim Challenger <"timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at"> 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?

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

> Any ideas?


Chicken manure is excellent fertilizer.

Like all manure, it is full of disease.

And it needs to be rotted first.

--
....I'm an air-conditioned gypsy...

- The Who

"Tim Challenger" wrote in message >
> 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.

I can only cite our experience, Tim. We had a flock of a chickens for quite
a few years, bought ground corncobs for the chicken house floor and cleaned
it all out as necessary. We mainly used it in landscaping around the
house, rather than in the vegetable garden, but plants and bushes thrived on
the stuff. It also really improved the mica soil. For the vegetable
garden, I would compost it. Go for it.

Dora

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 :-).

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.

In article m>,
Tim Challenger <"timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at"> 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?
>
> I would like to know a bit more about the pros and cons before I approach
> the chap.

I have a vague recollection that chickensh*t is good for growing
asparagus. Maybe it was a comment from a farmer friend that asparagus
grew well next to his chicken coop.

--
Julian Vrieslander

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:46:07 -0600, Steve Wertz wrote:

> On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:14:09 GMT, Tim Challenger
> <"timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at"> 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?
>>
>>I would like to know a bit more about the pros and cons before I approach
>>the chap.
>
> Be careful what you ask for. The Homeland Security Dept is
> watching out for people collecting large amounts of bird shit.
>
> -sw

Use it as a replacement for nitrite and make chicken-shit bombs.
Paranoid or what?
--
Tim C.

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 01:13:04 -0600, Steve Wertz wrote:

> The Homeland Security Dept is watching out for people collecting large amounts of bird shit.

That *was* a joke though, Wasn't it? Please say yes.
--
Tim C.

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 15:42:40 -0600, Steve Wertz wrote:

> On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 07:36:34 GMT, Tim Challenger
> <"timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at"> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 01:13:04 -0600, Steve Wertz wrote:
>>
>>> The Homeland Security Dept is watching out for people collecting large amounts of bird shit.
>>
>>That *was* a joke though, Wasn't it? Please say yes.
>
> Yes. It was a joke.
>
> I am *not* paranoid, dammit! (but I'm sure they are watching
> anyway).
>
> -sw

you had me going there for a minute.
--
Tim C.