another one about manure, but this time chicken

[Le-y]

What is the best way to use chicken manure, i've just read a plea on freecycle (or freegle it is now) from someone who's chicken waste bins are over flowing, well me being the good samaritan and all i figured i'd take it off their hands for them 

but what do i do with it? should i leave it to compost on its own, add it to my existing compost heap or can it be used in some other form?

the message says that it is mixed with Hemcore if anyone knows what that is?

[Le-y]

ok maybe i;ll ask a different question which i really cant find the answer to anywhere...



can i add it to my horse manure heap? I've got fresh horse muck which is waiting for next year, can i mix the chicken stuff in with it for next year too? or do i have to keep them seperate?

[Robert_Brenchley]

I would have thought mixing it with either compost or horse muck would work. I've never tried it though. Don't use it straight.

[Buster54]

My allotment neighbours throw it straight on a spare bit of ground and dig it in a couple of months later

[chriscross1966]

It'd make a wonderful compost accelerator for things that might be a bit short of "green"....  Mix it in with leaves adn you should have excellent stuff in a year, or woody shreddings/chips.....  Mix it with horse and leave it in a heap for 6 months and it will massively increase the nutrients available, cow or pig probably don't need it..... wish I had a source of free chicken poo [/jealous]

chrisc

[Le-y]

exactly the answers i was looking for thank you!

I've got a big load of fresh manure that i cant use yet cos its too fresh so i'll mix it all in together!

[grannyjanny]

Hemcore is wonderful stuff. It composts down very quickly, under 3 months. I use it for my guinea pigs & today I became the proud owner of 4 chickens & I will be using it for them & mixing it in with the other things in the composter.

[Anisemary]

I also have chickens (23) and  do they poo some!!  I would never have believed how much they can get rid of, especially during the night! I bed them down on hemcore with newspaper underneath, and add the whole lot straight to my compost heap, and as ChrisC says, it's a brilliant accelerator, and the resultant compost will be full of nutrients. OK, now I realise what a Saddo I've become in my old age when I can get excited about the thought of a pile of manure! 

[Le-y]

I also have chickens (23) and  do they poo some!!  I would never have believed how much they can get rid of, especially during the night! I bed them down on hemcore with newspaper underneath, and add the whole lot straight to my compost heap, and as ChrisC says, it's a brilliant accelerator, and the resultant compost will be full of nutrients. OK, now I realise what a Saddo I've become in my old age when I can get excited about the thought of a pile of manure! 

But would you add it to a manure heap i wonder? would it do the same?

I've read all over about adding it to compost heaps but i cant find anywhere which says whether its a bad or good idea to add it to horsemanure?


OK, now I realise what a Saddo I've become in my old age when I can get excited about the thought of a pile of manure!  

well thats me screwed then cos i'm the same at 24 years old! my hubby things i'm cracked!

[Carls3168]

I normally throw my chicken muck over where the potatoes have gone in, by the time the potato's are sprouting its getting mixed into the soil anyway, and when you earth your spuds up this just mixes it more.

With the horse muck I either pile it nice and thick over my raspberry canes (keeps weeds down) or pile it on top of the bed which I'm growing my Punpkin's and squashes in... keeps the weeds down, and once everything has cleared at the end of the year I've got great condition soil to put my brassicas into the following year.

I dont have 'space' to store muck... and to be honest dont see much point in it! 

[Le-y]

oh i got tonnes of space for it, the previous tennent layed down really thick concrete over the front of the plot and some paving slabs, the paving slabs are being moved but the gap they'll leave isnt big enough for anything major and the soil isnt great so thats where the compost and manure piles are going.

Its nice to know that the chicken manure CAN go direct onto the ground though, just not direct onto the crops/plants themselves.