Chicken House bedding manurebest uses???

There is a small chicken farm near me. They grow their own chickens and sell the meat and also their own produce, etc. They also sell trash bags full of "chicken manure " for $4. It comes from when they clean out the chicken houses and consists of sawdust bedding full of chicken doo-doo.

I know that chicken poo is very high in nitrogen. I wonder if this stuff they sell has even had the time to compost??? However, I guess it COULD have a use in the garden. My question is WHERE would it best be used? I only grow flowers and perennials. NOT into veggies and such.

I have a few "things" going through my gardening mind.......

If the sawdust is not composted well enough, I really do not want to put it in my beds. I do not know what they do with this bedding/poo mix after they clean the houses and if they even compost it or just bag it and sell it "as is".

If the chicken manure in the saw dust is fairly "raw", I feel I could only use it on plants where a lot of green growth was desirable. Too high in Nitrogen.

Does anyone have some advice or comments on this?

Next time I go there, I will ask about all this and hope that they will be honest and tell me the TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH!!!! :o)

Gita

Wait, you can't use the fresh stuff on anything. It's too "hot" and will really burn your plants. Chicken poo is actually very rich in all three NPK. The wood shavings will actually help as the compost process should speed up, but do compost it first if it's still smelly.

A helpful comparison of the manures:
http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm

Zeppy,

That was a fun link to read. Very user friendly...

Thanks, Gita