What to do with Chicken Manure?

I've just become the proud new keeper of a couple of chickens that I'm hoping will start providing me with eggs in the very near future. Such funny wee things but man, can they poop! So much poop! Who'd a thought such little creatures could produce such volumes? There's too much for me to use on my own gardens and I don't want to throw any away or put it in the city recycling bins, so what's the best way to store the manure and litter (without smelling like a farm) until I have enough to give away? In a closed bucket with a handful of compost? In a black plastic bag with a few holes punched in it? Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

We used hardwood chips as litter for our 27 buff orpingtons. We just added litter occasionally. It really never did smell bad. But, when we got out of the chicken business we just piled the litter in a mound near the garden, adding vegetable scrapes. Everytime you add scraps, cover with a layer of garden soil and there's no odor. Butternut squash just happened to sprout in the pile (from kitchen scraps) and we harvested about 100 lbs!

So I would say, use the composted manure as fertilizer and you will be rewarded! It's the real "golden eggs."

Oh I wish I were lucky enough to have chicken manure for the garden.
Ditto what compostr said.

Start a compose pile, every now and then toss some garden soil on top to keep down the flies and smell.
The earth worms will take care of the rest for you.

I've gotten some trash bags full of manure mixed with wood chips. At first it smells, but mix it with some browns and it won't smell.

I bed the bird house with wood chips every year. We usually pile the chips up and let the lay for the season. This past spring tho I had a young man help me and he spread them on plastic sheeting so they didn't fetilize the weed seeds on the soil where they were laid. This spring they are very decomposed, almost look like dirt so I'll pull the plastic out from under it and plant something there. Probably daylilies, hosta, etc. It is under a very large and old hollow trunk black walnut tree.

I have my chicks in a tractor that gets moved around the lawn every few days or so. The litter from the nest box and under their roosting bars is pine shavings. When they are out in the garden I just pick-up after them. Since we are so short on space, I've started my own "pile" in a bottomless garbage can that has holes drilled all over the sides but I still have loads left over. There is no more room in the yard to have a big compost pile such as some of those I've seen pictured here. My dad has a metal static bin that stands about 5 ft tall - it looks a bit like an old incinerator - that he just pulls finished compost from the bottom every 6 months or so, but even so he sends a lot of garden trimmings out to the curb in the city recycling bins.

Oh yes..... I can't wait to start using my "free" fertilizer on the garden. Already the lawns have perked up.

This message was edited Feb 24, 2008 10:37 AM

wgnkiwi,

Cool, I'd like to see a picture of your setup. My brother raises Broilers and moves them around his lawn, too. Nothing like organic poultry.

As soon as I can find my camera I'll do just that Dean. We're on egg watch at the moment, which is more 'eggciting' than anything the TV has to offer :-)

Hi All,

Here is a thread I started over on the poultry forum. I have just started building chicken tractors that can sit on top of my raised beds and be moved from bed to bed as needed. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/817182/
Also you can check out gardengirltv.com and see her chicken/raised bed set up.

Laura

Chicken tractors are a great way to keep the lawn trimmed and to spread the manure.

For those of you who have coops, you should try the following method:
Mix 50# manure
1 cup EM1 Microbial Inoculant
1 cup molasses
1 gallon of water
Add saw dust or dried leaves (to dry out so you squeeze in your hand and no liquid comes out, but it holds the form of your hand).

Put all this into an airtight container for at least 2 weeks to ferment. When you open it you should see some white molds forming on it...this is a beneficial bacteria.

The material is called Bokashi and will not burn plants and will act like a slow-release fertilizer.
There is a forum dedicated just to Bokashi. It mainly focuses on recycling of food waste, but the methods are similar.
Eric

I should have added that you can spray the coop down 2 or 3 times per week with a solution of 1 ounce EM1 per gallon of water to completely eliminate odor...which attracts flies.
I have been to operations with 80,000 plus birds that have only the odor of the birds' dander...no ammonia at all! It is impressive.

where do I get this EMI stuff?

Because of the rules, I can't tell you directly...
try searching in Google for : "Effective Microorganisms"
There aren't any stores in Kansas carrying EM1 at this time.
Eric

Thanks.

My chickens really don't smell, fortunately. I use pine bedding in their coop and in their run, and they are outside running around the farm every day. This winter, I just alternate an occasional bag or pine bedding with straw, and my hope is that I might have some chicken poop down at the bottom of all that which is composted enough to use. If not, I'll just have to build a compost pile. Seems like I am always building stuff since we moved here!

we have been talking about getting some chickens. I have to build something for them. Our friends have some and many have ended up as food for bobcats. My wife's family has an egg farm in Japan, so she misses the fresh eggs.

Thanks for the fert recipe Eric. I might give that a go when I have collected enough manure. I encourage you to get some chickens. Not just for the fresh eggs (which we are still waiting on) but their hilarious antics. They are far more interesting than I would ever have thought.

Beth - you can get EM1 from the EMAmerica website. http://www.emamerica.com/data/

I don't really notice the smell of the chicken poop, but the smell of the pine shavings makes me ill. I don't know what it is about them but I hate the odour. We're getting a lots of flies at the moment - it's been hot and the chickens are running around the garden leaving their deposits everywhere. I'm only daily pick-up duties.

The flies are attracted to some odor. Pine has turpines, what turpentine is made out of. Turpines release VOC and can make people nauseous. You might want to try making bokashi out of the shavings before you spread them to stop this.

Oh, they are funny, ducks too, in chicken tractors. They run in circles all of sudden.

I love the smell of pine shavings - pinesol, not so much! That stuff makes me nauseous!

Get chickens. They are so much fun. I built a very simple coop for mine and a run. Every morning, I open the door of the run, and they roam around the farm with my guineas (also much fun!) eating bugs and stuff. The guineas just love flies, so we don't see many. Also, we use predators on horse manure to kill off the flies.

We're talking about clearing out some space near the garden. I have to get a chipper first to chop up everything there. Then we'll start on building a coop.