Chicken manure

[tea-shot]

Can anyone help? I've just been cleaning out the hen-house - again - and was wondering if the manure should go on its own heap or is it OK to mix it in the normal compost bin. There is an awful lot of it and I was bothered in case the manure amount overtook the veg waste.

If they laid as much as they poop we'ld be quids in

[John]

Hello tea-shot
I add chicken manure to the compost heap and it works a treat. We use straw for bedding, clean out once a week and so the compost heap gets a regular 'feed' of this stuff. What do you use? I found when we used wood shavings they took a very long time to rot down and tended to form a layer in the heap. I can't think of any reason why it needs composting separately.

John

[tea-shot]

Thanks John. We use shavings under the roosting bars and shavings topped with straw in the nestboxes. It was just the amounts that were bothering me as we now have 14 hens and a cockerel, plus we don't have much garden waste yet as we are only 6 months into the plot.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear tea-shot, you could always stock pile it, and then add it to your compost heap, as and when you get some composting material.
I have never used chicken manure from chicken houses before, but i would have thought you need to use it fairly sparingly, as it would be quite strong, and could burn young plants.

[Chantal]

I used to have 14 chickens who lived in a run and a shed. Every week I cleaned them out and added to straw and muck to the compost heap. I think I overdid it because when I poked the compost heap the smell of ammonia nearly knocked me off me feet. It was much better when blended with a load of other stuff.

[tea-shot]

Thanks everyone. I think that this is a job for my 'handyman' - another bin just for manure, to let it rot down a bit before I use it.

[gloworm]

Blackcurrants love it neat.

[tea-shot]

Thanks for that gloworm. I have already used horse muck on the currants in the cage this winter, so can I still use it through the rest of the year and if so roughly how much and when?

I do wonder why the fruit and veg I pick never seems to taste of the stuff I've piled round it unlike us humans with eg garlic or curry smells lingering round the body for days afterward. Only notice it though when one of us hasn't had the offending food Any ideas why?