Providing your garden with composted chicken manure gives it a high-energy dose of nutrients and can turn even the poorest soils into fertile loam. Chicken manure straight from the chicken, however, is too high in nitrogen for delicate plants, and can burn them. Aging chicken manure reduces the nitrogen content and balances the nutrients that plants need to thrive. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Find a source of chicken manure. Speak with local farmers or urban homesteaders who keep a few chickens in the backyard. Chicken manure is plentiful, and many farmers will gladly part with used chicken bedding as they clean out the coop.
2. Set up your compost area. You can compost in a barrel or garbage can, but for the large amounts of chicken bedding you're likely to obtain, a larger area is more desirable. You can wire together shipping palettes to make a box (or a series of boxes) with an open top. If you compost only chicken bedding here, you will not have to worry about animals, such as raccoons and skunks, digging though it.
3. Fill up your compost area with the chicken bedding. The bedding will most likely be composed of straw or pine shavings, which can be composted right along with the manure and provide the compost with extra organic material. It is best to fill the entire area so that the pile composts at the same rate rather than adding fresh material continually to the pile.
4. Add some water to dampen the pile if it is dry. This helps jump-start the composting process. Do not allow the pile to become soaked through. If your area is subject to substantial rains, place a tarp over the pile during rainy periods.
5. Turn and aerate the compost every two weeks to allow air to circulate through the pile and aid the composting process. Dig into the pile with a pitchfork and turn over material to expose the center of the pile. The center will be where the most activity is happening, and turning allows new material into the center of the pile.
6. Use the compost in your gardens when the pile has substantially broken down and turned into dark soil. Pieces of chicken bedding may still be visible, and that is fine for most garden applications. The process should take two or more months, depending on the weather and the amount of turning. You can dig the chicken compost into new beds to incorporate with the existing soil, or you can side-dress your plants by topping with the compost the soil that surrounds them.
Tags: chicken bedding, center pile, Chicken manure, chicken manure, compost area, composting process