when to add fresh chicken manure

[marathon]

Although this is my fourth year on the plot I've never been so organised but find In have more time now the children are all at school.

I have just made (this morning) 6 raised beds 12 x 4ft. 4 of them will be the next home of the cabbage family. The other 18 beds will be made as crops finish.

So can I dig in fresh chicken manure now on the beds that won't be used until next March?

I also have a good supply of organic cow manure (well rotted) do I put this on the beds that will be used for tatties and beans etc.

[davefromthechipie]

fresh chicken manure :P your looking to put that in, in 2 to 3 years . but the cow can go in beds that arnt for root veg . I add well rotted farm manure to my bean/tats beds but only a small amount then mix up with cold veg manure

[solway cropper]

Put the chicken manure on the compost heap and leave it. If you've ever walked into a deep litter house you'll know why...the smell of ammonia can be overpowering. It has a lot of nitrogen but is too strong to use neat and will still be quite potent next spring.

[Snadger]

As an experiment, and after cleaning my chooks out I spread the droppings on a couple of beds without composting. The reason for this was twofold:-

1) My compost heap backs onto someones garden and they were sunbathing on the lawn. I somehow don't think they would have appreciated me dumping a load of steaming tat on the compost heap right next to them!
2) I LIKE experimenting.

This was about a year ago and I can report I can't find any negative response from the veg grown in that area..........just the opposite in fact!

In my view, although the chicken crud is better mixed with other matter in the compost heap..........you should still be able to grow veg next year on an area LIGHTLY dozed with neat fresh chicken manure.......or at least it worked for me.
I didn't dig it in and just spread it lightly on the surface. (probably planted stuff through it if the truth was known!) ...................Just remembered, I mulched some brassicas with it as well, staying well clear of the growing stem though!

[Paulottie]

I always kept the chickens on the veg beds in winter....weeding and manuring as they went. Worked for me with no probs. Anything that came out the house went on the compost.... excellent accelerator.

[terrier]

Same here, I empty the chook waste onto the midden all year round, come early spring, it all gets spread onto the veg patch. I suppose I wouldn't use 100% anything, but when it's all mixed together, it's just natures plant food, stuff just grows

[Sue]

Hi
I spread it around too. The stuff from the henhouse, "pure pooh" goes in the compost bin but the stuff from the run mixed with straw, woodshavings and megazorb has gone on to ground I've not been using so then growing on it within the year. I do poo pick every other day and that goes in the compost bin then I have a major monthly clearout so any poo in the straw/megazorb mix is not highly concentrated.

Not had any problems either. I have noticed that my rhubarb is still growing like mad and this had a very big dose (but not touching the crown).
If you are worried you can use it as a mulch over wet newspaper in the summer. Water the ground well and put down well-soaked newspaper then cover with a thick layer of the chicken poo +bedding mix. By the end of the summer the newspaper will have gone and the poo and bedding mix weathered and can be dug in in readiness for the next year's crops.

Sue

[marathon]

Hi

If you are worried you can use it as a mulch over wet newspaper in the summer. Water the ground well and put down well-soaked newspaper then cover with a thick layer of the chicken poo +bedding mix. By the end of the summer the newspaper will have gone and the poo and bedding mix weathered and can be dug in in readiness for the next year's crops.

Sue

Thanks everyone. So it seems that I can use direct on the beds. Two weeks ago I watered veg from the cabbage family with a chicken manure brew that I made and now the plants are looking fantastic. My best crops ever as I've never been very good with cabbages etc

As two of the beds still have a bit of couch grass I might try Sue's suggestion added to the fact that the poo is from the pop trays and so no bedding mixed in and i use woodchip in the run which I add everythree months to the flower beds.
So will weed, cover with newspaper and put chicken manure on top. Then dig in in the spring.

[bluemoon]

Well, our next year's beds are this year's free-range. If my chooks are prepared to do the weeding and add the fertilizer, who am I to argue?

[Snadger]

[QUOTE=marathon;533482]Thanks everyone. So it seems that I can use direct on the beds. Two weeks ago I watered veg from the cabbage family with a chicken manure brew that I made and now the plants are looking fantastic. My best crops ever as I've never been very good with cabbages etc...................................

QUOTE]

I learned from the vine recently that chicken poo is alkaline, not acid as I had first thought.
You have basically added lime as well as fertiliser to the cabbage bed in one go and this could account for the success with brassicas!

[Dottie]

I use fresh chicken poo mixed with straw bedding directly onto my beds, even though all literature clearly states not to do so.

First batch I got last year, went onto half of my rhurbarb, loganberry, tayberry and blackberry bed. As my beds are no dig I wanted to add a good thickness, even covering the crowns and right up to the fruit stems. The rhurbarb at least doubled in size the following spring and I've not needed to weed that area once, as the straw acts as a great mulch.

Earlier this year I added a fresh batch to the apple tree bed, with a layer of leaf mulch added a month or so later. As well as successfully harvesting my first 2 apples last week, the bed also produced 2 huge courgette plants, peas and nasturtiums growing all summer. Courgettes and peas have now finished, but a month a go I put a wooden step ladder next to the bed, to provide extra support and extend the area for the abundant amount of naturtiums flowers. Somewhere in that bed there is also a lavendar plant, but I've not seen it all summer as I allowed the nasturtiums to spread throughout the bed and upwards with the aid of various supports.

So my experience of using fresh chicken poo is positive, but to be honest my decision is usually based around a desire to add layers of organic matter, a need to top up beds and not having the space for storing and rotting down the chicken poo.

[ladylottie]

I use fresh chicken poo mixed with straw bedding directly onto my beds, even though all literature clearly states not to do so.

First batch I got last year, went onto half of my rhurbarb, loganberry, tayberry and blackberry bed. As my beds are no dig I wanted to add a good thickness, even covering the crowns and right up to the fruit stems. The rhurbarb at least doubled in size the following spring and I've not needed to weed that area once, as the straw acts as a great mulch.

Earlier this year I added a fresh batch to the apple tree bed, with a layer of leaf mulch added a month or so later. As well as successfully harvesting my first 2 apples last week, the bed also produced 2 huge courgette plants, peas and nasturtiums growing all summer. Courgettes and peas have now finished, but a month a go I put a wooden step ladder next to the bed, to provide extra support and extend the area for the abundant amount of naturtiums flowers. Somewhere in that bed there is also a lavendar plant, but I've not seen it all summer as I allowed the nasturtiums to spread throughout the bed and upwards with the aid of various supports.

So my experience of using fresh chicken poo is positive, but to be honest my decision is usually based around a desire to add layers of organic matter, a need to top up beds and not having the space for storing and rotting down the chicken poo.

I was given two wheelbarrow loads of chicken manure (mixed with straw bedding and shredded paper) earlier this year which I spread thinly over 2/3rds of my half plot. Thought it would be better put on the plot and lightly dug in to add some organic matter. My cabbages have been enormous! So it looks as if I unknowingly managed to add lime to plot as well which has helped the brassicas just as snadger says.

If I get offered more later on I will stack it for a while rather than putting it straight on the plot. I'm hoping for a delivery of cow manure this weekend. What does everyone think - is cow manure better than horse manure?

[marathon]

I was given two wheelbarrow loads of chicken manure (mixed with straw bedding and shredded paper) earlier this year which I spread thinly over 2/3rds of my half plot. Thought it would be better put on the plot and lightly dug in to add some organic matter. My cabbages have been enormous! So it looks as if I unknowingly managed to add lime to plot as well which has helped the brassicas just as snadger says.

If I get offered more later on I will stack it for a while rather than putting it straight on the plot. I'm hoping for a delivery of cow manure this weekend. What does everyone think - is cow manure better than horse manure?

We have 18 tonnes of organic cow manure delivered to the site in October. Most of us welcome any manure but I have to say a good few see it as being better. It's organic and we know the farmer so maybe that makes the difference.

[ladylottie]

Thanks Marathon, the cow manure I'm getting is coming from a nearby farm. The people in charge of our allotment site have said that it is organic, so everything should be ok. Looking forward to shovelling it onto my plot on Sunday morning.