Chicken Manure is a great, natural source of potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen.

The average size laying hen will produce approximately 1 cubic foot of chicken manure every period of six months, or so.

It cannot be allowed to accumulate in the coop. The ammonia is very unhealthy for your chickens to have to breathe , it attracts rodents as well as flies, and put simply, it stinks. Thus, after removal, you may use it for your compost pile.

You may not want to use “pure” chicken manure on plants, as the results can kill your plants, as well as perhaps damaging its root system.

Instead it will have to be composted. Once composted you may add it to your soil.

• Manure for plants will, in effect, add organic matter as well as increasing the soil’s water holding capacity.

• It will also add to the soil’s biota, which is the total collection or amount of organisms found in the area’s geographic region.

• Further, by using chicken waste for compost you will provide potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen to your plants, in measures much greater than steer, cow, or horse manure!

There are specific components to composting:

Browns which will be supplied by your coop bedding, nitrogen or greens, this will be the actual chicken poop, air, provided by Mother Nature, moisture that you will add yourself, volume which also involves the coop bedding as well as the chicken manure, and temperature. These are the basics of using manure for compost.

Collecting or removal of the bedding may mean that the straw, dry leaves, sawdust, or wood shavings along with the manure will be added to your compost pile.

Some do this daily and replace the bedding after removal, though some believe in simply adding new clean bedding on top of the old bedding in order to make the job simpler.

The carbon to nitrogen balance is important, and it will rely on the type of bedding you’ve used.

You may contact your local county agent to discuss its composition before using chicken manure for compost, or even your local agriculture management entities.

Once you’ve accumulated approximately one cubic yard of bedding as well as manure, you then wet the compost pile. Saturation should resemble a well-wrung sponge.

Following this, gauge that you’ve secured from a local nursery, make sure that the compost pile heats or warms to 130-150 degrees F.

It will have to maintain that particular temperature for 3 days. Following this, you will wish to pull the center portion of the material to the side, and allow the outside portion to now “cook.”

You should probably have to do this at least 3 different times. The cooking of manure for compost accomplishes the destroying of pathogens but do keep in mind that when temperatures reach above 160 degrees F it can actually kill beneficial microorganism.

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