Chicken Manure

11 years ago

Hi everyone! This is my second post so I'm sorry if its not exactly in the right place. However, I am a big enthusiast when it comes to organic gardening, and am working hard to learn all I can to prepare for the spring. My husband and I raised a flock of 14 hens for eggs and meat, which we will be done butchering by the end of this week. In preparation for this years garden, we discovered that the place where our chicken coop is is also the best place for sun in our yard. we were happy about that because we figured that its got to be loaded with manure and would be packed with nutrients, so we planned to move the coop and put our garden there. However, I recently discovered that un-composted raw chicken manure can burn plants and kill them because of the high nitrogen. as it is the ground will sit dormant for about five months from here untill planting and i can't till it until march. do you think it would be ok? Or should i find somewhere els to plant this year and wait until next year?;

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Comments (2)

User
11 years ago
Rake or otherwise disturb the ground every week or two in order to move unexposed material towards the top. You don't need to "till" or anything that extreme unless it's layered on the soil many inches deep.

If it's not really layered on top of the soil and it's just spotty you don't need to rake the ground...a couple months of sitting around should take care of a lot of the "burning" issues.

Fresh manures can carry heavy N, salt, temporary pH-changing characteristics, etc that's mostly tempered down via weathering (time/moisture/sun/etc). Getting the material exposed to the elements will take care of a good amount of possible problems over time.
Kimmsr
11 years ago
Making sure there is adequate amounts of vegetative waste in the soil will help more then raking or "disturbing" the ground every week or two. Adequate amounts of vegetative waste will aid in holding the nutrients in the soil so rain does not wash them out and into the ground water where they will become pollutants.
What was used for litter in the coop? Is that litter still in place? What do you plan on doing with that litter?
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