Chicken Fertilizer

[freelancer79d]

Is it ok to use Chicken Scat as fertilizer in the garden or do you risk contaminating the fruit with Salmonella? I use it in my wife's flower beds and the flowers have grown twice as large as the previous years.

[RinTinTin]

Chicken manure has been used for centuries in farming. The general recommendation is to used "well aged" manure. Fresh manure is more likely to burn plants than well dried manure. To avoid contamination, incorporate it into the soil (not as a side dressing), and wash fruits before use. It will not be transmitted to the fruit through the roots/plant, but will be transmitted through direct contact or air borne dust. Simply washing the exterior of the fruit will eliminate any contamination. So will proper cooking.

[freelancer79d]

Thanks RinTinTin, I guess i'll throw it in the composter and let it do its magic....

[ireilly]

Be sure to put about 30 times as much carbon in too, that stuff has tons of nitrogen.

[RinTinTin]

Most poultry farmers use ..it, and the litter combined. The straw adds the needed carbon to the N rich droppings. If you are raising meat birds, be sure to save all of the feathers from plucking day, and add them to your compost as well. Poultry feathers may take some time to break down, but are an extremely underutilized source of nutrients. The NPK for feathers is: 15-30-0. Nothing else comes close to the NP ratios, but it takes a lot of feathers to make 100# of fertz. But if you have 'em anyway, why not add them to the pile. What hasn't broken down when the compost is ready to use will continue to break down (slow release) throughout the growing season. Having a constant source of P at bloom/fruit time is essential.

[freelancer79d]

thanks for the advice everyone it helps alot.

[coronabarb]

Hmm, hadn't thought of using the feathers. I have some major molting turkeys right now, so piles of feathers. ;-)

[hardwaterbob]

[PDF] Chicken Manure Tea: Research Report

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
one of these projects, evaluating the suitability of chicken manure tea as a .... It took 20 pounds of manure to make 32 gallons of tea, which was then ...
www.food-security.info/.../Chicken%20Manure%20Tea%20as%20a%20Fertilizer.pdf - Similar

[hardwaterbob]

go here and your question will be answered.
Bob