I ahve some questions about manure

[Rockporter]

So I scored some horse, goat and chicken manure for my square foot gardening mix. The goat and the chicken manure are in clumps and the lady said she isn't so sure the chicken manure is actually composted. She said she didn't get to set it on the ground with anything because she had a knee surgery. I don't know how to check if this stuff is actually composted or not.

The horse manure looks real good, everything is dry and there are no clumps in it.

I have a cement mixer that I was going to use to mix all the compost with but am unsure if I should actually use the chicken manure or not. Seems to be a lot of chicken feathers in it, do those actually compost into nothing but dirt?

[Doug9345]

I'd plants some beans in the horse manure before I mixed it into my bed to make sure it was free from herbicides.

If the chicken manure smells like, well, chicken manure then it's not composted. I don't think you can mistake it.

[Growing Giants]

Put the chicken Manure in a pot and slowly run water into it. When it overflows unto your lawn it will kill your grass if not composted. Better yet chuck it all. Horse manure is full of weed seeds. Chicken manure will burn your plants unless it is well composted and goat is terrible, they eat everything and it is in the poop. Call the guy who raises rabbits. He wants to get rid of the stuff. It has higher nitrogen, higher Phosphorus and higher potassium than any other manure and it will not burn your plants even if you apply it the day the rabbit made it!

[Rockporter]

Thanks Doug, I think I will go ahead and plant some beans to check for herbicides, that is a great idea.

Growing Giants, just what in the world are you going to use to fill all those boxes you just made?

I will be using the Mel's mix for Square Foot Gardening, I need all this manure and the place I got it from feeds her animals good food. I have 15 recycled bags to show it, her place was clean and did not smell although she has horses, goats, sheep, chickens and turkeys. I was amazed that I wasn't walking on anything other than sand and there is nothing stuck to my shoes.

Rabbit manure is hard to come by around these parts and the other manures are too unless I want to drive 20 miles to get it, and then hand load into buckets to put in the back of my truck. She loads it in recycled feed bags.

Thanks for the idea on the chicken manure, I will try that on the grass tomorrow.

[matilda'skid]

Manure is wonderful stuff in my opinion. Chicken manure is strong stuff. It is good fertilizer and I wish I had some. You could put it in a pile somewhere for a while. If I had it I might mix it with my wood chips and let it rot or use it sparingly as fertilizer. Many of the organic fertilizers have dried feathers in them. Do check the other manure to see if there are herbicides in it by planting bean seeds. There are instructions on line. People I know who raise goats feed them purina goat chow or some sort of goat feed. They nibble brush and trees leaves if they can reach them. I don't think there are many goats running loose and eating bad stuff. They would if they could but goat farmers I know have woven wire fence with about 4 inch opening and they are cared for as well as any other livestock. Horse litter is more likely than any of those to have stuff in it.

[Tracydr]

I've made my garden beds out of almost straight horse manure compost. The first year, before I added any dirt I had my best garden, although it was partly weather related.
I've used fairly fresh poultry manure as fertilizer. I use it sparingly until it's composted but I put a good amount on heavy feeders like corn and okra. In fact, I just mixed a whole large wheelbarrow of aged, not fully composted chicken manure into my corn/ okra garden today!

[Doug9345]

Yes I would love to get some chicken manure. I'd mix a little in the ground and the rest would get composted with something like sawdust or wood chips.

[Growing Giants]

A chicken manure tea is better for your plants than applying chicken manure. Just make a tea and apply to a single plant. It dies double the amount of water and try again. In answer to your question Doug......I will use rabbit manure mixed with equal amount of compost mixed with equal amount of soil. When people tell me they can't find rabbit manure I tell them they have not looked. Call the chamber of commerce and tell them you want to buy some rabbits! Contact the State Fair for your State and tell them the same. They will tell you name and phone numbers of rabbit raisers. One doe which has one litter will poop 1 ton of manure per year! The State Fair gave me the number of one raiser who has 300 rabbits and 200 litters a year. He lives 20 miles from me. I put six 55 gallon barrels in the bed of my truck and 10 five gallon pails. Each pail of Rabbit Manure weighs about 40 pounds and it takes 11 buckets to fill a 55 gallon barrel. It takes me and my friend 4 hours to fill all six barrels and the ten buckets. That is 3000 pounds manure in four hours. I manage to sell some manure to others. Yesterday I sold 10 bags (feed Sacks) for $40.00 which I give my friend for helping me load and then spread the 3000 pounds rabbit manure. Contact the Sherriff, the police, the State Fair, a Vet, a farmer. There is more manure to be given away than you can haul! The State Fair gives me free loads of composted straw with horse or cow manure and they load it. 30,000 pounds of rabbit manure and 15,000 pounds of compost and it cost me the gas to get it which is $6-$9 per 3000 pounds manure or 2000 compost!

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by Growing Giants

A chicken manure tea is better for your plants than applying chicken manure. Just make a tea and apply to a single plant. It dies double the amount of water and try again. In answer to your question Doug......I will use rabbit manure mixed with equal amount of compost mixed with equal amount of soil. When people tell me they can't find rabbit manure I tell them they have not looked. Call the chamber of commerce and tell them you want to buy some rabbits! Contact the State Fair for your State and tell them the same. They will tell you name and phone numbers of rabbit raisers. One doe which has one litter will poop 1 ton of manure per year! The State Fair gave me the number of one raiser who has 300 rabbits and 200 litters a year. He lives 20 miles from me. I put six 55 gallon barrels in the bed of my truck and 10 five gallon pails. Each pail of Rabbit Manure weighs about 40 pounds and it takes 11 buckets to fill a 55 gallon barrel. It takes me and my friend 4 hours to fill all six barrels and the ten buckets. That is 3000 pounds manure in four hours. I manage to sell some manure to others. Yesterday I sold 10 bags (feed Sacks) for $40.00 which I give my friend for helping me load and then spread the 3000 pounds rabbit manure. Contact the Sherriff, the police, the State Fair, a Vet, a farmer. There is more manure to be given away than you can haul! The State Fair gives me free loads of composted straw with horse or cow manure and they load it. 30,000 pounds of rabbit manure and 15,000 pounds of compost and it cost me the gas to get it which is $6-$9 per 3000 pounds manure or 2000 compost!

Thanks, that was actually me that asked what you were using. I sure wish I had all of those things available here, I don't though and if I were just a couple hundred miles north I would be able to get anything I wanted.

[Doug9345]

It sounds like you have a good deal there going. Horse manure is the easiest kind for me to get my hands on. It works well as long as I'm aware of the herbicide problem. I think I'm going to get some cow manure from a guy, but that generally isn't an option as most dairy farmers spread it back on their own land. I have no idea where I'd get chicken manure, but liked it when I raised chickens as a teenager.

That's a good idea about rabbits. It's funny as I just saw some free rabbit manure on craigslist. I'll have to pop an email to them as it could be 60 miles away.

[Doug9345]

I also wanted to add that I'm a believer in using what you have ready access to. If it's too concentrated (chicken manure) I can use it sparingly. I also have access to things like wood chips which, when combined with some manure would make awesome compost.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

I also wanted to add that I'm a believer in using what you have ready access to. If it's too concentrated (chicken manure) I can use it sparingly. I also have access to things like wood chips which, when combined with some manure would make awesome compost.

I totally agree! I've had good results with both chicken and horse manure. If I had a source of goat, sheep, alpaca or rabbit I would use that,too.
I've also made tea out of the fresher poultry manure, which makes a nice quick fertilizer. Oftentimes, I just sprinkle it on the top of the soil around heavy feeders. The thing to remember with chicken manure is that it's stronger, about like commercial organic fertilizer. I don't remember the amount exactly. Also, manures can increase the potassium ( I think) so its good to use something else or get a soil test every so often.

[RootLoops]

do the rabbits not eat most of the manure? or do they only need a little of it? the couple of easter rabbits i had as a kid would tear up some poo

[Growing Giants]

Originally Posted by RootLoops

do the rabbits not eat most of the manure? or do they only need a little of it? the couple of easter rabbits i had as a kid would tear up some poo

Rabbits only eat poo when they need salt! If you feed a commercial feed it has salt in it! When I was a kid we had salt rings the rabbits ate! Nowdays the salt is in the feed!

[jakebb]

Originally Posted by Growing Giants

Rabbits only eat poo when they need salt! If you feed a commercial feed it has salt in it! When I was a kid we had salt rings the rabbits ate! Nowdays the salt is in the feed!

Obviously I'm no expert on rabbits, but I vaguely remember reading something about how rabbits excrete two types of droppings, one of which is only partially digested (or something like that) and needs to be ingested again. I'm pretty sure that would be the case if rabbits were eating their poop.