Amending soil with chicken bedding compost.

Tips or tricks on using composted chicken manure in your garden. All organic teas or amending soil organically. How much do you use, what ratios do you apply, foliar feeding and more.

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I’d send a sample off to see what’s in it right away. Then go from there. It can accumulate some gnarly shtuff, but can be a great resource.

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You need to let it cook/compost for a bit. Chicken manure is far too hot right from the factory.

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Do you have a worm bin? I let my worms do the heavy lifting when it comes to composting manures and a good portion of my amendments.

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I don’t but have really been considering a worm bin or more for making soil for my indoor grows during winter. The manure I’m using is over a year old and its just a thick layer of wood shavings and manure built up over a couple years. We got rid of most of the chickens but we had 200 at one point so as you can imagine there’s probably a couple tons of the stuff. I usually apply about 60 pounds to 100 square feet and till it in. I do notice a ton of worm castings on top after I apply. I sent a soil sample in to get tested yesterday so I’ll have a definitive nutrient report soon enough. I’ve only ever tilled it in, I’ve heard of teas and top dressing but I’ve just never done it. Something about spraying shit tea on my babies is just wrong to me.

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Yes, it needs to be composted. You’ll burn the hell out of most plants with raw manure.

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But not rabbit manure!

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Correct, Rabbit you can use fresh.

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To be honest, I used to do the teas but they don’t smell the greatest while brewing and I didn’t find the benefits to outweigh my time and not to mention the occupied stinky bathroom.

Since you’re growing outdoors, it sounds, you may have room for a Air Lift Vortex brewer. When I did do teas, I liked the Air lift most. It’s more quiet than the stones and much easier to clean biofilm from.

But yeah, for those reasons I let my worms do the composting now and I just topdress the casting along with any addition required raw ammendments.

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Duck poop is good too, I use their “pond” water straight from the baby pool

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Same with goat!..right?
:thinking::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I love :chicken: :poop: as an amendment but since I don’t have access to fresh chicken poop I buy the bags of ready to use pelleted form and keep it in a 5gal bucket with a gamma-lid to keep it “fresh”.

A handful ends up in the hole when transplanting outdoors, and then once a month I toss a handful on the topsoil around the base of the plant and massage it in with my fingers before watering it in.

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