Chickens have many many benefits that most people don’t know about. For example they make great pets, they make butt nuggets (aka eggs) almost every morning, they make for eggcelent bug removal, best gardeners EVER and the list goes on and on! But we will just focus on the gardening aspect for now
Chicken manure is rich with nutrients and nitrogen that plants absolutely love! And because I have 8 chickens I have an endless supply of manure to add to my compost. Since my girls are out free ranging during the day and sleep in the coop at night it is pretty easy to collect their droppings that are left in nice piles they leave me throughout the night.
What I choose to do when cleaning out the coop is to take a shovel full of manure and the wood shavings and throw into my garden in process or if you have a separate compost you could add it there.
Now onto the compost itself…
Not only does the manure add nutrients to the soil but it helps break down the green and brown materials much faster than usual. If you want to try chicken manure composting remember because of the extra nitrogen you will have to add alot more brown materials to keep the PH balanced
My compost right now: From bottom to top
– soil
– grass clippings
– manure
– dried leaves
– grass clippings
– manure
– soil
Because I am currently processing a smaller raised bed garden I am able to put a moveable fence around it and put a few girls at a time in it during the day to mix it up for me! The only thing I have to do is water it down and switch out different hens!
All my hens are different breeds…
Silver laced Cochin
Cukoo Maran
Blue mottled bantam Cochin
Black bantam Cochin
Barnvelder
Americuana
Buff orpington
Originally posted on Growerflow Forum (now Vegocracy) by user Alaura02
