Organic Vegetable Gardening and Chickens
You may think chicken manure is downright disgusting and incompatible with vegetable gardening, but when it comes to growing vegetables in an organic and sustainable manner, good ol’ chicken poop, often known as “brown gold,” is one of the best things under the sun.
Miraculous things happen when chicken manure is used as part of a comprehensive organic garden plan, along with cover cropping, crop rotation or other bio-friendly techniques. Chicken manure allows you to grow your garden in harmony with nature without benefit of toxic pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers.
Chicken Manure: It’s Not Just Poop
One chicken produces approximately two cubic feet of nutrient-rich manure every year. The manure is richer than steer or horse manure, providing nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and other micro- and macronutrients.
Chickens spend much of their time scratching around in straw or other litter, and it all eventually goes into the garden. The earthy blend of manure and organic matter benefits soil by increasing water-holding capacity, reducing erosion, enhancing drainage and improving overall soil structure.
But is it Safe?
Manure must be properly pasteurized or aerobically composted before it’s safe to use. As seasoned composters know, pathogens are destroyed as compost heats to a high internal temperature. Chicken manure is properly pasteurized when it is noticeably stinky and litter has broken down so it’s no longer recognizable.
Aerobic Composing is a slightly different process that involves storing the manure in a safe, protected place where nature can take its course. Unlike pasteurization, aerobic composting kills pathogens by only allowing the compost to heat up to a specific temperature. This kills the harmful pathogens, but also allows for a bulk of the beneficial microbes to remain.
Aerobic composting is the preferred method for a fertilizer that results in significantly reduced odor in smell and higher in beneficial microbes.
A Word about Chicken Manure Tea
Chicken manure tea is suitable for nearly any plant in your garden, but it’s especially handy for container-grown vegetables. It isn’t difficult to make and the final product will provide your plants with a veritable buffet of nutrients and beneficial bacteria.
To make the rich brew, just place a healthy scoop or two of aerobically composted chicken manure in a bag made of burlap or other porous material. Fill a 5-gallon bucket with water, then submerge the bag and hold it down with a heavy rock or brick. Put the entire set-up in a sunny location. You may want to cover the bucket to prevent rather unpleasant aroma from escaping.
Stir the tea a couple of times every day for about a week. At that point, dump the contents of the bag into the bucket and add enough clean water to create a 50/50 mix of tea and water. Provide your vegetable plants with a little chicken manure tea every couple of weeks until they begin to flower and set fruit.