[doganjo]

Like many of us on here when I clean out the hen house there is a load of manure.  My compost bins are full, and I was going to put the rest in my raised beds, and top of with soil.

It is a mixture of shredded paper chicken poo and uneaten hay.  What I'd like to know is which vegetables really wouldn't like it, bearing in mind my raised beds are about two and a half feet deep.

I have a number of different veggies (peas, parsnips, tomatoes, cauliflower, onions) planted in pots in the greenhouse, none of which are yet through, so it will be a week or so before they'll go outside.

Thoughts?

[Lesley Silvester]

Chicken manure is very strong and likely to burn delicate roots. Can you not empty one of your bins - the one you filled first - onto the bed and start to fill it again. If you then cover the manure with soil, the worms will carry on working in the manure and, by the time the roots get down that far, they'll be stronger and the poop should be less strong.


Don't put cauliflowers in or they'll be all leaf. Beans and curcubits (squash, courgettes, etc) are very hungry plants so would enjoy the richness. I did very well with a squash planted in not quite rotted goat manure last year.

[doganjo]

It's a matter of strength really - my compost bins aren't ready yet, and the chicken manure is already sitting in one of the raised beds, still wrapped in the plastic sheeting I use on the floor. So it would be easy just to pull the plastic out and slide the manure into the raised bed.  But courgettes and squash might be an answer.  (I'm not that fond of beans though  )

So might my son coming back to visit next week when he has a day off    I also have two large double glazed panes that fit over that bed, so they could go back on.  Donald had taken them off so I could do something with the manure.

[cloddopper]

Fresh chicken muck even with bedding's is way tool high in nitrogen and phosphates & as already said  will cause your crops to try and out grow the cell structure strength giving them the yellow scorched look on the leaves.
Any root crops will develop multiple roots and ends up being very difficult /time consuming to peel .
 Onions will bolt to seed very quickly . You will get masses and masses of greenery from the marrows & any other curbits or squashes they all need well composted finished compost .
 Why not take the contents out of the longest composted material bin and put the chicken muck in at the bottom ensuring it is fairly damp as you build it in layers ( helps the decay/composting action )  . Top up all the other bins withe  partly finished compost then if there is any left over add it on top of the fresh muck .

http://www.hgtvgardens.com/chickens/backyard-chickens-the-straight-poop-on-using-chicken-manure-as-fertilizer

 This link gives a fair comment about fresh chicken muck use .. the liquid tea idea works well and is even better if you add a pound or so of sugar dissolved in hot water when you make the first infusion , for the wild yeasts that grow  are beneficial in the ground for the plants to fed off and also for the yeasts to help release further nutrients locked in the soil and any organic matter in the soil as well. 

[doganjo]

Thanks for all that everyone, but at 71 and having a muscle and joint condition (PMR) I just don't have the strength to dig and shift anything, except the occasional shovelful at the bottom of the  compost bin (black plastic council issue), and it's just not composted enough yet.

I've tipped the very wet old (about 3 months) manure from the plastic sheeting into the raised bed (1m x 2m x .75m) and covered it with the glass pane so the dogs can't help themselves    I'll add a couple of bags of bought compost over it, and that will have to do until next year, just means I'm a bed short till then, but that's Ok, I'm only growing for me anyway. 

A smaller raised bed (I m x 1m x .75m) has some fruit bushes in it that I'm hoping to get moved in the next week or so, and I had to tip a small amount of the chicken manure in there, so I hope they'll be ok till then.

[cloddopper]

I understand about the mind beeen willg but the body isn't
 I'm awaiting the call of the surgeons knife for two stenosis problems in my lower spine and damaged discs in my mid spine .. had the pre op checks three weeks ago .
 I've asked for and got ( providing I paid £10 each)  another six of the councils Dalek composters( total now seven )  inc free  delivery  for I too have been unable to turn my heaps over this last four months due to the increasing disabilities.

if yo spread the chicken muck very thinly on top of the beds and let it weather with rain ,wind and sun for about three weeks before hoeing/ raking  it in  it will have lost a lot of the intensity of the high nutrient content

[doganjo]

I understand about the mind beeen willg but the body isn't
 I'm awaiting the call of the surgeons knife for two stenosis problems in my lower spine and damaged discs in my mid spine .. had the pre op checks three weeks ago .
 I've asked for and got ( providing I paid £10 each)  another six of the councils Dalek composters( total now seven )  inc free  delivery  for I too have been unable to turn my heaps over this last four months due to the increasing disabilities.

if yo spread the chicken muck very thinly on top of the beds and let it weather with rain ,wind and sun for about three weeks before hoeing/ raking  it in  it will have lost a lot of the intensity of the high nutrient content

Thanks, just the info I needed - are there any plants/ veg i should keep out of there in particular and any that will relish it?

[cloddopper]

II wouldn't sow my seeds in it as it will still be far too rig=ch for them  but would happily put in any green transplants that I can feed to the chickens if they start to blow / grow too quick .
 i'd also be happy to scrape a 6 inch deep trench with a hoe in the weathered bed and plant 10 inch tall baby leeks 4 inches apart in the bottom .. Dont top and tail the plants as some folk suggest this actually holds the leeks back according to some recent research done in Belgium wrt leeks
 I'd also consider scraping out a deeper trench , putting in three of four inches of whole newspapers , recovering with the topsoil then planting runner & french beans in the topsoil as this will make a very useful trenched hot bed that retains moisture that should give you some great beans.

 Celery plants about three inches tall might also work well for they are hungry feeders ...you can oven or air dry the leaves for use in soups, stews and as chop/chicken or sausage etc. flavourings to use at any time of the year if you store the crushed dried leaves in air tight jars .

Once the lightly spread ground has been worked for  for five or so months it should be safe to start planting out your autumn salads , winter crops that have been rised as plants elsewhere and your over wintering crops save for the root crops as I've previously mentioned.
 

[Stereo]

We put some 4 or 5 month old chicken muck on a raised bed last year and the first sowing of salad totally failed. Oops. Later on they came good but it was way too much. Marrows exploded though. I reckon you would want to mix it with plenty of green stuff and leave it for a year, turning a couple times.

[doganjo]

What I have done is put loads of B & Q compost in the beds (2.5 feet high) on top of the chicken sh7t and planted young plants of all kinds - they're all doing great.

[Stereo]

Yeah, that would be the answer. Bury it deep so it's doing the work in the long term but doesn't burn anything. It's powerful stuff.

[pgkevet]

I take the lazy view.. it gets chucked onto next years' veggie patch and ploughed in in the autumn

[doganjo]

I have raised beds as you'll have seen from other posts  - and that is exactly where the next lot is going -onto the spare box - with netting all round so the dogs can't fish it out!