composting chicken manure

[aqh88]

I have chickens now and with chickens came lots and lots of chicken poop over the winter. It's gonna be coop cleaning time in another week or 2 so I have to decide what to do with all this chicken poop, shavings, and bits of straw. I'm thinking of piling it on a plot I'm not using that got taken over by weeds last year, covering it in black plastic to cook the weeds and everything, and then just mixing it in and planting my strawberries there next spring. Think that'll work? Should I add anything else to it? I have a huge pile of horse manure at the stable but it's so heavy, has weeds growing near it, and requires so much effort to haul across town that I usually just get 20lb bags of well composted sterile cow manure from the feed store for $1 each at the end of the year and then use them the next year.

[cynthia_h]

Have you ever heard of FreeCycle? It's an on-line and real-world community where non-cash transactions take place. Just today I picked up jeans, sweatshirts, and a zippered fleece jacket from someone's porch.

I need to tell you in advance that you will likely be SWAMPED with responses if you're in a heavy gardening/FreeCycle area. I offered a worm box January a year ago (before I was able to start gardening again in...March). I received over 20 responses less than 2 hours after I posted the "OFFER" message, and then another whole bunch when the digest (every 25 messages or at least once a day) went to digest recipients.

Check out www.freecycle.org and then do a search by zip code, town, county, or whatever makes sense to you. It's better to offer within as small an area as possible so that travel times are reduced (better eco footprint; part of FreeCycle's mission statement). But given what you're dealing with, reality is pretty important, too!

So you'll want to use something like "OFFER: aged (not composted) horse manure [my town]" for your Subject and then let people know that they need to bring their own shovels, buckets/containers/truck, gloves, and boots. You'll probably get a good response!

Read the rules of your specific FreeCycle list; some allow phone numbers, some do not in the public posting. Some allow you to specify your nearest intersection/cross roads, others do not, in the public posting. Once you've selected your recipient(s), it's fine to give them a phone # and, obviously, your address.

I'm sorry that the horse manure is too heavy for you to move it from one spot to the other. Even a heavy-duty gardening cart won't help?

Best wishes.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[rot]

..
If you're asking if it will compost then yes it will. Cover it some I think.

The orchard growers will spread it directly on the ground 'round here. They like to time the spreading with the rains. Last year an orchard producer spread a bunch but no rain came. They got lots of complaints. Made the paper. I could smell it from the freeway every morning for two weeks.

two cents
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[ElizabethB]

Cynthia - Thank you for the Freecycle link. I have never heard of it. I did a quick look see and was blown away. What a great idea

Thanks again.

[toxcrusadr]

And old thread revived, but it's still true: Freecycle is the bomb. Even the Craigslist 'Free' section doesn't have near the traffic as Freecycle, where I live.