Dave Rennie

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:If you continuously mix the fresh poo with wood chips and biochar, I think you have solved the problem. Give it all a bit of time to work, and treat it like hot stuff; but these will buffer and soak up the excess nitrogen you are worried about.

Thanks Douglas,
I’ve got bio char in my compost bin, and more at hand ready to add, so my plan is to add the coop droppings in there and mix.

Thanks Anne,
Those were really good threads, and I've now learnt what to do with the broken down wood chip bedding for next year.
For now, I just needed a solution to have safe chicken manure ready for this years chillies.
I believe I can compost the manure that piles up beneath their coop roost in plenty of time for planting out my chillies.
It's amazing how much muck 2 hens can produce!
Thanks
Dave

Anne Miller wrote:Hi, Dave

You have gotten some great answers.

In case you would like to read further here are some threads that you or others might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/140138/fresh-chicken-manure-garden

https://permies.com/t/2107/chicken-poop-lawn-fertilizer

https://permies.com/t/138499/Chicken-Manure-Hugelkultur

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Dave,
The issue with using chicken manure is when it is too fresh. Without breaking down first, it will burn plants and roots. As far as I know, once it is broken down, it can be used on any sort of plant. I have never heard of any issues specific to root crops. Either it is too fresh for anything or it is good enough for anything.

If you are actively working on the compost to make it hot, you could probably get it useable in a month. However, most of the time, I am not out re-digging my compost piles, so I would typically let it sit for a good 6 months before using it. It should look like soil when it is ready enough.

Specific to putting it on the garlic in the fall so it will be ready by spring... it would probably work? But I would feel better about letting it sit and age a bit before doing that.

Thank you Matt,
I’ve decided to compost it in a bin, and turn it every few days with an earth auger so it’s ready for when I plant my chilies out in June.
Thanks
Dave

Jonathan Hodges wrote:I would use it as mulch in the fall around the freshly planted garlic. By the time you are harvesting it will be well broken down.

Thank you.

I’ve been raising 2 hens in a smallish run with 6 inches of deep woodchip bedding since Nov 2022.

I understand it may take 6-12 months for the wood chip to break down to a point it can be used in the garden, but I’m wondering how I can use the chicken manure that falls and builds up directly beneath the coop?

I’m only growing 2 different crops. Garlic, that has been in since Nov and will be harvested around June/July, and super hot chillies that will be planed out in early June after I thin the garlic out and harvest green garlic.

Last year, before planting my chillies out, I had a brand new empty raised bed, and empty large pots to plant my chillies into.
I prepared the soil with lots of biochar, and drenched the bed/pots with gallons of chicken manure pellets and human urine smoothie.
I had a bumper crop!

This year, I’ve got the garlic to contend with, and from what I’ve read, I can’t use chicken manure or urine on root crops.

How would you advise me to use the piles of chicken manure that falls beneath the coop, to benefit my chillies without causing problems for my garlic?

Thanks

John Suavecito wrote:I would make your compost tea, using regular methods.  You need enough time and oxygen in there to really build up all of the microbes.  I would add urine and chicken manure separately to the crushed biochar after you add the compost tea.  Those are all good inoculants. They just need to be made in a helpful way first. Then the microbes can live and grow in the biochar before you add it to your soil.

John S
PDX OR

Thanks John,
I've already begun experimenting, but have decided not to add urine during the brew stage.
Dave

I couldn't find a vermiculture forum, so I hope this is in the right place.

I’ve bought a pump to brew my own worm tea to be used as a liquid feed and to inoculate biochar.

Has anyone got experience throwing chicken manure pellets in the brew during the bubbling?
Would this be good/bad?

Thanks
Dave

Can anyone help?

Hi there,

I’ve decided to buy a pump so I can make compost/worm tea to inoculate my biochar, and I have a few questions please.

Previously, I’ve thrown a cup of organic chicken manure pellets into a 6 litre milk carton, filled that with urine and allowed it to dissolve before pouring it on dry biochar along with worm castings to inoculate.

My questions are.

If making worm tea in a bucket with a bubbler using rain water and castings, at what stage would I add dissolved chicken pellets and urine?
Will they help the bubbling tea process or hinder?

Secondly, people say that the microbes in the bubbled worm tea will die off within 6-12 hours of the bubbler being switched off, due to lack of oxygen. Will the microbes survive if added to the biochar immediately after the bubbler being turned off?

Third, more of a worm related question. Would adding a bit of the bubbled worm tea back into the bin benefit the bin? Would it provide additional food for my worms?

Thanks

Mateo Reyes wrote:In the case that if bio char is pulverized small enough for the worms to consume it can be beneficial to the worms but not directly related to nutrition but as grit. Would anyone thing this would be true ? Would worms use this for grit ?

I’ve kept worms for the last 4 months.
A DIY stacked system with a section full of larger pieces of biochar (2cm max not inoculated) in the bottom section that usually collects leachate.
I’ve also added fine biochar to the bedding (probably about 15% of bedding) from scratch as both a grit, a way to inoculate biochar, and to stabilise smells etc.
It hasn’t caused any problems.

I’ve seen videos of people using a blender and adding biochar to a bin to act as grit.