Chicken Manure
Chickens we’ve just discovered, are messy little critters. There’s chicken s##t everywhere!
Our chicken house was sold as being able to house 4 – 5 chickens, it has a ‘run’ attached so they can get some fresh air and stretch their wings.
We planned on moving the house round the garden every few days, so they’re not on the same spot for too long. Apparently moving them is a good idea, as it prevents them getting diseases and stops the patch of ground under the run getting wasted.
Well, after just one day the grass has been trashed with chicken scratching and covered in chicken poo. As you can see from the below photo, there’s a definitely a different ‘colour’ to the patch, compared to the lush green next to it, on either side it’s well… a little ‘brown’ to say the least!
Chicken Poo after one day in the chicken house and run.
So we’ve now decided to move the house daily and we have bought some wire fencing, which we’re using to extend the chicken run as a short term measure.
This means the chickens have a larger area to ‘play’ in during the day time, and hopefully means that their poo won’t be concentrated in such a small area.
The obvious up shot to this is that we’ll have loads of lovely chicken poo to add to our compost heap, so I suppose the chickens will be contributing to our vegetable plot next year!
Another odd thing is that Pip the dog seems to want to eat the chicken poo. I don’t know whether this is a marking of the territory thing, or in his mind the next best thing to being able to actually eat the chickens. Whatever the reason, it’s a disgusting habit and he needs to stop!
The whole chicken poo thing has convinced us to fence off a dedicated area of the garden for the chickens to have free range of. There’s a area next to the cabin down the end of the garden, which has gotten a little bit over grown and is just ‘begging’ to be made into a chicken run.
Over grown area behind chicken house which will become the chicken run.
The only problem with this is that we haven’t done anything with this bit of garden since last year, when we cleared the area and re-claimed a wilderness area at the end of the garden - with the help of family and friends.
We then had a cabin built - this is used by Tim as a home office. The view from ‘work’ is pretty nice these days I can tell you!
Re-clearing the area will be a bit of a pain, but worth it I think. Not that I want to put ‘human’ feelings on the chickens, but it would be nice for them to have a larger area to scratch, stretch and do their chicken ‘business’ in, than the small six feet they’ve currently got in their enclosed run under their chicken house.
The area is about four metres wide and four metres deep to the left of the cabin, it then carries on behind the cabin with a area of five metres wide and one metre deep and finally on the right of the cabin, there’s a strip one metre wide and five metres deep. All in things considered, I think it will be a nice area for the chickens to have a run.
But, this is only after the serious work of having to clear the patch of garden again is finished. Then there’ll be the fencing off the front part in line with the cabin, to keep the chickens in and Pip and other visitors out!
Which brings me back to chicken manure… We’re trying to be as ‘green’ as possible these days. We re-cycle, buy organic food, compost our kitchen and garden waste – which has become something of a obsession for Toby and I.
Toby is the ‘compost police’! If he catches anyone trying to put something compostable in the normal bin, they get a stern warning and then a threat to ‘tell daddy’. He tells me (whatever the outcome, as he’s a good ‘snitch’) with pride when he sees me.
Julia told me that some of the compost kitchen scraps will now be fed to the chickens instead. I was a little concerned with this, as I like to ‘feed’ my compost heap… Told you it had become a obsession!
But what with so much chicken ‘waste’ being generated, I can now see that my compost heap won’t be suffering as it will all be going on the heap!
We’ll have our own chicken manure to add to the vegetable compost. Now all I need is an allotment to put it on!
So there you have it, a nice ‘by-product’ of keeping chickens if you’re a gardener or like to grow your own vegetables, is chicken manure.
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Posted: August 16th, 2008 under Keeping Chickens.
Tags: are chickens messy to keep, can you add straight chicken poo to compost?, chicken, Chicken House, Chicken Manure, chicken poo, chicken poo uk, chicken poop vacuum, Chicken Run, chickens in the grass, chickens messy, clean chicken poo off concrete, compost heap, compost kitchen scraps, free range hens poo garden, garden chickens, guidelines in buying chicken manure, how messy are chickens, how to protect chickens from the fox whittingstall, Keeping Chickens, keeping chickens on concrete, lovely chicken poo, making chicken manure, normal faeces of a chicken, online uk chicken manure, warrens chickens, waste chicken for dogs, wat to do with chicken poo, what do i do with chicken manure, what is in chicken manure, why chicks keeps on scratching
Comments
Pingback from Chicken Manure Compost Bin | Keeping Chickens
Time September 5, 2008 at 1:31 am
[...] posted the other day on Chicken Manure, and again with photos of our plastic compost bins full to the brim with chicken poo, bedding and [...]
Comment from paul
Time February 8, 2009 at 4:49 pm
how long do you have to wait before using chicken manure on you veg patches i have a few bags of manure mixed with the straw from cleaning the shed out ?
Comment from don
Time March 4, 2009 at 6:44 pm
could you tell me if can put a chicken coop on concrete please
Comment from Pirin
Time April 10, 2009 at 11:09 am
Hi
Good webpage. Funny, we just moved to Australia, and the only thing i knewthat is going to happen, is that we will get some chickens. Chucks, as they are called over here. Best money I ever spent. My two girls are loving it, having chicken parties, cuddle them before they go to bed, Check up on them if they are all back in their coop, and go and say hello and look for their eggs in the morning before school (we let them run free at the moment on a rather big plot) etc. The kids organised a wee honesty box at the front of the house to sell the eggs, and it works, and gets the Girls (4+5), into business thinking. Our Dog keeps eating the chicken shit, and then he wakes me up in the middle of the night by licking my face, absolutaly disgusting… Anyway, our Dog, a puppy of 6 but in size already a monster, jumped in playful mode on Barber, the main leading chicken. I am not sure if the chicken died of a hart attack or if the neck was broken, anyway, it died. The Parent in law digged the grave, the kids all of a sudden wanted to learn a wee prayer to have all offical, and two weeks later, they still congregate by the grave, in cheerfull mode tough. In Henriettas eyes, Barber was the most beautiful chicken ever, with the most beautiful and kindest eyes ever. It really was her favourit chicken. So I went and got a new one to replace it. What a disaster. The other chickens did not like it at all. It is a bit younger then the others, so I have to keep it seperat at the moment, at least over night as there is enough space to evade each other during the day. I was told if the chicken survived the first few days, it will be ok. However, I have to wait till it is the same size as the others, and then put it into the kitchen coop at night. As good mannerd as they are, they are cruel animals as well, and cheecky beyond beleve. I found your webpage due to looking for compost with chicken manure. So thanks for your info, i look forward to get my own compost very soon. Sorry to bother you with my email, was just nice to see somebody else so enthusiastic about their own chickens
Kindest regards
Pirmin
Comment from Pirmin
Time April 10, 2009 at 11:11 am
Oups, did not know you publish it. So if you really want to, please correct the spelling
Comment from Rachel
Time April 21, 2009 at 9:42 am
Hi
I had this problem last week with my new chickens (i’ve had them nearly 2 weeks); with the grass being trashed and chicken poo everywhere. However, me and my husband have finally cut their wings (one on each chicken) and let them be free range. Now the garden is not getting trashed as my chickens love my borders with bark in as all of the worms are there, though i do still get chicken poo – but i suppose theres no way of escaping that were just careful where we sit in the garden once its collected as manure.
Good luck and enjoy your chickens!
Comment from peter
Time August 29, 2010 at 4:11 pm
i have 3 chickens, and they rome my garden.
I’m forever picking up the muck, they even sit on our bench waiting for me to bring some goodies, extra to their food.
Has anyone noticed their soil borders etc? mine are decreasing in size. they eat the soil and leave the stones.
i bought 2 large bags of play sand and put it near their coop, and sure enough its nearly all gone and the bird poo is all sandy.
I wonder if i got some beach sand i would have salted eggs.!!!!
Pingback from Chicken Run | Keeping Chickens
Time August 23, 2008 at 5:41 pm
[...] you may remember, since my earlier post on Chicken Poo, we decided that the chicken house that we bought – although fine as a sleeping area, needs a [...]