(Cue Beverly Hillbillies theme music)
{Note, open the link above in a separate window}
Come and listen to a story about a gal named City Gurl,
once steeped in the fast lane now moved out to the rural,
took up homesteading and met up with some fellow of her kind,
went out to the hen house and what did she find?
Black Gold, ingredients for Manure Tea
Well next thing you know O City Gurl is got a garden,
planting those seeds and seedlings and similar kin,
Tomatoes and peppers, cucumbers and spuds,
its been a learning process, playing in the mud!
Poultry manure (chicken in particular) is the richest animal manure in N-P-K. Chicken manure is considered "hot" and must be composted before adding it to the garden. Otherwise, it will burn any plants it comes in contact with.
Harvest time, time to visit the hen house. I had needed to clean out the coop for quite a while, as evidenced by the 'build up' in the box.
Scraping the box is really not that hard...I don't know why I delay this task.
Bet the 'girls' were glad to have a clean spot to rest.
That is a 5 gallon bucket...it is 3/4 of the way full. As stated in the paragraph above (which has a link to the original article) I can not apply it directly to plants until it is aged. I can however, make manure tea.
I found a few 'recipes' online. From Ehow - take a burlap or grain sack (50#?) and fill 3/4 of the way full, ties off and submerge in a trash can or bin. Let 'brew' for 3 weeks.
That one is just too complicated for me. Sorry. A few years ago a friend gave me some cow manure, I put it in a plastic bucket, added some water, let it sit (who knows how long) out in the garden area, uncovered and dipped an old pitcher into whenever I wanted to water the plants.
I don't know that I will be any more scientific with this batch of chicken manure. Maybe I could bottle it to sell? LOL!
Also, once I am ready to put my plants in the garden I will dig down deeper than needed, place a small shovel full of manure in the hole, top up with some dirt and then place the plants in there.
While searching I did find a forum which was discussing making manure tea, they had some interesting suggestions.
If you'd like to age your manure, you can add it to a compost pile for 6-9 months. This site, had some good information as well.
How much manure can one chicken produce in a year? 50 gallons! I might could rustle up some jingle if I sold it...just maybe.eport Song
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