I would let the manure age a bit before using, I hear it is very hot. But I do use it new but dry and crumbled on the lawn and boy is the lawn green!

Our flock will kick all the mulch off looking for bugs, but they also fluff up the dirt taking dirt baths and would eat their weight in bugs if they could find them.

So, other than some extra raking, I see only good aspects of our chickens. We do protect anything new in the garden and I hear red growth attracts them. But so far they have less than no interest in the roses I planted in their zone. Even the new bright red roses have held no interest.

They can be a ton of fun, you will never be alone again while using a shovel. :)

I adored my chickens, and loved those fresh, fresh eggs. They have very little resemblance to commercial eggs. They didn't eat any rose blooms or leaves, BUT mine did some major excavating when looking for bugs. I had to fence them out of the areas that had small companion plants, but large things were all right. I would still have them if it wasn't for the coyotes. They ate every single one of them. I wouldn't think the small amount of manure you would get from two or three chickens would be enough to burn.

If you need some extra manure, I have TONS of extra alpaca manure LOL! Even just the two of them are producing much more than I would ever need. I'm sure our garbage men were less than thrilled when we had two bags of it in our trash can last Monday. However, I think there would be some kind of law against shipping poop across state lines ;) Oh well, I'll figure out something to do with it all!

Seriously though, you'll have to let me know how the chicken manure works for you. We would like to get a few for eggs.

Tammy

A friend of mine has four chickens. He lets them run the yard but they have a safe house at night to roost and to keep the raccoons, etc. from killing them. They eat a lot of snails and bad bugs. He has caged all his veggies with hog pen wire because they scratch at the soil and uproot stuff. He just lets them fertilize his big yard during the day. How nice of you to save that poor rooster. I saved a fighting rooster once and gave it to a friend on a farm. They named him Jerry Lee because he was kind of loud.

I'm not sure, but I think it depends on how thickly you mulch, and with what kind of mulch. If you use a few inches of wood chips or shredded bark, and put fresh chicken manure on top, I think you'd be ok. Wood mulches sponge up nitrogen as they decay, then release it back slowly into the soil once fully composted. And if you have a few inches of wood mulch between the chicken manure and the rose roots, it'd take be so diluted as it rains down that I'd think any danger of burning would be little to none. And with just one or two birds, I'm imagining the amount of fresh manure used would amount to a sprinkling every few days (as it's spread around the beds).

But this is just me thinking -- I've never tried it. I'm sure others would know better. I think I remember seeing one of "Fred's Fine Fowl" youtube videos in which he said he put fresh manure (mixed with dirty henhouse bedding) directly on top of previous-season's wood mulch, then topped it with fresh mulch, and repeated every year. This was for his vegetables, but he said he didn't have any nitrogen burn.

:-)

~Christopher

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken droppings and mulch

This post was edited by AquaEyes on Sun, May 26, 13 at 2:13

Tammy, compost it. Think of what you could do with lots of compost!

The small amount or manure from 2 or 3 chickens isn't going to hurt. But a full size hen can sure tear up the ground looking for bugs so be careful with that.
The reason I am posting here is to warn you about game cocks. They were breed for fighting and have a very aggressive manner. If you have children or grand kids be careful, they can cause some real damage. People who have had chickens all their lives are startled when they first meet a free ranging fighting cock. I know of what I speak. It isn't just another chicken. If it is a fighting cock please be careful.

Well, that may be true, but the worst I was ever hurt was by a little banty rooster. I had a Bronze turkey gobbler that spurred anybody who turned their back on him (Bruiser by name) and nobody would get out of their cars without a guard when I had geese. I had a Bourbon Red gobbler that chased my granddaughter from the barn all the way to the house. I've had gamecocks that weren't any worse than any other rooster. Of course, these were not trained to fight, so maybe that's the difference.

We have an old old rooster, but you could sit in front of him on the ground with your back to him, and he is just going to walk around to the front of you to see what your up too. Nice to have a sweet rooster.

Now if you want your yard protected...get a goose! Holy Cow are they protective.

No doubt in my mind he's a fighting cock. His comb and waddles were removed. For some reason his upper beak was either intentionally trimmed back, or broke off. And two of his toenails are missing.

He's also as sweet as can be to people. I really don't want to be educated about fighting birds, but since I now rescued one, don't want to be ignorant either. Evidently they are handled quite a bit to be able to be brought in and out of fights. It makes me sick.

Anyways - we don't have a problem with people. I think I'm going to just keep him alone - he does get to see a barn full of horses, and hopefully with that he'll be happy. When unattended, he lives in a now completely chicken wire enclosed horse stall for his protection from preditors (how convenient I had a 150' roll of chicken wire to build gopher cages for the roses. And then when I'm in the garden, I'll bring him out for some bugs and some free ranging - but under my watchful eye only (and with the dogs in the house).

Just like with pitbulls. There aren't bad animals, but there are a lot of really bad people!

Exactly, Harmony. You could slowly introduce him to girls and see how he behaves, then you could hatch some babies. I ended up selling off all of my roosters but one because they entirely destroyed their coop with their fighting--and these were barred rock, not gamecocks. Plus, they made the hens absolutely miserable.

Another word of caution. Chicken wire is designed to keep chickens in, but it is not very good for keeping predators OUT! We lost 14 of 15 pullets this spring learning that important lesson. A raccoon pulled a seam in the chicken wire, opened a hole and created terror and mayhem in the coop.

The good news is that the single surviving chicken, without any chicken-sisters to distract her, is very personable. She follows me around while I garden, will jump on my shoulder (what's a little chicken poop down the back?!) or cuddle in my lap if I sit down and take a break. I haven't worried about any special deposits creating a problem.

It is possible that the reason he is so sweet to people is because that's you are all he has for socialization. He might change his behavior if you add in some good looking women!

Oh Subk3 - thanks for making me laugh this morning (2nd half, not first half of your post!). I think you've just given me motivation to keep humans his only company - I'd be real disappointed if he suddenly became mean.

Good to know about the chicken wire - I feel completely dumb about chickens although I'm reading as fast as I can. Good news is that the horse stall he is in, has 3 sides thick metal walls - think they're about 8' high, with one window with thick metal grate every 3 inches (over that I have chicken wire). Then the stall front is metal (wood fronted) about 4' high, with metal grating to height of other panels. Metal grating is then covered with chicken wire. And then panels to barn ceiling covered with chicken wire. So - he's like in a little chicken Fort Knox. A stall meant to keep in a 1200 lb animal for a little chicken. Which now of course is filled with all sorts of boxes with hay and roosts, it looks like a little chicken playground. I think I better put my attention back on the real compost producers - the horses! But very glad we had a spare stall - the barn is full of new life with a rooster crowing and cackling all day.