That is very gracious of you---manure of this type is a valuable asset--IF..stored away from other composted material for at least a year...two years would be better.
Such compost could not seriously be used if its anywhere approaching a freshness.

It could be a great addition to a compost soup, which then would be used to pour over a compost pile or stored for later use.

The bedding...hay...would I'm sure have its seeds well killed by the heat of the manure would it not.
Such hay, if near fresh, could have seeds of its own which might develop should they be given to a garden.

That is a wonderful offer, I wish I lived closer.
Have you posted your offer on freecycle?

How many composters have ever mixed fresh manure into a working compost pile?

not me freecycle is a perfect idea though i didnt think about that.

I have, and will continue to do so because it works great in making compost for me with absolutely no weed problems. {{gwi:315920}} is a part of a pick up bed load that my sister in law brought to me Thanksgiving day. The yellow muck buckets in the background are full of it and we put three of those buckets of it into my hotbed /coldframe to the left of the trailer. It was already heating and steaming a little when we dumped the buckets out. She raises high dollar quarter horses, the studs are stabled except for exercise periods during the day and she does not feed them weeds, just good quality feed and alfalfa hay. She also brought me some feed bags of alfalfa bits that she had raked and bagged up for me. {{gwi:315921}} is some more of the load that I stored in another composting area the I have further out back.

While I have used some of the fresh manure, which is mixed with thin wood shavings and bits of alfalfa hay, directly on my garden in the winter and it is fine by spring planting time, I hope to get some more of the more aged stuff for a layer to go on the garden after the first of the year. She also said that she has a "mountain" that she would like to get rid of.
Bill P.

The manure will be good in a compost pile. I would prefer to make a new pile with it if possible. There are going to be weed seeds around, that would be no problem for me. I feel it is a good and kind offer...

Blutranes

I use it fairly regularly in my compost piles. Anytime greens get scarce, it's a good year round green for me. Horses poo everyday, all day. That's a good thing and that's not a good thing :). I have seven horses here so there's never a shortage. So far, I have not seen any weeds from horse poo come up in my beds. Where I live, I would bet I've got more weed seeds blowing into the beds rather than from the horse poo.

Plus, it's hot, hot, hot in the pile. I like it :).

Kristi

It certainly would be hot, hot, hot....if fresh, fresh, fresh....and would surely burn, burn, burn, tender plants if ever mixed into soil of new, new, new plants.

Old, old, very old, is better...then the manure is a valued resource.

Hopefully, one would never think to put fresh, steaming, hot, horse manure into a compost then turn around put the composted material into a vegetable garden.

If that were ever done, hopefully the owner of such pile, would not hesitate to inform his/her guests that the broccoli came from such a source.

I suggest then if someone who has those thoughts might sell the horses and buy bunnies.
Then you could enjoy their looks of disgust when you tell them such manure is the best there is.

Manure from another source should be put aside in its own pile for a time....fresh horse manure they say at least a year before going into a regular compost.

jeannie7,

"....fresh horse manure they say at least a year before going into a regular compost".

I have never read anything that supports this statement. Could you please point me to some research that does?

Also, it does not need to be "fresh, fresh, fresh" in order to be hot. It's kind of like the loose alfalfa that I use. I pick up what escapes when I feed the horses. It doesn't matter how old that is, it still gets hot.

Since you raised the question, what other ingredients require a waiting period prior to adding to a compost bin? With all of the varied and interesting :) ingredients that I've read of people using, I would think that there would be lots of information regarding waiting periods.

As far as informing the consumers of my produce as to what ingredients went into the compost in which it grows, they are all friends and family and all know the ingredients that I use. Hasn't stopped any of them, or actually even caused any of them to hesitate in taking all they can eat from my garden. No reports of illness or disease thus far. Not trying to be a butt here, just would like to see some evidence that your statement is indeed a fact. I am a research oriented person and find it surprising that I have never seen this in any of my reading.

Kristi

Jeannie7,
"....fresh horse manure they say at least a year before going into a regular compost."

Who is "they"?

Blutranes

What a wonderful offer. I wish I lived close by. :-) I have a friend who lives in West Chicago. I wonder if this is the place she gets her manure. :-)

AAAaaaaaaaagggggg! OOoohhhhh! Kristi, You poisioned me with them wonderful tomatoes and peppers that you brought to me! ! But that is alright, them greens that we picked for you were payback and get even!! ":^) I do not know where she comes up with all that stuff, and I would be most interested in seeing her answers to your and Blu's questions, and reading the research that supports it in depth.

Like her decree about you must not apply any unfinished compost to your garden because it will tie up all the nitrogen, the fact that fresh manure applied to plants in your garden can burn them, has some basis in fact but there is a lot more to it than just that which was stated. Most people would probably know better than to put green manure on growing plants, and I do not think that compost is completely finished until there is nothing left of it. I have used compost of various degrees of being "finished" in my garden for years with nothing but good results, and feel confident that fresh manure is perfectly safe to use by the time it has gone thru the composting process in my compost pile, even if it only takes 60 to 90 days. There has never been any indications of any adverse or detrimental effects, in fact my garden and the worms in it, and the produce that it grows seems to thrive on the things that I do.
Bill P.

Oh Bill :). I laughed out loud when I saw your post because I actually did think about you when I saw her post. But look, gas doesn't count as an illness or disease....LOL, AND...please tell everyone that you knew I put horse poo in my bin....please???

All that I can say about unfinished compost is that I have posted pics of my attempt at a fall crop of tomatoes and peppers. When I planted them, I dug a trench in the bed and put a very generous layer of unfinished compost. I set the plants directly on top of that and backfilled with the soil. I thought they did great and when I pulled them up the other day, there were tons of worms in and around the roots. Just think of all that worm poo applied directly to the root area. If there is a waiting period for worm poop, we're all doomed.

Thanks for the giggle, you "toot"....I know, I know, I just crack myself up.

Kristi

I agree with some of the things Jeannie7 says, especially about using old composted anything. But if I use her suggestion for making compost with manure I will be making a pile for:

+Manure ages for 1 year or longer
+Manure is added to compost pile for 4 months
+Compost is allowed to cure for 5 months
+Compost is spread on soil and allowed to settle 1 month
Total time to plant = 1 year 10 months

Even for me this is a long time to wait, just to be able to assure everyone I have passed the compost maturity requirements? And I still donÂt know who "they" are that have set these standards. Or what criteria was used to come up with these waiting periods. Then there is the certification issue; will I have to post my certificate within a certain number of feet of the dinner table? Wait a minute; is there some kind of fee for this certification? How come I never heard of this "Composted Horse Manure Maturity Time Table Certification Board" before? Jeannie7 did you make all this up to collect a fee from some of us?

I am just having fun with this new concept. Nonetheless, I would still like to know the logic behind Jeannie7s statement. I sure hope it is not the same logic she put forth earlier this year; that dog canÂt hunt over here. Guess I will have to just wait and seeÂ

Blutranes

Horse manure must be great addition to the compost pile if Kristi's veggies are any indication. She shared peppers and onions with us and we are quite healthy! Just the fact that she harvested enough to share with all of is a good indication that she's doing something right!

Pam

Sure wish I lived closer to IL, I'd be there in a second, pickup truck and all, :)
Alberta

Alberta..you should watch Craigslist.

Here's a guy in Medford who is always listing free horse poop, fresh or aged, and for a small fee, he'll load the truck with his front loader.

This one is in Central Islip, and requires bagging.

I see these almost every week.

I've put fresh manure in a pile, and used that compost in a garden within a few months.

The great production in that garden must have been an illusion.

I think that we can all agree that fresh horse manure, even mixed with wood shavings and hay bits which also absorb urine, is wonderfully hot stuff. I do not have much of a compost pile started yet as our leaves have not all fell off the trees yet and we just got our first freeze. It is kinda hard to capture pictures of steam with the little camera that I have, but here is a picture that I took this frosty morning of my little compost pile after I dug a small hole it it to see if it has started {{gwi:315922}}. I only put one of those yellow buckets of it on this pile than covered it up with a few shredded oak leaves. It appears to be cooking nicely, and will be the starter for all the shredded leaves and other materials which I will be adding soon.

The hot bed / cold frame is not finished, but we dumped three buckets into it. It was cold all day yesterday with dropping temps, freezing rain, some sleet and {{gwi:315923}} and 23* here overnight. I went out in the early A.M. before the sun hit the glass panes to start warming it up and it looks like it kept it to about 42 {{gwi:315924}} inside.

I for one, am thankful to get the fresh horse manure for these purposes and hope to get a load of aged stuff to put a layer to ammend my garden after the first of the year. By spring, none of it will be recognizable and the worms will be thriving there.
Bill P.

I also use fresh manure in my compost and gardens. I hope this week to start my trips to the horse farm for loads of manure. I want to put a nice thick layer on the veggie garden to help feed the garden next spring. It will have several months to sit and cure. I have done this year after year, grandparents did this for ever, parents did this also. Non of us had ill effects from it. Our gardens don't suffer from it either. I would love for Jeanne7 to also come up with some data to back up several things she claims.
Sandy

"I would love for Jeanne7 to also come up with some data to back up several things she claims."

I think we all would, but so far it looks like none is forthcoming.

Kristi

Xeon, thanks for the generous offer. If I were nearby I'd have been there yesterday. I hope you find lots of takers, if not here than maybe on Freecycle. With luck you might find carrot and apple growers who will give back to the horses in the summer.

Some time ago the Naperville Freecycle group turned into Naperville CurbCycle or something like that, so you could google for that as well as your local freecycle. Another place to list is on Craigslist, under For Sale and then under the category Free. I mention that since For Sale and Free are not very intuitive together. I had heard you can find free firewood on craigslist, and it took me a while to figure out to look under For Sale for something free. I am lucky, I have my woodstove and the acquisition and care of firewood to keep me busy when I can't garden. :-)

I used to be your neighbor in Warrenville, but horses lived adjacent to me, so I got my horse doo from them. I put fresh horse manure into compost and on top of my gardens in the fall. This fall we were actually organized enough to get leaves and manure spread all over, and a huge lasagna bed full of stuff set up, too. I recall Jeannie7 saying something whacky in another thread so I think "they" is Jeannie7 and nobody should worry about it. Aging manure for a year before it can go into a COMPOST pile, that is obviously nonsense.

Marcia

I posted on freecycle that I wanted manure, and got a reply within a day. I showed up with my truck, and the guy even helped me load it! Said I could come back any time. I'm even on a first-name basis with his dogs.

My granddaughter said, "You did WHAT with a guy you met on the internet??"

It don't take my horses manure 1 year to turn. I push all the manure and straw to one end of the horse shed. It is piled there all summer. In the fall the manure and straw is put in the tires of my tire garden. Come spring it is black gold. I plant all of the seeds and plants in it with good results. This is done every year and it works for me.