Chicken manure is a source of nitrogen that is useful for your plants because it helps promote green, leafy growth. It is commercially available in composted form, but some gardeners have access to uncomposted or fresh chicken manure as well. Composted chicken manure is often safer to use in your garden, but uncomposted chicken manure also has its uses.
Fresh versus Composted
If you have access to fresh chicken manure, it can be applied in the spring to plants requiring high levels of nitrogen. However, uncomposted chicken manure may contain bacteria and pathogens that are harmful to humans, such as salmonella and E. coli. While these aren’t usually taken up by the plants, they stick to the roots and plant surfaces which can be risky when growing edible plants such as vegetables. Cooking will effectively kill most pathogens carried on garden crops, but avoiding the use of fresh manure minimizes the risk of illness, particularly on crops such as lettuce or fruits, which aren’t usually cooked before being consumed. Even composted manure can contain some pathogens, although not in as high levels as uncomposted. Dried and processed chicken manures are available commercially as pellets and powders. These products pose less risk because they’ve been sterilized during manufacturing.
Pathogens in fresh chicken manure will die off in the environment, particularly when the manure is dry or exposed to freezing and thawing. How fast the pathogens die off depends on the type of pathogen and environmental conditions like temperature, moisture and sunlight. Thorough, high-temperature composting often kills most pathogens in chicken manure, but it must reach a temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit and remain there for a minimum of 15 days. Maintaining high enough temperatures to kill off most pathogens can be difficult for home gardeners. Another option is to age the manure for 6 months to 1 year, to ensure all pathogens have died off before using it in your garden.
Uncomposted manure is too strong to be used on most flowers and vegetables. It can damage roots and may even kill some plants. However, once composted, chicken manure has many benefits. Composted chicken manure adds organic matter to the soil and increases its ability to hold water. It also adds nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to the soil in larger quantities than horse, cow or steer manures. While uncomposted chicken manure is not ideal for use in most flower or vegetable garden, it makes an excellent activator for compost piles when mixed with other compost materials.
Chicken manure, both composted and uncomposted, is low in nutrients compared to synthetic fertilizers and it is slower to release the nutrients it does have. Often the nutrients in chicken manure are not available to the plants until the soil warms in late spring or summer, even if you apply it to the soil in late winter or early spring. The pH of chicken manure varies according to age, diet fed to the chickens and the litter materials used. However, most chicken manure is neutral to moderately alkaline, with a pH in the range of 6.5 to 8.0. Because it tends to be alkaline, chicken manure is unsuitable for use in growing lime-hating plants like azaleas, blueberries, camellias, and rhododendrons. Fresh chicken manure also may attract rodents and other animals to your garden.
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