Beyond enjoying good fresh eggs, rearing hens in the garden also provides fertilizer.
Can chicken droppings be used as fertilizer?
This is quite possible because chicken droppings are an excellent organic fertilizer.
Droppings are very rich in nutrients, especially nitrogen.
By applying large doses to a small area, you could even create over-fertilization.
Be aware that chicken droppings alone mineralize extremely quickly in the soil, so that its use is similar to that of a mineral fertilizer.
How to use chicken droppings?
Chicken droppings can be used in several ways:
Compost use
Add your chicken droppings to your compost.
They will be mixed with carbon-rich green waste, such as dead leaves from your trees or plant and animal waste.
By watering regularly you will obtain a balanced compost.
This technique makes it possible to preserve the droppings in winter until spring.
Dry use
A little longer than composting, dry use consists of reducing the droppings to powder.
For this operation, it is advisable to wear a mask.
Mix 1/3 droppings with 2/3 garden soil.
For drying, put the mixture away from humidity for 4 to 6 weeks in summer, and several months in winter.
Read alsoCompost: how much to bring to a garden?
Mulch use
Finally, it is possible to put hemp straw litter in the chicken coop.
This process allows a certain balance between carbon and nitrogen.
In addition to the beneficial litter effect for the comfort of your hens, the droppings mixed with the straw can also be used as mulch, this avoids too sudden a supply of nutrients.
Read alsoCan we mulch the ground with wicker?
How to apply chicken manure fertilizer?
First of all, test progressive and increasing doses sparingly in the parts of the garden where you want to spread it.
Never incorporate it pure into the soil of the garden, it could burn the roots of the plants.
This contribution is generally made in autumn: from September to November.
But it is possible to enrich your soil from February to April.
Read alsoHow to build a chicken coop?
For powdered fertilizer, spread it on the surface (approximately 500 g per m2).
Then, distribute it using a claw or a fang to a depth of 5 cm.
For the compost, incorporate it using a claw around the vegetables.
As for the litter effect, straw mixed with droppings can be used as a mulch at the base of developed vegetable plants.
Good to know :
Chicken feathers can also be used to make a fertilizer made from macerated feathers.