Green Manure

[cuwiar]

Our chickens currently have the run of the veg plot at weekends, no problem at the moment as it is completely empty but I know we will have a challenge, come planting time, to keep the girls off the plants but I'm hoping I will be able to keep things ticking over harmoniously by keeping young plants protected and allowing the girls access to the surplus plants - they can help 'thin out'!!

I have six beds to plant and plan to use one or two each year for green manure on the rotation system. Does anyone have any suggestions for good green manure plants that are also suitable as chicken forage?

 

[chrismahon]

Ours love almost anything Cuwiar. They eat in preference though with nettles last and cabbage probably top. Trouble is we have found chicken poo is too strong for any planting until it has composted for at least two years. As soon as the plant roots hit a bit they die, so I think that may be a problem. In fact two years is pushing it as courgettes still can't take it. Beans can though -they love it. So we collect all of ours from everywhere and store it in three piles, moving them across one stage every year so stuff has composted minimum of two years up to three before spreading it in Winter.

 

[cuwiar]

Hi Chris, thanks for the info, that's great and has got me thinking on a different line altogether and i realise I no nothing about composting chicken manure!

Having moved into the house 6 months ago the compost heap is something that we've been meaning to tackle, the one that is there we have just been adding anything normally compostable to, including chicken coop/run waste (unless there is spilt food in it)! I'm thinking now that maybe we should leave the one that is there alone as it is quite well established and I don't want the chicken waste to prolong it's composting life! I'll get a bin from the council specifically for chicken waste I think, in order to let it rot down for the length of time you suggest!

Should I be removing the wood shavings before adding the waste for composting?

In terms of 'green manure' plants I was really looking for suggestions of plants that act as green manure but I've looked online and I think maybe I'll go with alfalfa first and see if the girls like rummaging around through that. I wondered if there were any traditional 'green manure' plants that weren't suitable for chickens to eat.

 

[chrismahon]

Wood shavings will compost in the two years Cuwiar, but not in one, as we found out. Best is aubiose bedding for composting.
The chicken waste needs to be in contact with the earth. The worms then move up into it. It also needs air and the turning process is essential as the oxygen starved bottom of the pile doesn't compost properly otherwise.
Best system is three bays divided by plasic panels (wood rots). the end one is ready to go, the middle is year 2 and the other end is year 1, the new stuff. When you have spread the ready stuff the contents of each bay is moved to another bay with a fork, taking the stuff off the top first and putting it evenly on the bottom. Lot of work -our heaps weigh well over a ton each!

 

[Marigold]

On my allotment I used sometimes to sow mustard seed in summer when I had a spare patch of land in need of green manure. You can buy it by the kilo from agricultural merchants, much cheaper than in little packets. It germinates fast and grows lovely soft green foliage when young. You're supposed to dig it in before it gets too tall. I should think hens would like it very much and as it's a brassica it would be safe for them. However I used to find that, along with the mustard, a whole lot of weed seeds also germinated and got dug in, so in the end i stopped buying mustard seed and just used the weeds as green manure. I made large hemmed sheets of landscape fabric, the 3 metre wide sort, and just covered the weeds up for a few weeks and the green stuff disappeared leaving a clean plot ready to plant again, with one crop of weed seeds out of the way! The theory is that the germinated weeds take up nourishment from the soil, which is then returned in a composted form when you dig it in or cover it - the worms take it down, and it adds humus which fertilises the soil. I would think you could just let the weeds come up and let the hens deal with some of them.

 

[cuwiar]

Thanks Marigold, I guess I'll trial and error it with the green manure options. You're right that the girls will probably be good at keeping the vacant plots weed free but I'll still consider green manure planting for soil improvement and for their entertainment to be honest. I figure that the more stuff on the veggie plot that they are allowed to eat means they more they might leave the 'good' stuff alone??

Thanks again Chris for the composting advice, we do plan to completely re-build the compost heap area. We have plenty of room so will aim for the three stage plan that you suggest - got a lot of work ahead of us!!

 

[Marigold]

I figure that the more stuff on the veggie plot that they are allowed to eat means they more they might leave the 'good' stuff alone??

Not unless you have some very restrained and well- brought -up chickens! They'll probably just gravitate to the veg plot and take thier pick of what 's going!

 

[cuwiar]

Not unless you have some very restrained and well- brought -up chickens!

Hmmm.... 19 Nope!! :lol:

Can't imagine they're any more restrained than your average chicken...but I can but try, and live in hope! Don't worry, I'll be purachasing lots of protective netting!