Does fresh chicken manure burn lawn grass?

It's well known that fresh chicken manure applied to a growing garden will burn the plants.

I have a chicken tractor and move it around the back yard, but the grass doesn't get burned. Why is that?

I think that grass can handle high doses of nitrogen, but so can corn.

What am I missing?

I don't just know all about about Poop , ( polite word ? ) I know lots about other interesting helpful amusing things as well .

That cleared up , now to your question about the chicken droppings.

This is how I understand things .

In the chicken poop frommthe bottom of the hen house I know that the white bit is their urine , it turns gives off ammonia when moist/ wet it also starts to decay the poop , because of the air flow and low densities under the hen house the ammonia gas evaporates as the poop decays .

In a more concentrate form of a big heap of it the ammonia is mainly contained within the heap and cannot readily evaporate , especially if it is anaerobicaly composted . If the unfinished manure is then placed in the garden the ammonia release goes into over drive after reacting with the soils moisture content .

For this reason beware of a chicken muck based prebagged commercial compost that smells of ammonia .

Ammonia is used chemically to form of highly concentrated nitrate soil ammendment called Sulphate of ammonia which is for nitrogen content & is fairly acid in effect . It and can last as the nitrate for six to eight weeks & then it is gone . Chemically it's a cheap quick acting nutrient Nitrogenous enhancement for the lower grades of supposedly composted fiberous materials .

In it's undiluted /conceentrated form available for agriculture it runs out to about 20 .5 % nitrogen content .
Thats far too much for most normal plants if in a dense spread over the ground so the plant then tries to grow like mad because of the excess nitrogen . this causes all sorts of damage to cell structure ans the photosynthisis ( sp ) sequence ) in effect the plants out grow thenselves and die )

Well composted chicken muck and associated beddings that's been "seasoned " for a while or stuff that has been through the full 18 day hot composting cycle gives returns of around N 1.0 , P 0.4 & K of 0.6 % .

Fresh uncomposted chicken muck on its own is far higher in the N content than the fully finished and seasoned one . Though I've not yet been able fo find out any set figure range ...possibly because of variations in diet and hydration formua etc. .

The term that it will burn the plant is a bit of a misnomer , something most likely carried over from ancient times because the dying plant does indeed often look as though it's been a bit too close to a fire because it droops goes yellow an dies ) .


There is another way of thinking of it .. when a bird does a fly by and drops a deposit on your for sale garden , that little bit of" blessing " is so small it only turns to a goodness for the garden .. thank god elephants can't fly .

plantoid wrote: I don't just know all about about Poop , ( polite word ? ) I know lots about other interesting helpful amusing things as well .

Plantoid, without a doubt, you know more Poop , ( polite word ? ) about Poop , ( polite word ? ) than anybody I know!

That acknowledged, here is what I understand your post to say: If chicken manure, fresh from the source, was spread lightly on a garden, it would be able to aerobically compost, off-gas the ammonia, and no harm would come to the plants. That explains why my grass doesn't burn.

But if the fresh manure was piled for a period of time (days, weeks, or months?) then there's a build up of ammonia that creates a short term excessive nitrogen content when applied to the garden that plants (including my grass) can't handle.

Am I close to understanding correctly?

That Americanese is pretty dam good , spot on as a concise summing up of everything I was trying to say .

I had to take you the long way round because you would have felt short changed if I'd said " It's all down to different volumes and periods of time it stays there " .... now wouldn't you ?

plantoid wrote: I had to take you the long way round because you would have felt short changed.... now wouldn't you ?

I don't know if this is Americanese or not, but we have a saying over here: "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull." (Credited to W.C. Fields)

I needed to summarize your post in order to figure out which it was!

Thanks for the info.

Im having trouble with chicken and they are destroying my lawn . How do I keep them from doing this

 

Are these your chickens or someone else's?

Move them more often.

Have less of them.

That's what chickens are actually used for in permaculture. You bring them in and let them strip, poop and churn the area.

If they're not yours (a problem on Kauai), do what the Kauaians do, eat them!

I take chicken manure from under the roosts in the coop and sprinkle it around my bushes and over the flower beds.  It does not burn them.   Sprinkle, not heap is the operative word here. 

Being thankful that elephants do not fly.....

Oh, yes, give thanks that elephants do not fly!

Chicken poo is good to use, in small amts, in every place except for around plants that you will eat. They carry so many pathogens that can be given to humans(especially e-coli and salmonella).

In SC, chicken poo cannot be used for organic gardening for 100 days. Whether composted or just left to sit. I don't know if this is like this in any other areas. I will have to look up the link again.
Jo

I found out I have access to chicken poo. If I put in compost now, with cow manure, etc. and turn it each week, do you think it'll be safe to use in March (6 months) or April?

grownsunshine wrote:I found out I have access to chicken poo. If I put in compost now, with cow manure, etc. and turn it each week, do you think it'll be safe to use in March (6 months) or April?

A 6 month minimum should be very safe from everything I have read and studied. Just be sure you start the 6 month clock from the last addition you make and do not keep adding more during that waiting period.

grownsunshine wrote:I found out I have access to chicken poo. If I put in compost now, with cow manure, etc. and turn it each week, do you think it'll be safe to use in March (6 months) or April?

Yes.

I posted earlier on, but failed to put links to info. I could not find the exact page, but have found a couple good links.
I use chicken manure in my compost but I have not been in a hurry, and don't even know if you can get the compost checked for pathogens. Jo

http://county.wsu.edu/king/gardening/mg/factsheets/Fact%20Sheets/Using%20Manure%20as%20Compost.pdf

http://www.ota.com/organic/foodsafety/manure.html

Plantoid and Turan -

Elephants CAN fly.

e.g. Dumbo.

Kelejan wrote:Plantoid and Turan -

Elephants CAN fly.

e.g. Dumbo.

       

Kelejan wrote:Plantoid and Turan -

Elephants CAN fly.

e.g. Dumbo.

       

"But I be done seen about everything
When I see an elephant fly
When I see an elephant fly"