do you vermicompost chicken poo?

[BedHead]

Just wondering. I've read not to, I've read that it's ok, I've read that all you need to do with the poo is store it and let it dry out, then spread it in the garden in the fall so that it soaks into the garden over the winter and doesn't burn the plants. I know it can go into your regular compost, but I'm a really lazy composter and I often end up leaving the pile alone for much too long - I don't know if that would be ok or not with chicken poo in there.

[jessaries]

My friends just gifted me worms they've had for a few years. They really stressed nothing outside goes into the bin. (I had thought of giving the worms chicken poop, they said if I split my worm population and had outside worms and inside worms the outside ones could have poop, but never come back into the indoor population. Also they said outside worms end up being worms and lots of other bugs and the chickens will eat on them if you give them access to the grubs and roaches.) I'm totally speculating, I assume if the chicken poop could have fly larvae or worm eggs on it that it could contaminate the worms.
I hope that makes sense, I'm only a few sips into my coffee!

[Erinz]

Well we just clean out our coop and let it sit over winter and use it in the spring so far. Did a bit of it last year (last year was our first year of chickens) but I have a much bigger pile now for this year. From what I've had very experienced friends tell me all I need to do is keep adding new litter to the pile and it will be just fine. I have a huge pile I took out in the fall and it's still sitting in the garden and looks GREAT. I'm simple when it comes to this stuff. Have you ever looked into lasagna style gardening? I'm trying a plot of it this year. I like the sounds of it! Everything I do is very loose though... I've never followed a method or a recipe in my life LOL.

[Pepper44]

Last year I dumped poop and pine shavings and sand from the chickens into the soil and then tilled it in, and it sat for a few months. My plants grew HUGE! And we have kind of bad quality clay soil here.

I was just coming on here to ask if it was a good idea to do it again this year. I'm pregnant and I've totally neglected my garden and cleaning out my coops. The chicken coops have sort of composted on their own inside. *gag*

It looks like dirt in the floor, you can't see any pine shavings or poop. Can I go ahead and put that on the garden sometime in the next month, then have my DH mix it into the dirt once the ground unfreezes? We only have a few months until April when I'll start planting a few things. I'm not sure if that's long enough for it to sit out.

I recently read that you should never use fresh manure on plants because of bacteria being able to contaminate your produce. If the shavings/poo mixture sits out for a month or two, will that mean it's no longer dangerously fresh?

[Erinz]

Well motherhen I wouldn't use it now where I plan on planting quick growing stuff in April such as radishes and greens, but corn and tomotoes and all that? Heck ya! You won't be harvesting from those plants for some time. When I was pregnant last year the same thing happened in our coop and gag is a great word for it! LOL! Amazing how it goes from gag to beautiful once it's out of the coop and all rained in though!