What is it worth? Manure wood chip mix

[INresponse]

I have plenty of well aged, rained and snowed upon, chicken poop, and I have my wood chipper that makes rather small wood chips. If I mix it together with water in a repurposed cement mixer would it be desirable for a garden and what would be a fair price for a 5 gallon bucket?
Our girls empty the “poop shelf” into a pile in the yard, most of which was out all winter. The wood chips are about 1 inch square and about an 1/8” thick. I put them in equal amounts into the mixer and add water so it is just a but sloshy and mix for an hour or so. I have been using this kind of mixture for about 4 years and never burned or killed a plant. I want to sell it in the neighborhood but would $3.00 a 5 gallon bucket be reasonable? Would this be of interest to other gardeners?

 

[INresponse]

That last picture does have a bit of straw bedding mixed in but basically it is a mud type texture.

 

[Pearl]

Sounds like a deal!

 

[INresponse]

Sounds like a deal!

Do you think it would be good the way I am mixing it?

 

[Pearl]

Do you think it would be good the way I am mixing it?

You said something about it being mud like!? If you have used it does it drain well? I think as long as it drains it should be great, and yet the mulch in it would help it hold some moisture!

 

[Alaskajohn]

If the wood chips were well composted like the poop, that would be a very useful mix. Everything I have read says wood chips need a few years to compost before using in gardens.

 

[Terri9630]

Don't mix in the wood chips. It will take up all the nitrogen to break it down. If you mix them it will have to compost allover again. Better to sell them separately as compost and mulch.

 

[zoomzoom]

As for manure value, you may want to check your area to see what it's going for. E.g. Craigslist.
Around here, aged manure goes for around $10/tractor bucket load or $75-100 for a dump truck load.

 

[Peanut]

Plants have a plethora of defensive chemicals, many against insects that might feed on them. But there are other types as well. For example, some trees have chemicals that retard the growth of nearby plants. It gives them an advantage acquiring nutrients/sun. I'd want to know which plant species are used in the mulch or compost. Where they were growing is equally important, out behind the chemical plant perhaps? Just a thought...

 

[rice paddy daddy]

Make black gunpowder with the chicken poop!!
It’s the best for nitrate.

 

[INresponse]

You said something about it being mud like!? If you have used it does it drain well? I think as long as it drains it should be great, and yet the mulch in it would help it hold some moisture!

What I spread around the grapevines and apple tree yesterday I watered into the ground as I waterred both and the water soaked through easily. With the wood chips in the mix it wont dry into a hard clay barrier, although even the olded chicken manure in the pile does not have a crust on top. Water soaks in easily.

 

[INresponse]

If the wood chips were well composted like the poop, that would be a very useful mix. Everything I have read says wood chips need a few years to compost before using in gardens.

I would agree with you statement if the chips were being mixed into the hole while planting but for many years the trash dump collected tree trimmings and chipped them and stacked them up for our community to collect for free. Everyone wanted them to top dress gardens to hold in moisture and keep down weeds, and for spreading around the yard to keep down weeds and dust and help prevent mud in the winter months.

 

[Magus]

Sounds ideal for a mushroom bed!

 

[INresponse]

Don't mix in the wood chips. It will take up all the nitrogen to break it down. If you mix them it will have to compost allover again. Better to sell them separately as compost and mulch.

I do agree with the wood chips absorbing the nitrogen but that would be a (relatively) slow process as the chips slowly decompose. My thoughts are initially the manure would fertilize the soil while slowly breaking down the wood chips. Ideally top dressing would be spring and fall or after planting something new.

I do plan on mixing a batch or two a day for a while until my poop pile is gone and letting that set and compost down. Well, after I spread what I need around the yard in areas where I plan to expand the gardens later this year or next spring.

 

[INresponse]

As for manure value, you may want to check your area to see what it's going for. E.g. Craigslist.
Around here, aged manure goes for around $10/tractor bucket load or $75-100 for a dump truck load.

A dump truck load of chicken manure? Now that would be a lot of chickens. I know you are probably referring to horse or steer manure. Around here that is free if you bring a truck or trailer for them to load with the backhoe.

 

[Peanut]

A dump truck load of chicken manure? Now that would be a lot of chickens.

Yep, a lot of chickens. Depending on the size of the chicken houses... they hold 25/35,000 chickens each. There's a lot of chicken production locally. Most farmers have 3 to 6 chicken houses.

Around here you have to know a chicken farmer and get on the waiting list for manure. You can buy by the ton or truck load. I bought part of a dump truck load last spring... Think I paid $200

 

[Peanut]

My uncle has 3 laying houses, produces fertilized eggs to hatch out chicks for broiler houses. Each house has 25,000 hens and 5,000 roosters. There are about 75,000 eggs each day. He employs a full time crew to process the eggs and put them in trays in tall racks. Each night a truck from the 'company' picks them up.

The chickens are replaced 3 times a year. During a down week a small army of skidsteers clean tons of manure out of the houses. It's piled onto huge mounds to be sold to other farmers as fertilizer.

 

[Pearl]

My uncle has 3 laying houses, produces fertilized eggs to hatch out chicks for broiler houses. Each house has 25,000 hens and 5,000 roosters. There are about 75,000 eggs each day. He employs a full time crew to process the eggs and put them in trays in tall racks. Each night a truck from the 'company' picks them up.

The chickens are replaced 3 times a year. During the down week a small army of skidsteers clean tons of manure out of the houses.

View attachment 110809

PU

 

[Mountain trapper]

We use pine chips in our chicken coop. When we clean out the coop we spread the mixture around the fruit trees and berry vines. The only time the chip/manure sit for any length of time is when we clean the coop in winter. Then we just pile it up outside the door and spread it out in the spring.