»Chicken manure compost«
Chicken manure is one of the most common organic manures used in gardens but this needs to first be composted before being used.
Fresh chicken manure will scorch your plants hence the need to compost. The compost mixture should contain equal portions of manure, green ingredients and brown ingredients. Examples of brown materials include fall leaves, pine needles, twigs, chipped bark, chipped branches, straw/ hay and sawdust.
Composting process
Examples of green materials include grass clippings, coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable scraps, fruit scraps, perennial trimmings, annual trimmings, egg shells and sea weed.
You need already made compost to make compost. The ready compost contains the bacteria that helps jump start the process of decomposition.
Mix the materials equally and water them to make sure they mix and them together.
Cover it with a moisture proof leather for 4 days but keep checking on the moisture content because this is important. Compost should not be too wet or too dry.
After 4 days, ensure that you turn the compost every day for 2 weeks
Compost troubleshooting
If your compost stinks then there is too much nitrogen hence you need to add high carbon materials like sawdust, shredded paper, shredded cardboard, dry leaves. Shredding them increases the surface area for breaking down hence taking less time.
If the compost is cool on the outside and hotter in the middle then it is too dry and if its hotter on the outside and cool on the inside then it is too wet. This can be corrected by turning the compost, put sticks underneath the pile or move the pile to help on drainage.
