Backyard Chickens And Lawn Fertilizer

Manure from free range chickens can break down naturally in the yard providing valuable nutrients for the lawn.

Backyard chickens and lawn fertilizer.

Chickens are beneficial to an organic lawn by mowing it with their grazing ability eating any insects and worms in the lawn and leaving their manure as a precious fertilizer. They can also reduce your need for herbicides depending on the type of weeds you have and the chicken to lawn ratio. Just read the label to see what is the source of the fertilizer. Chicken manure is a superstar for composting.

In the small confines of a chicken run the swift layering buildup of chicken poop smothers and chemically burns the grass obliterating anything growing in a new run within a week. There s a local fertilizer out of longmont called richlawn and it s made from ground up chickens perhaps not the most appropriate but it would be an option. Alternatively a small amount of chicken poop is an effective fertilizer. Fertilizers contain lawn chemicals like pesticides that can emit toxic vapors cause digestive issues or even damage chickens nervous systems.

The correct balance for free range chickens is about 250 square feet of space per chicken. Chicken manure is an excellent source of organic fertilizer for both the lawn and garden. A complete natural organic lawn food will have low npk nitrogen phosphorus potassium numbers most always below 10. In fact their poo is high in nitrogen and it also contains potassium and phosphorus.

There is no better fertilizer for your lawn than what your birds are already producing. There has to be a balance between the size of your lawn and the size of your chicken flock. Quality organic fertilizers will contain meal based nutrients bone meal feather meal blood meal fish meal or some may contain poultry litter. Another is alphalawn made from alfalfa.

It can be added to an existing compost bin but does just fine combined with carbon based matter such as fallen leaves or dry grass clipping and left in a pile or corralled in chicken wire bins. Many of the plants that we call weeds are plants that chickens love chickweed dandelions wild strawberry violets and clover. Left unattended the compost will be ready for use as fertilizer in 6 12 months. The antics of chickens are part of the joy of raising a backyard flock.