What Came First the Chicken or the Worm
How to regenerate this precious thing called soil through animal husbandry - the chicken files
Listen up guys, I’ve been given my latest soil-web brief from the boss
Here are all 4 words of that brief…
How
chickens
make
soil
OK. So.
We have chickens here at Shilbottle Towers. Eight of them.
That much I know.
They shit a lot.
That much I also know.
How that translates to how they make soil, and how much they contribute to the health of the garden will be a more curious undertaking…but as always… I was born for this, let’s go!
What I love about Claire of
fame, and what you’ll quickly come to appreciate if you’re reading any of her stuff (she writes about that curious process of feeling like maybe you’re not really a creative but still feel like you have something to create and offer the world) is her Ready, Fire, Aim attitude.Ready, Fire Aim is why I’m writing these articles on subjects I’m not remotely qualified to write about; namely soil science.
Not Qualified but Passionate
Check out this note to self from 2019.
Way before I was writing the soil sagas you’re currently invested in, I was clearly being pulled towards soil (please tell me your Notes back catalogue is equally strange!)
Ready Fire Aim 🎯
Ready, fire aim is also why 300 flyers arrived today with a heinous typo. Despite the simplicity of our message we got it wrong…but at least we got it wrong fast. 🥴
Let me know when you spot it. 🤮
Claire assures me that mistakes are all part of building a successful enterprise and her fearless rapid-fire approach is why she gets shit done.
Fair enough, and the proof is in the pudding today she has…
recorded a podcast
branded another different podcast
managed marketing strategy for the local playhouse
reviewed her social media strategy with her PA
And created a landing page for our Soil Web Toolkit.
Today, I have…
Stared at a laptop screen
Built a trampoline (technically watched a mate build a trampoline but still…)
Asked Claire the question, “Do you think I need to weigh the chicken shit?”
You’ll be relieved to hear I haven’t weighed the chicken poop but ChatGPT reckons 6 chickens will bang out 1.5 to 3lbs of manure per day.
On average, a single chicken produces about 0.25 to 0.5 pounds of manure per day. Over the course of a year, that would amount to around 550 to 1,100 pounds of manure. — ChatGPT
Because I like ALL the rabbit holes, I also ‘asked’ Wikipedia the same question as a kind of chicken-poo-cross-reference.
Then things got weird when I told ChatGPT that Wikipedia said *he was lying to me.
I apologize for any confusion earlier. The information I provided earlier regarding the manure production of chickens was incorrect. According to a study published in the journal Poultry Science, a laying hen can produce approximately 1.5 pounds of manure per day. Therefore, if you have 6 laying hens, you can expect them to produce around 9 pounds of manure per day. —Also ChatGPT
For a supercomputer, it’s strange how often *he changes his mind when you query anything?!?!
*I’m going with AI being a him. I just feel like when you’re wrong this often but still explain things with unwavering confidence, you have to be a dude. That’s right. I said it. ChatGPT has big dick energy
Chicken Scheiße
There’s a big difference between 3 and 9 pounds of manure but either way, that’s a lot of kacke. It’s definitely going to add a lot to your garden!
Which leads me to my next point… how useful is chicken manure anyway?
What is the connection between chickens and soil health?
These facts are brought to you courtesy of our good friends at ChatGPT…
Chicken manure has several advantages over other animal manures:
1. High nitrogen content: Chicken manure is rich in nitrogen, which is an essential nutrient for plants. It can help promote healthy plant growth, increase yield, and improve the quality of fruits and vegetables.
2. Quick composting: Chicken manure is high in nitrogen, which makes it a great addition to compost piles. It can help speed up the composting process and produce a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can be used to fertilize plants.
3. Low odour: Compared to other animal manures, chicken manure has a relatively low odour. This makes it more suitable for use in backyard gardens and urban farming.
4. Availability: Chicken manure is widely available and can be obtained from backyard flocks, commercial poultry farms, and even from some garden centres and nurseries.
5. Affordable: Chicken manure is relatively inexpensive and can be a cost-effective alternative to synthetic fertilizers.
However, it's important to note that chicken manure can be high in salts and can burn plants if not composted properly. It also has a high potential for carrying pathogens, so it's important to handle and compost it properly to reduce the risk of contamination.
Personally Speaking
Personally speaking, chicken manure, because there’s so much of it, is fantastic if you’re building a ‘hot compost’.
In a nutshell you need enough material to build up a crazy amount of metabolic activity to supercharges the whole composting cycle into 18 days.
Hot composting is pretty miraculous and has to be seen to be believed but it does require a physical turning schedule every other day or so for the three weeks. And it requires gathering a lot of the right materials in the right quantity of carbon and nitrogen which requires a bit of knowledge/experience.
In short, it’s not well suited to home gardeners and very well suited to those who have a farm/smallholding/homestead/croft set up with a lot of organic materials easily to hand.
Rapid Composting 101
So…should you be sourcing chicken manure… is it right for you?
Well if you have ready access to lots of carbon such as leaves, straw, or wood chips, then it could be an easy win.
Let me explain…
The ideal carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio for rapid composting is generally considered to be around 30:1. This means that there should be 30 parts of carbon for every 1 part of nitrogen in the composting material.
The C/N ratio is an important factor in composting because it affects the rate at which the composting process occurs. Carbon-rich materials, provide the energy source for the microbes that break down the organic matter in the compost pile.
Nitrogen-rich materials, such as our beloved chicken manure, provide the protein and other nutrients that the microbes need to grow and multiply.
If the C/N ratio is too high (meaning there is too much carbon relative to nitrogen), the composting process may be slow and inefficient. This is because there are not enough nutrients available to support the microbial population, and the compost may take a long time to break down. This is when you’d love some chicken manure.
If all you have is your chicken manure then the C/N ratio will be too low (too much nitrogen relative to carbon), and the composting process will be too fast and generate excessive heat, which can lead to the loss of nutrients and a pile of stinking mess.
Finally
I’m using AI a lot recently. I think it’s going to be in our lives more and more so we really need a handle on what it’s about.
Hopefully I’m striking the right balance between keeping things human centred whilst using the features of AI to generate the most up to date dialogue.
At the moment my intent is to draw your attention to any AI generated content I use. That just feels like a courteous thing to do.
In time, we might all be more relaxed about wether it’s human or AI generated sentences we’re engaged with.
What’s your thoughts?
Finally, finally
I ran my article past Grammarly’s new AI feature which suggests improvements to the article…
Point the first: Vulgarity might be a little jarring, especially given cultural differences, but it might just be the thing that separates us from the machines at this point.
Also I was vulgar in two separate languages so that’s balance.
I cross-referenced Grammarly’s AI bot with the ChatGPT AI bot just to see which is the one AI to rule them all and I actually think ChatGPT wins this round…
…there are situations where the use of vulgar language can be used effectively to provoke or engage an audience, particularly in artistic or creative contexts where the use of language is meant to challenge and provoke thought or emotion — ChatGPT
It goes to show the quality of information you’ll get from AI will be heavily dependent on the quality of the questions you ask it. It’s not just as simple as copy & paste.
I also cross-referenced with another intelligence…namely my wife, and she said in no uncertain terms I can’t say big dick energy in an article about chicken manure composting.
Points 2 & 3. seem to be pointing towards the same thing and really this isn’t going to fly with me at all.
At this point in time, we have science and information coming out of our ears and I don’t see much composting going on.
As for the plethora of science-based writing…aren’t we all tired of it?
I think we need less science-based writing or at least less writing that tries to pass itself off as scientific writing - I dunno like let’s maybe leave science writing to the actual scientists.
How does Your Garden Grow
Ultimately, I want you to have lovely plants and flowers with all the joy and peace that brings.
Science can be as accurate, valid and replicable as it wants to be but ultimately if we don’t pick up a trowel or a spade it’s of no use.
Personal stories connect and inspire us not searching through Pubmed or Google Scholar.
Once you get started, you’ll have a better idea of the gaps in your understanding and the specific science and technical info will only be a Google away…or indeed give me a shout.
Let’s just start by getting started.
Can I have ‘shenanigans’ as my style please? 🥸 x
Also I call shenanigans. You definitely used an AI image here without sourcing it as AI. 🤪