Backyard Chickens And Lawn Fertilizer

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.

Backyard chickens and lawn fertilizer.

Rather than fertilizing with conventional fertilizers put your chickens to work. Even if your fertilizer is organic the amount of nitrates and phosphorous found in the soil can be enough to cause problems in certain birds. Chicken manure is an excellent source of organic fertilizer for both the lawn and garden. Fertilizers contain lawn chemicals like pesticides that can emit toxic vapors cause digestive issues or even damage chickens nervous systems.

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. The correct balance for free range chickens is about 250 square feet of space per chicken. 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. Another is alphalawn made from alfalfa.

Alternatively a small amount of chicken poop is an effective fertilizer. A complete natural organic lawn food will have low npk nitrogen phosphorus potassium numbers most always below 10. There has to be a balance between the size of your lawn and the size of your chicken flock. Chicken manure is a superstar for composting.

Just read the label to see what is the source of the fertilizer. There is no better fertilizer for your lawn than what your birds are already producing. They can also reduce your need for herbicides depending on the type of weeds you have and the chicken to lawn ratio. Left unattended the compost will be ready for use as fertilizer in 6 12 months.

Quality organic fertilizers will contain meal based nutrients bone meal feather meal blood meal fish meal or some may contain poultry litter. The antics of chickens are part of the joy of raising a backyard flock. Scotts organic choice is made from feather and blood meal. Many of the plants that we call weeds are plants that chickens love chickweed dandelions wild strawberry violets and clover.