Backyard Chickens And Lawn Fertilizer

Scotts organic choice is made from feather and blood meal.

Backyard chickens and lawn fertilizer.

There has to be a balance between the size of your lawn and the size of your chicken flock. They can also reduce your need for herbicides depending on the type of weeds you have and the chicken to lawn ratio. The correct balance for free range chickens is about 250 square feet of space per chicken. Left unattended the compost will be ready for use as fertilizer in 6 12 months.

A complete natural organic lawn food will have low npk nitrogen phosphorus potassium numbers most always below 10. Many of the plants that we call weeds are plants that chickens love chickweed dandelions wild strawberry violets and clover. Just read the label to see what is the source of the fertilizer. Manure from free range chickens can break down naturally in the yard providing valuable nutrients for the lawn.

Fertilizers contain lawn chemicals like pesticides that can emit toxic vapors cause digestive issues or even damage chickens nervous systems. 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. In fact their poo is high in nitrogen and it also contains potassium and phosphorus. Another is alphalawn made from alfalfa.

Rather than fertilizing with conventional fertilizers put your chickens to work. 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. Quality organic fertilizers will contain meal based nutrients bone meal feather meal blood meal fish meal or some may contain poultry litter. Chicken manure is an excellent source of organic fertilizer for both the lawn and garden.

Alternatively a small amount of chicken poop is an effective fertilizer. 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 is no better fertilizer for your lawn than what your birds are already producing. Chicken manure is a superstar for composting.