A farm with a few hundred hens builds a mountain of manure every month. For some it’s a problem — smell, flies, complaints from neighbors. For others it’s a product: gardeners and greenhouse growers pay for good organic fertilizer. The difference between problem and product is how the manure is stored and composted.
Why fresh manure can’t go straight on the garden
- Lots of nitrogen. Layer manure has a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of about 8.5 to 1 — it’s very “hot” and burns roots on its own.
- Pathogens. Fresh manure can carry salmonella, E. coli, worm eggs and coccidia oocysts.
- Smell and flies — the main source of conflict with neighbors.
How to compost it
- Mix in carbon: straw, sawdust, leaves, used litter — so the blend’s carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is about 25–40 to 1.
- Moisture 40–60%: squeezed in your fist it feels damp, but no water drips.
- Heat. A well-built pile reaches 55–65 °C. US compost rules treat pathogens as destroyed when a regularly turned windrow holds that temperature for at least 15 days.
- Turning every one or two weeks, so the outer layers heat up too.
- Curing for several more weeks after the pile cools. Finished compost is dark, crumbly and smells of soil.
Used litter
Litter mixed with manure is already almost a ready compost blend. If there was disease in the house, ask your vet first whether it can be composted (on bedding).
Storage without pollution
- a hard-surfaced or lined pad under a roof — rain washes nitrogen into the ground;
- away from wells, ditches and ponds;
- in EU nitrate-vulnerable zones, the amount of manure per hectare is capped (the Nitrates Directive) — check local rules if you spread manure on your own fields.
Selling it
- Dried, pelleted or composted manure sells for more than fresh and doesn’t smell.
- Bags of 10–25 kg suit gardeners; farmers and greenhouse growers buy by the tonne.
- Describe it: which birds it came from (hens, ducks), with or without litter, how long it composted. If you had it tested for N, P and K, say so.
- In some countries selling it as fertilizer requires registration — check local rules.
Selling manure as a by-product lowers your cost per egg — more in the egg cost article.
Manure in your finances
In EggPulse income has its own “Manure” category. Record every sale — over a year the total is noticeable, and it honestly reduces the cost of your production.
