Can it Hurt Them?

[GardenGeisha]

I have some nice looking lettuce and chard growing in an area where horses were tied up from this past Easter until about 5 days after (April 13 or so). It had a lot of manure on it from these horses when I planted there in mid-April. So it's been about 3 months since the manure was fresh in that location.

Do you think it would be safe to feed the chickens the lettuce and chard growing in this area, or do you think it could give them E coli or some other bad malady?

 

[dickiebird]

If it would hurt them our chickens, turkeys and emu would have been long gone by now. Heck they dig through the fresh dung for any undigested corn/grain/whatever. I don't even know if they can contract e-coli.

THANX RICH

 

[GardenGeisha]

Thank you, Rich. That is what I am wondering, too? Whether chickens can contract E coli, listeria, and the other things horse manure can have in it? Can they get tetanus from it?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Good answer Rich!!

 

[dickiebird]

Chickens can carry tetanus so I would guess they are immune to it.

THANX RICH

 

[GardenGeisha]

This suggests that plants aren't safe until 120 days in the ground:

http://gardening.about.com/od/fertilizer/a/Is-Manure-Safe-To-Use-In-Your-Vegetable-Garden.htm

But whether this applies to chickens, I don't know...

 

[baymule]

I have scooped horse poop and dug it straight into the garden.......yeah, I know, supposed to compost it first. But I do what I can when I can. So if the fresh poop carried e-coli, listeria, tetanus or the kook-a-munga crud, then I guess I have a good immune system. I think your chickens will be fine. Chickens free range on farms and scratching through fresh animal poo is a treat to them as they are searching for fly larva and grains.

 

[schmije]

I've seen my chickens eat a lot worse stuff than 3 month old manure. Yours will be fine.

 

[vfem]

Just drove by the neighbor's farm... he has 12 angus cows out in the pasture and about 20 chickens scratching though cow paddies as we speak. I don't worry.

I also throw manure into the garden and around the fruit trees less then 3 months before I plant. The fruit trees wake up out of dormancy pretty darn happy!

I would NEVER take manure from a huge operation that's house like 5000 cattle! That's just a breeding ground for disease. Small scale farm animals MAY carry those things, by the likelihood is lower. Healthy animals have great system strengths to those kind of things.

 

[GardenGeisha]

Oh, good to know. I got my manure from a very small scale farm-- a church camp operation. Fed the chickens some fresh arugula growing in the manure patch, and they loved it. I figured the arugula leaves were high enough off the ground.

The lettuce is so darned nice. I think I'll feed them some of it today.