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Discussion on Chicken manure for pasture
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Member:
Brenda71
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - 10:44 am:
Hi,
We had our pastures fertilized with chicken manure after this was recommended to us by several area farmers and our local farmer's exchange. Of course, now I am wondering if this was a safe decision concerning our horses' health.
1.Does chicken manure pose any health threats?
2.How long before the horses can be turned out on it?
I have searched this site and the WWW without being able to find anything specific concerning horses AND chicken manure....
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Member:
Dawson
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - 11:28 pm:
Hi Brenda; I don't know the complete answer to all your questions, but several years ago I lost a horse to salmonella which is carried by birds/reptiles. We had no reptiles but the farm owner showed unique breeds of registered chickens. My horse was not turned out in the area where the chickens were kept, but occasionally 1 or 2 times a month a chicken might enter one of the horse stalls to perch. And these were chickens well kept and regularly groomed!
This is also a disease humans can contract, so wash your hands!! I'm sure Dr. O can give you more information. I have no idea if there is a safe period when the horse could be turned out on the chicken manure safely. I spend so much time clearing my paddocks of manure, it doesn't seem practical to fill it up with the manure from another species, with the potential of my horse picking up that species diseases and/or parasites, but that's just me, and I have no medical background. Dr. O, what do you say?
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Member:
Brenda71
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - 11:49 pm:
Thanks for the reply 
I am aware that some birds and reptiles carry salmonella...We have a large amount of geese who have chosen our pond to have their babies here year after year, unfortunately! The geese do go into the pastures and everybody knows how messy geese are! They are terrible...I don't know what to do about them...anyway, our horses are obviously exposed periodically to salmonella from these geese...I would assume anyway???
I did read on this site that, if I remember correctly, there are no known cases of horses contacting salmonella from geese in pastures...so I can only hope that the same applies for chicken manure....I think maybe ducks are more often the culprit???
Even if it was a bad decision on my part, it has already been done  Now I just need to know how long to keep them off the pastures...I have been figuring on keeping them off until we have a few good rains....
Thanks again for your time
Brenda
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Member:
Vickiann
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 15, 2006 - 6:30 am:
Salmonella comes in many different strains, some more serious than others. I knew someone who kept some chickens in an enclosure where there were parrots caged and the avian Vet. said that was a huge NO-NO, since chickens can carry lots of illnesses. When my chickens and other poultry started roosting in the barn from time to time I gave them all to the 4-H. I know that salmonellosis germs can survive a very, very (years) long time. Baking sunlight is probably a good thing to help kill it to some degree. Chicken manure would probably be a great thing to fertilize an old orange grove to get bacteria back into a ground, but for a horse pasture one has to wonder!
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Member:
Kthorse
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 15, 2006 - 6:57 am:
I dont know the answer but at my barn /farm as its not a traditional barn. There are about 12 chickens that practically live with the horses, them and guinny hens. They leave a terrible mess, even laying eggs in the stalls. there has never been a problem.
Katrina
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 15, 2006 - 7:03 am:
Chicken manure is a very fine way to fertilize and recondition soil though better if composted first. However I have found one short report of an outbreak of Salmonella typhimurium reported on a Thoroughbred farm in South Africa on pasture recently fertilized with chicken manure. Unfortunately amounts and time involved are not given.
This is going to be OK Brenda it will just take some time. I do not have any personal experience with this so I am offering what I think are common sense recommendations, if you can find a more informed opinion take it.
When all the manure has broken down to where you no longer recognize any of it on the ground, is the time you can consider reintroducing horses. To be extra careful wait for one more rain/sunlight cycle after this. This should be a minimum of several good rains and several intervening dryouts with sunlight. As already noted the sunlight makes a great antibacterial. Though salmonella is quite resistant in some environments it does not compete well with normal bacterial flora. I suspect that this in combination with the sun should clean it off the pastures once the particles have all broken down.
DrO
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Member:
Jojo15
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 15, 2006 - 8:36 am:
I have just read somewhere that geese and ducks, are good to have around it keeps the liver fluke population down. As they eat the larvae while chickens don't. interesting, eh?
Think of all the places that use fertiilizer on our veggies. and either compost or use straight manure. with no ill effects of salmonella.
Healthy chickens should not be a concern to anyone or animal. and can be tested for the salmonella. My vet was telling me this, when i mentioned i keep turtles, and chickens, and parrots, and what is the dangers associated with having them all as pets. If the chickens are too many in too small and area than they can become unhealthy and contract certain diseases, etc.
You can't stop the wild "thangs" that frequent that pasture too. I have wild iquanas, rats, possum, racoon, etc. I would be more apt to worry about my horse getting something from them, rather a someones pets.
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Member:
Brenda71
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 15, 2006 - 9:15 am:
Thank you all for your time and thoughts
I will wait til we have several rains/dryouts....the horses are not going to be happy with me...they are already anxious to get back out! LOL!
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