Chicken Poop

If you have ever driven past chicken houses, you are familiar with the aroma of chicken poop. Not pleasant! Did you know that it is often used as fertilizer? There is a huge cattle pasture across from the local high school. Whenever I drive my school bus by the field, and it has been recently fertilized, the kids go crazy. They hoot, holler and make all kinds of noises indicating their disgust at the smell. Well let me tell you about OUR pasture and chicken poop. We have a neighbor (which means he lives within a 5 mile radius of us) who cuts our hay. He gives us as many bales as we need for our horses and he gets to keep the rest. He is responsible for fertilizing, cutting and baling. This year, for the first time, he asked if it would be okay to use chicken poop, rather than a commercial fertilizer. He said it was much better for the pasture and also cheaper. The only down side is the smell, but he assured us it would last only until we got rain. Since Georgia has been in a terrible drought for 3 years, that alone made me nervous. But winter is the rainy season, and we don't have to pay to have our hay cut, so it seemed prudent to be agreeable. I want you to know; he has fertilized the pasture, it has rained - thank God- but the pasture still stinks! Live and learn.....chicken poop is potent stuff!