...vegetable and herb garden fertilizer? Are chicken droppings safe as a vegetable and herb garden fertilizer? The mix is chicken droppings (dried out) + pine wood shavings that was the bedding material used as a mulch in the garden.
The birds are fed a vegetarian feed (soy as the protein source) and they get whatever kitchen scrappings (non-poultry and non-red meat (seafood, fish), bread and other carbs and starches, vegetables and fruits (they LOVE watermelon LOL), etc.
They are cage free in a large enclosure but no grass is in there so we occassionally let them free range the yard but usually just give them all the grass clippings which they eat for a few days until the grass completely dries out and becomes crispy. They eat whatever bugs and worms they find. Sometimes we give them scrambled eggs.
So basically, their diet is MOSTLY carbs, starches, grains, and grass.
So are their droppings safe for vegetable/herb garden fertilizer?
I'm assuming we'd just have to rinse everything of course, but what we're wondering now is if salmonella can be transferred from the droppings INSIDE the tomatoes and zuchinni and cayenne pepper plants we have planted.
I'd just assume that the ammonia, ammonium nitrite and ammonium nitrate chemicals inside the droppings (since birds expel urine through droppings as well) would kill any Salmonella present, let alone the droppings being baked by the sun and weather should kill any salmonella.
The birds are fed a vegetarian feed (soy as the protein source) and they get whatever kitchen scrappings (non-poultry and non-red meat (seafood, fish), bread and other carbs and starches, vegetables and fruits (they LOVE watermelon LOL), etc.
They are cage free in a large enclosure but no grass is in there so we occassionally let them free range the yard but usually just give them all the grass clippings which they eat for a few days until the grass completely dries out and becomes crispy. They eat whatever bugs and worms they find. Sometimes we give them scrambled eggs.
So basically, their diet is MOSTLY carbs, starches, grains, and grass.
So are their droppings safe for vegetable/herb garden fertilizer?
I'm assuming we'd just have to rinse everything of course, but what we're wondering now is if salmonella can be transferred from the droppings INSIDE the tomatoes and zuchinni and cayenne pepper plants we have planted.
I'd just assume that the ammonia, ammonium nitrite and ammonium nitrate chemicals inside the droppings (since birds expel urine through droppings as well) would kill any Salmonella present, let alone the droppings being baked by the sun and weather should kill any salmonella.