Chicken Manure Tea

For each chicken you own, you will get about 40-50 pounds of chicken manure in a year. Here at Cloverleaf Farm, we have 55 chickens. You do the math on how much manure we get.

Chicken manure is one of the richest manures around. It makes a wonderful fertilizing tea. You just don't want to use it fresh, because it is considered "hot". You must let it age.
To make the chicken manure tea find yourself an old trash can that is between 35-50 gallons. You'll then need an old burlap bag. We use an old grain sack. Fill the bag about 3/4 full. Then add a big rock or something heavy to weigh it down. We use a couple of bricks. Fill the garbage can with water. Add the burlap bag as if it were a giant tea bag. Now, let the mixture sit for about three weeks.
Once the three weeks are over, you will have nutrient-rich chicken manure fertilizer tea. As the bag sits in the water, it becomes infused with the all the nutrients from the chicken manure. You can use this fertilizer tea to water your plants to give them a vitamin boost. Be sure to water at the base of the plant and not the foliage.

Free Range Chickens

Free Ranging Chickens.

This of course is a term that is a recent coined phrase. Chickens of yesteryear were all free ranged. It wasn't until the 1930's when farmers decided to coop chickens up for better and more egg production. Up until then, most chickens had the run of the farm yard.

On Cloverleaf Farm, we raise chickens for both meat and eggs. Our chickens are organic free range from the time they come out from under the heat lamp. They eat only and organic diet of grass, bugs, and organic grain. Free ranging is best for both chickens and our feed budget. Chickens that are let to roam free will eat your gardens pests like squash bugs and tomatoe worms. The only down side to free ranging a chicken is that they do sometimes get into the pumpkin patch and peck at the pumpkins. This can be quite easily remedied by a 2 foot high fence.

Why Organic Farming?

Cloverleaf Farm chose organic farming because it is better for you. It always was and always will be. Adding pesticides and other chemicals to gardens has a major impact not only in the vegetables you eat, but in the air, and ground water.
Organic farming is not a new idea. If you explained to a farmer of 100 years ago about organic farming he would probably scratch is head. Or worse yet, laugh at you. That was all they knew. They knew about crop rotation for best yeild. They knew about amending the soil to put back what it taken out by the plants. They used mulch to keep down the weeds. They also knew about companion planting. Those old farmers were wise.
Cloverleaf Farm grows the same way the old farmers did 100 years ago. Best for the environment, best for nutrtion value.

Life is a Zoo...No Wait ...A Farm

Welcome to life here at Cloverleaf Farm. We are happy you stopped by. Our main blog is Cloverleaf Farm, but you can visit us here at blogger for all kinds of organic farming articles.
This blog best read sipping a cup of tea.