You can use the manure from your animals to fertilize your plants and gardens, which is an advantage of owning animals.
Many people who raise chicken believe that poultry manure is nutrient-rich, but caution should be exercised when utilizing it as a fertilizer because of its high levels of nitrogen.
If so, is it possible to utilize it as fertilizer?
Plants can benefit greatly from the use of quail manure as an organic fertilizer.
Plants benefit from their nutrient-dense composition and higher liquid content than chicken dung.
What are the benefits of using quail poop as a fertilizer?
When used as fertilizer, quail manure has several advantages, including quantity, quality, and safety.
1. Quality
How much manure do animals produce regularly?
Look at how much quail manure is compared to the manure produced by other animals.
More manure is produced by quail compared to hens.
People who rear quails can utilize more manure in their gardens than those who raise hens.
Your garden can be covered in a bigger area with the use of quarried manure.
2. Quality
When it comes to animal dung, how can you tell if it’s high in nutrients? NPK values can be used to determine the optimal manure.
A plant’s NPK ratio is the ratio of three essential nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
In the ratio, nitrogen comes first, followed by phosphorus and potassium. Three parts nitrogen, two parts phosphorus and one part potassium make in a 3:2:1 ratio.
Each species has a different NPK ratio:
Cows: 3:2:1
Goats: 1.35:1:3
Pigs: 0.8:0.7:0.5
Quails: 2.8:2.3:1.7
Turkey: 2.8:2.4:1.2
Chickens: 1.5:0.5:0.8
Examine the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) ratios to determine the quality of fertilizer.
As a result, the manure quality will be higher if there is less volatility between the numbers.
Manure from quails has an NPK ratio of 2.8:2.3:1.7 (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium)
Related: Here is an article I wrote on taming quails
3. Safety
When working with animal dung, safety is a primary concern to be addressed. If your plants are exposed to fresh animal dung, they may be damaged or killed.
Decomposed or composted manure is recommended by many gardeners.
In your garden, quail dung is safer because it is more fluid (or diluted) than other poultry manures.
Nutrient concentration is reduced due to its fluid nature. The nutrient content, on the other hand, is not affected by consistency.
However, quail excrement is more nutritionally dense and less likely to harm your plants than chicken manure.
When it comes to using duck manure, here are some pointers on how to do it right.
How to use quail poop as fertilizer
1. Directly Apply
Quail manure can be applied directly to plants in a garden. This manure can be used as needed.
Mix it with water and sprinkle it on your garden.
2. Quail Manure Composting
Nitrogen is abundant in quail dung, making it a great fertilizer for plants. So, you can utilize quail manure as a nitrogen source when composting.
Nutrient-dense quail manure also contains helpful bacteria that can speed up the composting process.
Consider using 25 parts dry brown materials (for carbon) for every part fresh green material when generating compost (i.e. for nitrogen).
When composting quail manure, you can lower the amount of water added.
Items that you can compost with quail manure are:
- Grass cuttings supply extra nitrogen to your plants.
- Carbon is obtained from straw/hay in the compost pile.
- Your plants can benefit from a larger range of nutrients from kitchen garbage.
Items that you should not compost are:
Foods Rich in Sulfur: Sulfur is abundant in kitchen wastes like garlic and onions. Instead of smelling earthy, they might give your compost pile a foul smell.
Bones: You should not compost bones unless you are willing to roast the bones and ground them into smaller bits.
Larger bone pieces may not entirely disintegrate at the same rate as other organic components in your compost pile.
Flesh and Other Animal Products: Unlike plant wastes, animal products like meat and milk break down differently.
Plants can be damaged or infected by dangerous bacteria when animal products decompose.
Salty Items: Compost pile bacteria can be killed by too much salt.
Also check out this article I wrote on can quails get lice
3. Assist the Quail in Foraging
This will help you gather and utilise their dung by encouraging them to graze in certain places.
Feeding troughs can be placed at several spots in the garden to avoid your quail flock from congregating in one place all the time.
If you’d want the quail to move around more, you can scatter quail treats across the garden.
Limit the passage of Quail through plant-growing zones to prevent the quail from trampling fragile plants.
4. Organic Fertilizer in a liquid form
If you use a liquid organic fertilizer that contains quail manure, your plants will receive nutrients instantly. Liquid organic manure can be made in three ways:
- Passive method
- Semi-passive method
- Active method (requires bubbler)
How long does it take to compost quail manure?
For ages, people have used manure as a soil supplement to dispose of waste and preserve soil fertility.
Composting manure takes time, as it does with other natural processes.
The finished product is worth the wait.
General Time Frame
The process of composting and stabilizing manure typically takes six months.
Construction and heating of a compost pile are the first steps, which might take several days to many weeks.
To destroy pathogens and weed seeds, the compost pile’s temperature should be maintained between 130 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 21 days.
Transfer the composted manure to a curing bin after it has been composted.
Another 2-6 months of decomposition takes place when it’s placed in the curing bin.
Accelerating the Process
When conditions are ideal for composting, the process can be sped up.
Some considerations should be made during composting.
Compost heating slows down in cold weather.
It should be at least 4 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide when you build the compost pile.
The compost pile should be moist, but not drenched in water.
Smaller piles won’t get as hot as larger ones. The compost pile should be moist but not soggy.
Some water should be able to be squeezed from it.
Then, if it appears to be dry, water it with a hose to keep it alive.
Composter the wet and dry components in the same proportions.
Manure is nitrogen-rich, but carbon-free.
To begin decomposition, compost requires dry carbon resources.
A carbon material will not be required if the manure is mixed with bedding.
Just be sure to use equivalent amounts of dry materials like straw, crushed bark, or dried leaves when composting manure.
Shortcuts
Ideally, you want to wait at least six months before using your compost, but you can cut corners when required.
the manure must be heated to 105 degrees for at least five days according to the Environmental Protection Agency
To eliminate diseases and weed seeds during this time, the temperature must reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit for at least four hours.
The compost can be applied to your garden without being cured once it has cooled.
As you can see, the manure hasn’t yet stabilized.
Four to ten weeks following application, the soil will be depleted of nitrogen.
Safety
However, there are a few considerations that should be taken when using manure that has been composted as a garden amendment: Only use herbivore dung as a fertilizer.
In addition to pathogens, dog and cat faeces also contain parasites, such as roundworms, in hog manure.
If you have the time and space, compost for safety.
Manure that has been properly cured and composted should shrink to roughly a third of its initial volume.
A black, brittle substance that does not emit bad scents
Manure safety tips
1. Don’t Use Fresh Manure
There’s also the issue of nitrogen and ammonia content, which can burn plant roots and prevent seed germination.
A plant-eating animal’s faeces is likely to include weed seeds, which will germinate unhindered.
If you still want to utilize fresh manure in your garden, don’t do it after the plants have been planted.
120 days before harvesting and eating any products where the edible section comes into contact with the ground is recommended as an application window by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Everything from beets, carrots, potatoes and radish to lettuce and spinach, as well as vining crops like cucumbers and squash, falls into this category.
When it comes to vegetables that are far enough away from the soil that nothing will splash on them, fresh manure can be spread up to 90 days before harvest.
2. Find out how to use manure differently.
Soil conditioner instead of fertilizer
In the fall, add fresh manure for spring planting. In the meantime, it can be incorporated into the soil or compost.
It’s best to wait to add soil amendments until all of your vegetables have been harvested.
During the growth season, you can side-dress with composted manure. Especially if the pile reaches a temperature of 140 degrees or higher, composted manure reduces contamination risks.
It is possible to buy composted manure, or, if you have access to fresh manure, you can compost your own.
Stephen Reiners, a horticulturist at Cornell University, says that E. coli is usually killed by hot summer temperatures.
Verify if it is free of pathogens
You should be able to tell if bagged manure is pathogen-free by looking at the label on the bag.
Just because it’s advertised as fertilizer doesn’t mean it’s been composted.
Check with the farm if any of their animals have had any health issues before you purchase their manure.
Use Common Sense Precautions
Hands and nails should be thoroughly washed before and after harvesting manure-grown produce.
It’s best to wash and peel the root and leafy vegetables before eating them because they’re the most prone to contamination. Pathogens can also be killed by cooking.
Uncooked vegetables fertilized with manure should be avoided if you have a history of food-borne disease.
This includes children, pregnant women, those with compromised immune systems, and persons with chronic disorders.
Conclusion
Quail manure is a great fertilizer for your plants because it contains nitrogen.
When compared to other poultry dung, quail manure has a higher quantity as well as a higher quality, and it may be used directly on plants without risk.
It can also be used as a liquid fertilizer or in compost.
