Topic: Taking the pee?

[Sprout]

At last, finally found a local stables giving away free manure. 'Help yourself', she said, 'take as much as you like. It's all bagged up and by the fence. Just take as much as you want when you're passing'. She even helped me load up the car. Nice. Imagine my dissappointment, therefore, when emptying the bags at my lottie to find no poo. Not even an ounce of poo. Nada. Instead, had 10 bags of wood shavings (with a bit of straw) some of it laced with horse pee.

Don't supposed pee soaked shavings are of much use?

[cleo]

They will be-think of it like leaf mould. Get what you can and stack it-might take a couple of years.

Stephan

[kenkew]

You got done, Sprout. Don't put it on your ground, it's good for nowt. In fact it's detrimental (spell checker gone loopy). Use it to walk on, it's about all it's good for.
Next time, offer to bag it yourself!

[Meg]

Oh dear never mind we all live and learn don't we??

[supersprout]

Don't give up sprout, I took on my plot in May this year with a 'free' pile of same, which my neighbours wouldn't touch cos they said it would be too acid. I spread loads where the brassicas would go (how they laughed), stuck in the seedlings ... and they are happy, happy, happy even with no lime at all. So all is Not Lost, you can stack your bags of wee-ey shavings for a year or two like cleo say, interleave in your compost heap, or grow this year's winning pumpkin. Allotmenting is always full of surprises, good thing too  ;D

[derbex]

You can always lace it with your own pee too. We get ours fresh some I stack -if it's going into the ground, some I use as a mulch, especially on top of carboard in the fruit bit of the allotment. No different to bark or wood chippings -the pee makes it a little bit better. The worms take it all in in the end.

I find the bags we get very variable -some are more or less allshavings and no poo -others are the opposite; and you'll need a lot more than ten bags  :o

Jeremy

[Columbus]

These must be very clean and well-kept horses.

Col

[Rose.mary]

My daughter has 2 horses and about 40 tons of manure in every stage of composture(?) and I have been going to collect some all winter but never got around to it,as I have so much else to do on the allotment. It is also hard work for me at my age. But today I got lucky. Her washer has broken down and my grandson rang to ask me to do his washing (ha ha!) I took up 20 empty bags and if he wants his washing doing he has to fill the bags. ;D ;D ;D

Rosemary

[supersprout]

Tee hee rosemary, might take a leaf ... ;D

[cleo]

Rosemary-love it-that has really made me smile ;D

Stephan

[kenkew]

If it was all bedding straw and pee, no problem. It's the high quantity of wood that would put me off using it. It robs the soil of nutrients as it breaks down. Good for walking on and that's all I'd use it for.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The pee will provide nitrogen, which will probably go a long way towards getting it rotted down. I'd pile it up, cover it, and leave it for a year myself. Or if there's too little for that, I'd shove it in a dalek till next year.

[lorna]

Rose.mary. My son-in-law has been promising for weeks to bring me some more horse poo. What a good idea from you, next time a favour is wanted!!!!!!!!!! I think they want me to take my 20yr old Grand daughter for X-rays soon. Opportune moment me thinks ;D

[delboy]

Nearly all the stables in my part of Surrey use wood shavings in lieu of straw/hay.

Over last summer I collected hundreds of bags of the used stuff, but at least the horses weren't royal like yours, and had done their stuff..

I checked on A4All what to do and the best bet really is to use it as a base of a compost heap/manure pile and just forget about it for 1 - 2 years until it has weathered down and worn down.

One of the problems with all horse manures is that there may be other "things" lurking therein, even if the poo has done a runner, so you should do all you can to raise its temperature in order to kill whatever is lurking in it.

Or, .. just make paths..

[jennym]

I tend to agree with kenkew on this one, The stables near us used to dump great piles of pee soaked shavings in the adjoining field. They took about 3 - 4 years to rot down properly. On the other hand, the "good" stuff (plenty of horse muck in it) which was dumped nearer to the stables itself was great to use within a year. (I got really good at spotting the "good stuff" by the way, even if it did mean a longer trip to the allotment with it)

[Rose.mary]

Great stuff, Took washing up this afternoon and low and behold all in a row 20(half full) bags. Son-in-law is taking them to allotment tomorrow.
Sprout, don't worry about anybody taking the P Just keep taking more. You are bound to get lucky one day, and get some 'good stuff'. Just compost the other kind it will rot down in time.

Rosemary

[Hyacinth]

A muck-man called round one year and I bought 6 bags of manure - bout £2.50 a not overlarge bag, but, OK, I needed it. Huh! When I emptied the bags the horse had obviously been passing half house bricks - what comes of grazing on heavy clay soil, no doubt?

[missdipsy]

I'd say that would be a very nice addition to a compost heap, particularly if your heap contains a lot of "soft stuff" - it'll give it a bit of bulk & the urine acts as an accelerator to get it all breaking down properly.