Adding chickens to a aquaponics setup?

[Tricia Desmarais]

I was watching a show the other day about a guy who turned his run down pool into a aquaponics paradise. He had his 8 chickens setup over his tilapia pond so that their poo would go into the water. I was just wondering if that was safe for the fish and would it allow you to grow more plants?

[George]

I wouldn't do it.  This has been discussed before, possibly under a preppers discussion.  I doubt fish other than tilapia could even survive it and it's not something I'd want to eat, the fish nor the vegetables.

[Carey Ma]

@ George: Personally I think it best to compost (high temp) all manure before using it in AP. However, non scientifically, I believe duck and rabbit poo is appropriate in greenwater culture (may not be appropriate in clear water culture). I think our society is too poo phobic.

[Converse]

Funny thing...when I mentioned doing AP at the Farmers' Markets a while back, I got a lot of funny looks from people. They know we also raise various farm fowl.  I also at the same time recall finding a lot of vague references online in different online communities about AP and quail.  I could never find out what the connection was...until I asked the organizer of one of the Farmers' Markets we participate in...and he enlightened me...

   It seems that there is a large population out here who have gone overseas with various charitable groups and helped villages with being able to feed their people....What they did was grow tilapia in ponds and lakes and suspend bird cages (usually tilapia) over the water.  The tilapia ate the bird poo.  The villagers ate the tilapia that fed on the poo, and also ate the birds in the cages...I put 2 and 2 together and filled in the vague-ness of the information I had found online, and found out that there are people (even in the USA) who are raising quail this way over tilapia ponds.  This is why I got the funny reception from my cohorts at the Farmers' Markets.  They know we raise quail, among other farm fowl....

  I immediately cleared the record.  NO pooping birds over our fish tanks/ponds! Ugh!  THe relief in those that heard was obvious...and it also let me know there is a stigma out here I am having to wade upstream against. Education is a huge part of our Farmers' Maket experience.There seem to be a lot of people out here who have seen this unappetizing (in my opinion) practice first hand when doing charitable work overseas, and that is what comes to mind when they hear of AP with tilapia.

  I prefer that all bird poo be aged, heated, and then fed to our redworms.  It will clear up any bad stuff lurking in the poo, and it gives me the mental-block peace of mind I need in knowing that the food chain has a few links between my food and the bird poo.

[Tricia Desmarais]

Well, if you can't put fresh chicken poo in the water. How do you integrate the composted chicken poo into the system? And how long does it have to compost for?

[TCLynx]

Keep in mind that bird poop in extensive pond culture might be unappealing to people just because of the idea but if you are only eating the fish from such culture it isn't that big a deal since we eat our fresh water fish cooked which will kill salmonella and e. coli.

However as soon as you are using that fish water to grow your salads and other crops you might eat raw.........  Well do you want the birds pooping in your salad?  Raw bird manure is not appropriate for any garden where you eat the veggies raw.

If you want to use any warm blooded animal manure for your aquaponics, I'll recommend reading the humanure handbook to learn more about composting.

If you are wanting to grow your veggies with compost, then you might as well do dirt gardening and not be trying to add the compost to your aquaponics system seeing as trying to add lots of compost to your aquaponics is going to make it far more complex to keep things well aerated (avoid anaerobic conditions) and balanced.  Perhaps using some compost for some semi integrated wicking beds that are watered with aquaponic water would be the closest I would probably recommend to using any composted chicken manure to a system.