Today we spent 5 hours on the farm doing a very thorough home inspection. We asked our inspector to give a once over to the barn. We know its old and wanted to be sure it wasn't about to tip over. Turns out the barn was very well constructed.
Our inspector pointed out one interesting characteristic of the barn. Looks like quite a few bats have made their home on the center wooden beam. You can see their remnants in the picture below:
But this picture doesn't do the pile justice. There is bat poo (guano) everywhere! At first I was disgusted and scared of the thought of so many bats. I'm not scared of bees or spiders, but I am scared of bats. Then we joked that this would make great fertilizer. When I got home and looked it up this is what I found:
"Bat guano is recognized worldwide as a superior fertilizer with fungicidal and nematocidal properties. Guano's basic composition is 10 percent nitrogen, 3 percent phosphorus, and 1 percent potassium. The high nitrogen content makes it an ideal fertilizer for house plants, vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, ornamentals, and lawns. In addition, bat guano contains large amounts of microbes that are highly beneficial to soil.
The preferred method for applying guano is to combine two or three tablespoonfuls with each gallon of water. This solution can be sprayed directly on plants for absorption or as a natural fungicide. The second most common method is to apply the guano directly to the soil at a rate of five pounds (three quarts) per 100 square feet of vegetable or flower pots." From Mother Earth News.
Guano is also sold for $35 dollars a bag. So looks like we have our first cash crap!
2 comments:
haha, that rules! now you're just going to have to figure out how to keep those bats VERY happy, so they never leave you. ;)
Did you see this part?
A bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquito-sized insects every hour, and each bat usually eats 6,000 to 8,000 insects each night.
That is certainly going to make summer evenings on the farm MUCH more enjoyable.
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