So, knowing that I am keen on growing vegetables a friend who recently started keeping chickens offered me all the chicken poop I could ever want :-) I have heard of people using it in their gardens but I never have myself. How exactly do I use it to best effect? Should I just throw it on the compost or can I actually spread it around the plants when the time comes? I'd like to take advantage of this regular supply if it is going to do good things for my plants. Thanks.

We use it on our garden. It is semi-composted, sitting over the winter in the chicken yard.

It will burn some plants, but we just use it on the things that will benefit most from it. The high nitrogen in the manure causes leaves to be bigger - think corn stalks, collard greens, etc. You wouldn't want to use a lot on tomatoes for example, because here you want the energy to be on the fruit, not the leaves. But corn is notorious for doing well with a lot of nitrogen. We take our manure straight out of the chicken yard and put it straight in the corn patch right before planting. The corn shoots up wonderfully, then slows down when it reaches maturity and starts to make fruit.

I would advise you compost it first. They can and most do give the chickens meds and other "things" (chemicals) that make them grow as fast as possible. Also chicken "do" is very "hot" and contains lots of nitrogen and can burn your plants. Many chicken barns in my area and I have had some experience with it personally. It sure will make the grass green though; just USE CAUTION when using the "do." If you know anything about composting you use greens and browns. This is definitely considered a green, a very high nitrogen level green.

chicken tins to burn so you may want to compost it

I have chickens and I till the manure into the garden in the fall after the garden is done or the season. yes you can compost it too as the others have stated.