Either manure is beneficial, provided that is is "cured", that is, dried out to the point of not actively decaying and releasing ammonia and sulfur scents. You don't want to put fresh manure on the garden since decaying manure will actually pull nitrogen out of the soil as it cures. Also, application of uncured manure on vegetable/edible landscapes is always frownded upon.

Do you already have the manure, or have you seen it? Steer manure would tend to be coarse, whereas chicken manure would be finer, sometimes mixed in with bedding straw and dust.

The best time would be to add the cure manure before you plant. Some will layer manure on the soil in late fall and let snow and the winter weather it down and then it's tilled in later. Others will till it in in spring before planting. It's always better done incorporated into the soil before you plant.

Hi Marlene,

    My father-in-law sometime back when I had a little garden at an apartment we had brought me some pheasant manure, he got from a friend. Long story short, if chicken manure is anything like pheasant manure, a little goes a very long way. If you use a shovel on cow manure, I would use a gardening trowel on the chicken manure. If you want to talk hot, the first year, nothing grew not even the weeds.

thanks so much for all of your information. I had gear toward buying chicken manure instead of steer. So my instincts were right. Now I know why.

Again, thanks for taking the time to answer.