Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

I emptied out batch 3 today, it had cooked nicely and was no longer giving off heat. I got about 2½ wheelbarrows of raw compost out of there. I used a part of it in our raised beds, I first chopped up some maple leaves and covered three beds with a wheelbarrow full of the stuff. Then I dumped half a wheelbarrow of raw compost on top of the leaves, and then another wheelbarrow load of leaves on top again. I hope it will have time to decompose a bit before it's time to plant again in spring. The chickens seemed slightly interested, so if they start digging through it, it should break down pretty quickly.

Batch 4 however turned out to have been a bit too full. I haven't been able to turn it properly due to the amount of stuff in there, so the bottom third was completely dry, and almost nothing had happened. The middle part had cooked a bit, and the top was still pretty fresh because I've been adding all the time. I dumped half of the batch into the other side of the compost, and turned and watered both sides properly. Hopefully this will get it going. I would still like to get all of it processed before snow, but with the cooling temperatures I might be a bit late. I'm going to have to turn it pretty actively now and keep it moist.

 

[Lacy Blues]

What a beautifully GREEN place you have there! I'm jealous! Those garden beds look really good too.

 

[vehve]

Lacy, still a few weeks of green left. Usually the snow just lands on top of green grass when it finally arrives. The beds are made with pallet collars, they're a pretty nice size. And stackable.

 

[Jetpad]

Lacy, still a few weeks of green left. Usually the snow just lands on top of green grass when it finally arrives. The beds are made with pallet collars, they're a pretty nice size. And stackable.

I like the look of those raised beds. I'd never heard of pallet collars before. I did a quick search on craigslist and nothing showed up for me. I wonder if there is another name for them in the US?

 

[vehve]

That was that a straight translation. Army surplus stores might be a place to look, or some places that handle sort of loose goods on pallets. They are basically 4 boards connected with hinges, and they fit straight on a pallet (A EUR-pallet in this case, 800mm x 1200mm). I don't know if they're used in the States though. It's sort of like a wooden version of a pallet cage, but they're only 20cm (8") high, and you can stack them to the needed height.

 

[Jetpad]

That was that a straight translation. Army surplus stores might be a place to look, or some places that handle sort of loose goods on pallets. They are basically 4 boards connected with hinges, and they fit straight on a pallet (A EUR-pallet in this case, 800mm x 1200mm). I don't know if they're used in the States though. It's sort of like a wooden version of a pallet cage, but they're only 20cm (8") high, and you can stack them to the needed height.

I don't think they must be used very often in the States. That must be why I haven't heard of them before. Great idea though.

 

[scottcaddy]

Quote: Use google and search for pallet collars.
Scott

 

[vehve]

We had some colder weather, about -5C (23F) for a while, and the compost had cooled down quite a bit. Now the weather has warmed up a bit again, and box is starting to heat up. I've separated what was batch 4 into two piles, and batch 4 is mostly cooked, once I can no longer get any more to fit with batch 5 I think I will empty it, it should mature enough throughout the winter to be used in spring. The added heat that batch 5 is about to start producing will probably help batch 4 to develop a bit further still.

 

[vehve]

Overnight, the temp in the box has risen from about 12C to 30C. It's starting to cook nicely again. It helped to get some more greens in there, we harvested our Jerusalem artichokes in the weekend and I chopped up the stems and what was left of the leaves. I also poured about 20 liters of water in there.

 

[aart]

Enjoying your updates, but nothing to contribute other than Thanks.

I feed my chickens branches off the sunchokes all summer, they love the leaves.