Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[lazy gardener]

I use the term "wheel barrow" loosely. If it has less than 4 wheels, I call it a wheel barrow. I love mine. Both are 2 wheeled, one is huge, and has a dumping feature, the other one is smaller, and you just tip to dump. I can't tell you how many loads I've lost when using the single wheel style. I actually take them for a test drive before purchase. I had a guy at Lowes scratching his head one day. The garden carts were all locked up, so I couldn't test drive. So, I paid for the one I wanted, and he then unlocked them and sent me on my way with one. Well, after about 10', I found that the thing was not well balanced at all, so, I turned around and marched right back into the store to get a refund. They've gotta be well balanced, (and have good tires) or you'll expend way too much energy using them. An other thing... compost needs to be close to the ground so the beneficial soil organisms can move into it... IMO. Of course you could have it raised for better air flow, and inoculate with soil... but, I prefer to have mine on the ground. Better moisture control as well.

 

[lazy gardener]

Hi. I'm Lazy gardener... and I am a compost addict. I can't drive by a nice steaming pile of compost, or manure, or even mulch, without wishing it was in MY YARD.

 

[vehve]

That pile isn't technically in our yard... We're borrowing part of the neighboring lot, with permission.

I don't really need to transport stuff that far, so the wheelbarrow is fine. Plus, we have some terrain to negotiate, so it's easier with just the one wheel. A cart would be a lot harder to move about.

 

[vehve]

+31C in the box this morning. I think it's getting ready to jump into a thermophilic state. Thermophiles require a minimum temperature of about 40C (104F), and should thrive at about 50C (122C). If the core was +43C with box temp of +27C and outside temp of +3C, and it's now +31C in the box and +1C outside, I'm guessing the core might well be closing in on +50C soon.

 

[HennyPennyCO]

I'd say the insulated box also needs to be at least 3x3x3 feet. Bigger is always better. I don't think something small enough to be moved would be large enough to compost properly, at least not quickly. I'd rather have some sort of container I collect the stuff into, and then just dump it into the compost at once. Those net and cardboard things do sound pretty handy though, pretty much the same idea as the compost cages I like.



Then to HennyPenny's comment on meat and dairy being bad in the compost. You shouldn't make a statement like that without explaining yourself, because people will think it's actually bad for the compost, instead of the other reasons why you should carefully consider whether to put those in a bin or not.

The most common reasons are that if the meat is somehow infected, you might spread whatever's wrong with the meat. I'd say that if the meat comes from your kitchen, that isn't really much of a risk. But that's one thing to consider. Then we have the smell. If you have an inefficient compost, you can produce quite a smell with meat and dairy. You can also attract flies. So when composting meat and dairy, the compost should be running hot, and you should bury the stuff right in the core. Then we have the biggest issue. What kind of predators do you have in your area? If I had a large population of wolves, coyotes, raccoons and bears, I might not put dairy and meat in the bin. My main issue is foxes and rodents, and those can't get into my bin, so I put meat and dairy in mine.

You're quite right, Felix, I should have said that around here it is definitely not recommended to put meat & dairy in the compost due to there being all manner of predators. When we lived in the mountains the most serious were the raccoons & mountain lions, with occasional bears in the autumn when they were trying to fatten up before hibernation. Now that we're living in the suburbs (still semi-rural with lots of irrigation ditches & large drainage gulches on account of it being old farming land) we have those predators that have adjusted well to suburban living - foxes, coyotes, raccoons and skunks. Raccoons are terribly destructive as well as being nasty chicken killers, and no-one wants to encourage skunks. Also, being in the suburbs, one does not wish to antagonize one's nearby neighbors with hordes of flies and a stench from the compost heap.
Penny
PS When Paco (the-chicken-killer-dog) killed the mice from the nest under the compost heap, I threw the sad little carcasses into the chicken run. They totally disappeared in short order.

 

[HennyPennyCO]

uote:

I've never had any compost to sift.....yet, lol, but.....I have sifted other soils that I've bought and/or had delivered in bulk.

Learned that trick from my dad, who just leaned his frame up against something and tossed the dirt against it.

I built a frame with 1/2" HC attached to sit on top of my garden dump cart(holds about 9 CF)...have sifted literally about a ton of soil thru it.

Do any of you filter the compost before putting it in the garden? I've got some left over hardware cloth (1/2" or so in size) that I was thinking of using to make a shaker box so that I could filter out any large particles (bones, sticks, animal skulls) out of the compost and also break the soil up while shaking it before we use it in the garden. The pile I'm talking about has been done cooking for easily a month and is sitting outside in a drying bin while it completes its cool down phase.

Several years ago my middle son very kindly made me one of those hardware cloth sifter screens on a wooden frame that will fit on top of my wheelbarrow. I love it, though I hate to think how many tons of rocky soil I have screened, plus a few batches of finished compost. (I really should screen all of the finished compost.) Can thoroughly recommend this useful item. It's pretty cheap to make, especially if you have some old lumber hanging around.

 

[scottcaddy]

PS When Paco (the-chicken-killer-dog) killed the mice from the nest under the compost heap, I threw the sad little carcasses into the chicken run. They totally disappeared in short order.

Around here, if a cat is playing with or is tossed a mouse in the chicken yard, the birds always win the race to eat it.
Scott

 

[vpatt]

You're quite right, Felix, I should have said that around here it is definitely not recommended to put meat & dairy in the compost due to there being all manner of predators.  When we lived in the mountains the most serious were the raccoons & mountain lions, with occasional bears in the autumn when they were trying to fatten up before hibernation.  Now that we're living in the suburbs (still semi-rural with lots of irrigation ditches & large drainage gulches on account of it being old farming land) we have those predators that have adjusted well to suburban living - foxes, coyotes, raccoons and skunks.  Raccoons are terribly destructive as well as being nasty chicken killers, and no-one wants to encourage skunks.  Also, being in the suburbs, one does not wish to antagonize one's nearby neighbors with hordes of flies and a stench from the compost heap.
Penny
PS When Paco (the-chicken-killer-dog) killed the mice from the nest under the compost heap, I threw the sad little carcasses into the chicken run.  They totally disappeared in short order.

Did you have chickens when the bears came to your compost? I am wondering as I am in bear country and wanted to keep bees. But I know that would draw the bears in. I just wondered how bad the bears might be with chickens. I have had chickens since September with no predator issues.......just curious.

As for compost.....I don't even know if it is still there under the snow...sigh. I was thinking of putting a tarp over it when the snow is gone. Would that help it heat up? Or would it be harmful? I was thinking of doing this until I have a bigger heap and then uncover and let the chickens in it. We are still using the tumbler but I'm pretty sure it is COLD. Usually hubbie works with it and I play with the other.

 

[vehve]

Tarp would have been better under the snow, now the melting snow will wash away nutrients. But in the summer it's good to cover with a tarp to keep moisture in. In the spring a black tarp might draw heat from the sunlight.

 

[Cpolanco3]

Why buy a special appliance when you just have to eat a quart of yogurt??? Mother always said guys had the advantage when going on a picnic!

my mom taught me the art of squatting when I was a little girl and we'd take long drives from Los Angeles through the desert into Palms Springs.... back int he early 80's. Its a skill that has served me well, lol

C