Calling all composters...

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AlderCreekAK

Chirping
Apr 27, 2020
22
46
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Interior Alaska
Good afternoon chicken lover friends,

We have been wanting to start composting for a while, and now that we've got the peeps it makes perfect sense to fire it up! We've done read some research, but would super appreciate any practical advice you all might have to offer! To give you an idea, we have six clucky ladies and currently our coop + run situation have vinyl floors with sand. We live in a cold, dry climate! Some of the topics we are wondering about...
  • Pile V.S. Barrel?​
  • Will the sand remnants be okay in the compost?​
  • What's a good location for the compost? Is it okay close to the coop or will it smell/bother the ladies/attract detrimental pests?​
  • Any general basic advice?​
Thanks for reading! We look forward to your thoughts/suggestions. Have a lovely day:clap
 
Good afternoon chicken lover friends,

We have been wanting to start composting for a while, and now that we've got the peeps it makes perfect sense to fire it up! We've done read some research, but would super appreciate any practical advice you all might have to offer! To give you an idea, we have six clucky ladies and currently our coop + run situation have vinyl floors with sand. We live in a cold, dry climate! Some of the topics we are wondering about...
  • Pile V.S. Barrel?​
  • Will the sand remnants be okay in the compost?​
  • What's a good location for the compost? Is it okay close to the coop or will it smell/bother the ladies/attract detrimental pests?​
  • Any general basic advice?​
Thanks for reading! We look forward to your thoughts/suggestions. Have a lovely day:clap
I keep a mealworm compost pile near my chicken coop. I put the dirty hay and shavings and everything else dirty (even moldy feed) from the chicken coops and my sheep barn stalls into the compost pile and I feed the mealworms to my chickens. It works great and the mealworms multiply fast! I will post a picture of it in the morning.

I like having mealworms in the pile because
A. The chickens love to eat them
B. They multiply fast
C. Unlike earthworms, they don't need to stay wet and do fine in both dry and wet climates
 
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Following. I’m new to composting as well, so no sage advice to offer. Same here with the thought that I might as well make use of all this chicken poop. :) Ours is in a little patch of woods semi close to the coop. I am pleased to report that it doesn’t really stink, more like an earthy smell. Ours is just a pile with 3 sides made of pallets. I turn it once or twice a week.
 
Following. I’m new to composting as well, so no sage advice to offer. Same here with the thought that I might as well make use of all this chicken poop. :) Ours is in a little patch of woods semi close to the coop. I am pleased to report that it doesn’t really stink, more like an earthy smell. Ours is just a pile with 3 sides made of pallets. I turn it once or twice a week.

Thanks for your post! That is good to know about the earthy smell...
I hope some more of those sages you speak of will write to us! :bow
 
I've done the pile method and absolutely hated it. I was constantly trying to keep it moist, it wasn't big enough to get hot, turning it was heavy work. I spent $170 on a double sided barrel and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Well worth the investment. Turning is 100x easier. It stays moist. It gets very hot. My compost was ready in about 10 weeks as opposed to an entire year!
 
You'll find as many ways as there are poeple. See what works for you. I never tried a barrel, my budget doesn't allow it...
 

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I've been doing composting of different types for about 10 years including wet and dry piles, "barrels" and something called bokashi, which is more like organic waste fermentation. Here is my journey and recommendations for living in an apartment and in a house with a yard. Sorry if this is overkill. I kind of had fun writing it and realized just how much I enjoy composting! :wee

Bokashi We started off with bokashi when we only had an apartment and I was looking for a way to recycle my planting soil (I had a forest of tomato plants on the balcony including other balcony hanging plants). In short, bokashi is a sealed bucket system with a closable spout at the bottom; it is used to ferment your organic waste, even cooked waste. You add your kitchen garbage to it and sprinkle a bokashi powder over the waste, then close the lid. Over time, liquid develops as the garbage ferments, which you can then drain out via the spout at the bottom. This liquid is a fantastic fertilizer and can be immediately used in all plants. After some time (you can look at the contents inside to see how far the fermentation is), you remove the contents of the bucket and start again. We started this in the summer and already had a few huge plastic bins of old potting soil (filled with roots and whatever else) waiting. We then dumped and carefully mixed the bucket contents into the old potting soil, covered/closed it so that water/critters couldn't get in but that excess moisture got out (rock placed on a plastic cover). The bin was black with a translucent top so that we could see moisture build up but that was also rather warm. We kept the cover on most of the time but would open it at times if we saw condensation. This was to minimize the build up of moisture that could lead to mold and is disastrous for veggie plants like tomatoes. People who have access to a yard or public space are known to actually dig a hole next to a tree and bury their fermented bokashi bucket content. It basically fertilizes the soil. Some people add it to compost piles. The biggest benefit here is that it does not smell, is limited in size (so it takes up minimal space), and provides fertilizer while it is fermenting. The cost of purchase was under 30 or 40 Euro but you could make it much cheaper and have it be more tailored to your needs if you upcycled a beverage barrel. Like those big gatorade things they dump on people at football games. :DThe key points to bokashi success are that you have to be able to seal the container and drain the liquid from the bottom. And you need to initiate fermentation. Of course, you can buy bokashi powder, but you can also make your own. It was developed in Japan.

Wet compost pile, freestyle and wild! After moving into a house, we decided to go full compost mode. Our idea was to start out at one extreme and dial back to what worked in our setup for us. We were new to the area and kind of had no idea what we were doing other than that our parents' always had compost. Please keep in mind that we have access to a community organic waste collection service as part of our weekly garbage pickup, which might not be possible in all areas.

Long story short, when we had a pile for a while, it attracted rats and was hard to keep moist. At that time, everything went into it (grass clippings, fur and hair clippings, left over cooked food, raw food clippings, weeds, wood chips, leaves, chopped up branches from trimming trees and hedges, etc.). To keep it moist, we added fresh yeast to it and had a big pitchfork that we used to turn it. We often "watered" the compost with the other plants in the evenings on hot summer days because it dried out so much. Our pile was basically in the direct sun but it was the only feasible area for us. The rat issue became a problem. They got under and into a wooden shed next to the pile (despite the shed being on a concrete foundation). The compost pile was in a corner of the yard. On the other side of the chainlink fence, our neighbor had her tidy barreled grass-only compost. She is a rather experienced gardener, and we hoped we wouldn't have to be as strict as her and gambled anyway. We knew that she feels very uncomfortable with mice and we didnt want to alert her about the rats. So, the first update we did to the wild pile compost was to stop adding cooked food waste to the pile. The rats remained. Then, we didnt add any food waste but kept everything else. Unfortunately, once you have rats and a place where they like to sleep and poop, they proliferate and don't leave. We found that they just brought in "stuff" from elsewhere but were squatting/camping out for the long term. We have other animals and children, and I was pregnant (check the dangers of inhaling rat poop powder). Even cleaning the area up became an issue. And the dog was incessantly wild back at that area. Fences couldn't stop her, which completely limited the idea of using poison of any kind. There is also so much wildlife here, that I was wary of poison. We did not have a cat at the time. With the dog feverishly visiting what became a "at house", the compost pile got distributed around and basically became a mess. Decomposition stopped. I felt very concerned about the dog potentially catching, killing, maybe even eating a rat. So, ultimately, the pile compost, rats, and shed had to go. The entire area was dug up and turned into a huge veggie garden.

But who can live without compost?

Barreled, limited but successful compost The rats were gone, and in the corner of the veggie garden we put down a bunch of pavers and built up plastic barrel-like containers that have lids to add food from the top; you can also open them from the side for emptying. These are reusable. We got two, one for "new compost" and "old compost". I think these were actually hand-me-downs from my partner's dad. What I'm saying is, these are just tidy and help with moisture. No need to buy them new. Not wanting more multigenerational rat clans moving in, we started using (and and paying for) the community organic waste pickup for food waste but put everything else into the barrels. To accelerate the decomposition, we added fresh yeast and other concoctions every few weeks that we read about online. Sometimes we got lazy with it. Anyway, it worked, and we started to fertilize the soil once or twice a year with it, depending on rain level and our intervention. Somehow, we found that without the organic kitchen waste, the decomposition was slower. Also, further tweaking was required.

Removing weeds and using weeds! The dry weed pile compost surprise! Low and behold, there were tons of weeds in my pumpkin patch including thistle and burning nettle. We attempted to harvest it for medicinal tea and chicken food but it just didn't work out, and weeding was very painful, especially for the young kids. So we stopped throwing the weeds and wild blackberry waste in the barrels. I started to wonder what kind of compost this should be! But, removing the weeds from the compost, ploughing extra deep a few times in the veggie garden, and then using the weed-free compost in the soil resulted in a veggie garden the following year that I actually didnt weed often. I was not on daily or even weekly weeding duty with the veggie garden, and this was a massive relief. Yes, I removed some brave threatening weeds when taking a zucchini or two. Out of my laziness to collect those weeds and carry them over the "organic waste" bin for the weekly pickup, I just started a huge weed pile as I was yanking the weeds with their roots out of the ground. I hadn't been planting on a patch of ground near the property line because it was under my neighbor's big rose bushes and was hard to tend and the ground was packed in. Although the veggie garden weeding reduced, the rest of the yard needed tending (I kept adding plants!), and it got to be too much for the community organic waste pickup, which is limited in volume. I threw or deposited tree branches (that I didnt bother to chop up), thin logs, branches from currant bushes, rose bush clippings, and weeds of all sorts onto this patch that is now officially the "weed pile". I just kept adding to the weed pile out of habit and laziness as I tended to the entire property. It began to flower sometimes and attract insects and bees! It is currently about 2,5 by 7 feet and about 2 to 3 feet high. It is not dense and is actually next to but not touching the barrel compost. Neither mice nor rats are in there, though in the winter, when the fencing around the veggie garden is removed, I've seen chickens bustling around in there. I have never removed it, though I keep "meaning to". I'm starting to think it might stay. Basically, it's like a dry compost pile. It serves a purpose and yet poses no danger, attracts nothing "nasty", and isn't infecting my plants with more weeds. It doesn't require tending, just space. In Germany, they are urging people to have "wild" areas of the yard to attract insects, so I feel I'm doing my part. :lau Note that the wind blows into it and the chainlink fence (which has a barrier on it) behind it. So, the wind isn't blowing over it and into the berry bushes, veggie garden or grass (of my neighbor).

We have found a nest of mice or two in the compost barrels in the mildly cold winter. When we empty the compost to mix it with the ground soil, the problem solves itself. We are ok with temporary inhabitants. And it shows us that the soil is indeed rather warm and decomposing!

The limited compost barrel system requires more tending It is probably the biggest disadvantage next to not just dumping anything and everything into it. For us, the benefits outweigh these disadvantages. However, this spring, we couldn't use the compost as we had in past yearl.:( We weren't paying attention in the winter and neglected the barrels. Also, late last year we trimmed the hedge and removed large branches from the trees, so the compost had a lot of woody clippings that take seem to take longer to decompose. This means that even the "older compost" that should have been ready for use this spring dried out and stopped/slowed its decomposing. The "new" or "fresh" compost (from the fall) wasn't expected to be ready anyway but wasn't decomposing at all! On the flip side, for some purposes, this is great; if it is plowed into the ground, the larger chunks may help get air into the soil. But this isn't useful for all types of gardens. We had been used to dark, fine, and rich compost, and here we had this chunky stuff. We ended up ploughing and tilling the veggie area without it, and it was not good enough to add to potting soil. Ultimately, we decided to add more organic fertilizing pellets to the veggie garden this year and then add more "diversity" to the compost so that we have more decomposed compost in the fall to prep the soil for the next growing season in early 2021.

In the mean time, we got chickens two years ago. I add all chicken poop (but not dog poop) and the wood shavings from their coop as well as used straw or soiled hay. Now that I have ducks whose poop is far more liquid, I'm hoping that it will positively impact the moisture in the barrel compost. The chicken coop is in the opposite corner of the yard but the chickens free range a lot, and in the fall and winter, the ploughed-with-compost veggie garden area and weed pile are free for them to have fun in and poop all over. It's entertaining for them and helpful for me! The chickens also get a lot of safe kitchen organic waste, and if that isn't cleaned up at night (whatever they leave behind), it also attracts rodents. Just as a heads up. Yes, we live next to a farmed field, so it is probably more prevalent here than elsewhere, but I've found that rats and mice showing up depends a bit on how you tend to anything related to edible organic waste. And yes, in the mean time we have a killer, I mean, "mouser" cat.

Overall I guess my composting habits have developed into a menagerie of organic waste disposal types! If I had to add anything to my system other than more disciplined tending to the barrels/bins, it would be fermented waste. I still have my bokashi bucket, and would like to get that going again soon, as I miss being able to give my potted plants (both flowers and veggies) a boost throughout the growing season, even though I do add cow manure pellet fertilizers to the potting soil anyway. I did recently started a mealworm farm and will read the other post about mealworms in compost for advice. Thanks!

After a few years doing this, I think it helps to consider the following questions because what works varies based on (at least) these factors:
  • Where do you intend to have the compost in your yard? Specifically, is it going to be near a neighbor's yard or a public walkway/street? How far will it be from your backdoor? Will it be in the sun or shade? I've never had my compost stink, but I know it can be a problem depending on what you put in it and how you tend to it. That and rodents and/or flies as well as the other stuff on this list can make location critical.
  • How is your weather? Do you get a lot of rain? Less rain in my experience means more tending.
  • Can pets get at it? How many and what kind of wild animals do you have around that would be interested?
  • What do you hope to put in it and how do you intend to use it? In my experience these are rather linked, and it isn't a situation that you have to give up on it if one or even two types of compost methods dont work out. There are options and steps you can take to tweak it (what kinds of organic waste, poop or not poop, weeds or no weeds, etc.).
  • How much space do you have? A patio or a yard or more? Depending on space, I would consider having different kinds of compost or a combination of types to suit your needs. I recommend trying out weed piles or dry compost as well as fermentation with a bokashi-like system. I personally felt that the traditional everything-compost-pile has a high risk of drying out and attracts critters, though it was probably the easiest!
 

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