Composting...

[gtaus]

Me and my husband are new to composting and we have a black bin like that too.

The beauty of composting is that there is no one right method. I have tried a number of different methods and they all work more or less to some degree. It's just a matter of where you live, what material you have to compost, and how much work you want to put into your composting. After I got my chickens, I just let them do all the work scratching, turning, pecking, and breaking down all the compost litter in the chicken run. They do a better job than I ever did with making compost. Lots of great composting info here on the BYC forums as chickens, composting, and gardening all seem to go together for so many of us.

 

[DaringQuack]

Hey, I started hot composting few days ago where my cn ratio is kinda random.

Today I turned the pile and there was a high fresh minty smell that suffocates me. I only ripped up cardboard boxes for carbon.

Does that smell means bad cn ratio? Do I need to add more carbon?

 

[gtaus]

Does that smell means bad cn ratio? Do I need to add more carbon?

I don't do hot composting, mainly because I live in northern Minnesota and for a good 6 months out of the year we are covered with snow and low temps. Having said that, if compost smells bad, it's almost always too much greens. I'd mix in more carbon anytime you smell something off. If someone has other advice on hot composting, I'd be interested in what they have to say.

I mainly compost in the chicken run, and it never smells like anything other maybe a wet a forest floor after a good rain. I dump in all kinds of grass clippings in the summer, but the chickens will mix it in with the existing compost litter in the run so I never have any bad smells.

FYI. this winter, I started using paper shreds I make at home as my chicken coop deep litter. All that carbon (paper shreds) will make its way to the compost. It's amazing how much paper I get to shred every week (bills, junk mail, newspapers, food cardboard boxes, etc....). Shredding the junk paper saves me time and effort from hauling it to a recycle bin or center, plus, the chickens get to use it as litter in the coop, it will get composted outside in the chicken run when I clean out the coop, and the compost from the paper shreds will eventually make its way to one or more of my garden beds to grow people food. If you need carbon sources, don't overlook all that junk paper you might be throwing out.

Bonus tip: I got 2 of my paper shredders from our local thrift shop. Paid about $3 for a 5 sheet shredder and about $5 for an 8 sheet shredder. Both would have sold for about $80 each new. Easy, and cheap, way to get into shredding paper to see if you can make good use of the paper shreds. Certainly easier than ripping heavy cardboard by hand.

 

[gtaus]

We are expected to get temps in the mid-high 40F's this week, so I hope that snow will melt.

Spoke too soon. Yesterday was about 48F, but today we got yet another snow storm with maybe 1-2 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Winter still hanging on here. Oh well, April snow falls don't last long....

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I’d agree that more (and more varied) carbon is likely the answer. If you have access to leaves, hay, straw, wood chips/shavings, I’d add some as you turn the pile.

Don’t have leaves handy? This time of year your neighbors may have been kind enough to have collected them, bagged them up, and left them by the side of the road for you to pick up. SUPER nice of them!

 

[DaringQuack]

The smell wasn't bad like when I waterlogged a batch last year but more of a high concentration of cold smelling gas. The compost was very hot though. I can only smell it if I turn over a lot of it, especially near the center.

I'll add saw dust and dry leaves to see if it helps with the smell.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Minty isn’t a smell I’ve smelled from compost…my guess is maybe from the glue in the cardboard.

“Minty” beats “sulfury” which you often get with waterlogged or otherwise oxygen-deprived compost.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Back to the topic of harvesting run compost… this area has only seen maybe 8 months since last harvested, and I was putting down hay to make “chicken roads” when it snowed this winter…but look how much I’m able to harvest (and I could probably go deeper)…

 

[gtaus]

The compost was very hot though. I can only smell it if I turn over a lot of it, especially near the center.

There is a temp curve for hot composting and maybe you need to just let it sit and cool down a bit. From what I understand, you want the pile to heat up and compost fast, and then when the temps drop you turn the pile and rewet it to bring the temps back up again. I don't know about "minty" smell, but the few times I have had a pile of grass clippings compost heat up, it smelled like burning garbage. Not pleasant smelling, and certainly not like mint.

Even though I don't do the hot composting and all that turning of the bins, I did buy one of those long probe temperature gauges from Amazon to check the bin temp in the middle. It is interesting to see the temp rise in a fresh bin and then fall back down over a number of days. I never dug down into the compost pile when it was hot, so I don't know what that would have smelled like. If you want to hot compost, I think a good temp gauge would be very helpful.

Just like the old doctor jokes, if it smells bad when you turn over a hot compost pile, don't turn over the hot compost pile! Let it cool down a bit as intended.

Hot composting might be great if you need compost fast. I went a different route with my composting chickens. I have built up enough chicken run compost over the last year that I can harvest more than I can use, anything I want. It might take a good 6-8 months for the chicken run compost to break down, but I probably have 18 months worth of compost sitting out there waiting to be harvested.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I've been doing some research on using a compost tea to improve the soil of my horse pasture (approx 4 acres). I'm about to spray some 2-4D tomorrow and then next week we will seed approximately 100 lbs of alfalfa, hay, and pasture mix. Since the cost of fertilizer is going up, up, and up....I've been looking into alternatives. I have lots of compost. I have a sprayer. So compost tea sounds like a good alternative.

Came across this article which is SUPER informative...

https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/bui.../composting-tips-strategies-balanced-compost/