DIY Composting

[mrsjohnston]

http://www.all4gardening.co.uk/ScPr...e-Compost-Bin-300L-Pressure-Treated_1084.aspx


Saw this for all the people who need n attractive, simple compost bin. Would be easy to make and great for small spaces

 

[back2nature]

I use pine shavings on bottom of my brooders. Can I compost the "poop contaminated" shavings in composting bin?

 

[missnu01]

Certainly...that is the point of composting.

 

[back2nature]

Gee, thanks. I just wanted to be sure.
I live in Coeur d'Alene ID. are you aware of any reputable coop builder?

 

[missnu01]

All you need to compost is organic material. don't put any meat, or anything oily or greasy in it..But most other food and paper waste can go into the compost. .Animal droppings, grass clippings..you just have to try to balance the carbon and nitrogen...like poo and hair are nitrogen, but hay straw, paper, and grass clippings are carbon. The more different stuff you have the better. You can compost in anything, or directly on the ground. Just make a pile and toss the stuff into it. I have used just a large nursery pot at our last place that was small. Now we have 4 acres, and it looks like whoever was here before already started a compost pile...so now we have 2 huge piles of excellent dirt. Now I just have to haul it to where I plan on putting my garden. Compost is ready to use when it all looks like soil with little discernible matter in it. So the stuff at the bottom will be ready to use while the stuff at the top is still getting there...that is another point in turning it over..so the stuff on top can break down like the stuff on the bottom.

 

[Spifflove]

Composting is easy there is a free online manual by a hippie who used his own poo. The trick is to get a hot compost going that will kill the pathogens. Then you let it sit a year. He grabbed his with no gloves. [I'm not saying to do that but it worked for him, he called people who feared human waste "fecalphobes"]

My own compost never makes it a year since the chickens undermine the bottom and it keeps collapsing.

 

[thedollysmama]

I put literally everything in my compost piles but wads of grease, which we don't have anyway. We put in dead critters, too, as our compost heaps sit for several years before being used. There may be a random bone now and then but we have never had an issue. No predator troubles, no smell, maybe an occasional mouse nest in a protected corner in the winter but that is it.
Our heaps average 3 by 3 with the big one being about 4 by 5. I don't turn it, the chickens do that, and I will water when I add to the heaps weekly. Some are covered, some are not. It is effortless, unscientific, and a great way to condense all that rabbit/goat/sheep/poultry poo and bedding until it is needed. We live on beyond garbage service and take non recyclables to the dump a couple of times a year. I try very hard fir everything around here to be used at least twice but more is better. Food waste goes to chickens or sheep or the dog then the resultant poo (except for the dog who poos in private) goes in the bin. After a while the compost goes out on the land and helps grow some stuff and we start all over.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Every thing that was living at one time or another goes into the compost pile (unless we have pigs, then it goes to the pigs). The only exception to that is all meat/grease/carcasses go directly into the compost pile. If you have an active compost pile/heap, you should have no worries with adding meat/grease to it. The key words here being ACTIVE COMPOST.

You don't want to add items to a compost pile when the compost is finished and ready for the garden! It is most satisfying to see the steam roll off the compost pileS in the dead of winter when the temp is 0*F.

 

[acemario]

Is grease harmful?

 

[chickenstricken]

I would avoid composting it, it stinks and might attract animals.