Feeding compost

[gtaus]

and apologies for the thread hijack. I'll pick thisd up elsewhere, in my bunny thread where I sought advice initially.

/should have named them Houdini, Deitrich, Walker...

Yeah, it's very easy to get off topic on these forums. I did not notice it because when I hit the link to respond to a post, it just goes to that comment and I don't necessarily see the original topic of the thread. After many pages, most threads seem to lose sight of the original question or concern. Apologies to OP just the same.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I have been a fan of composting for at least 30 years, learned of composting from my mother- a gardener years prior.
Composting and chickens was a bit if a small challenge for me at first but today I do it like this without a problem as long as I pay attention and except the risk/benefit ratio. Climate ditactes what I can and cannot do and so does space. I am in a warm climate with limited space for chicken, household and yard composting.
My kitchen and chicken waste I use tumblers.

They work terrific. Bugs go in, do their thing, I can turn and aerate and feed as I go until it gets locked down. Chickens eat the bugs that fall out like seargent fly larvae, grubs, roaches yum! One bin cooks while I fill the other. I toss in nesting material, poop, kitchen and then finish it off with horse poop to speed the cooking. It takes me a few months to fill one and a few months for the other to get done cooking as I am over filling them and slowing the process. I obviously need another set of tumblers.

Lock it up, empty the other and then fill the empty. Been doing this for 10 years now (same compost tumbler!) And it is magic. Chooks can't get to anything till I empty it out in a bin for them to dig through. I never add meat, dairy or oils. And I watch my ratios to some extent as bad ratios make slower compost.

I also have a cold compost bin and we compost our horse poop separately. Best stuff ever! This set up is very convenient and controlled. I also periodically add fresh horse poop to my cold compost to help it out and speed it up. To flip that I just lift and move and shovel while the girls pick through. It's just my big green waste so no worries.

How ever and what ever you find to work for you awesome! Composting is the best! Putting all that carbon back into the earth and producing snacks and soil is terrific.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Tumbling composters are wonderful things.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Tumbling composters are wonderful things.

I’ve taken a mis-step a few times and fallen off a compost pile. Does that make me a “tumbling composter”?

 

[raingarden]

I have been a fan of composting for at least 30 years, learned of composting from my mother- a gardener years prior.

Cool. You live on a solar farm?

 

[gtaus]

My kitchen and chicken waste I use tumblers.

Very nice setup and thanks for posting all those great pics. Wondering why you don't feed your kitchen scraps to the chickens? Or did I misunderstand your process?

I live in northern Minnesota, so for me to have a hot compost pile would take a lot of effort. I like the theory of those composting bins, but I don't have much confidence they would work very well in my colder climate. Sounds like it takes a number of months in Hawaii where you live to make compost, even in those nice tumblers and turning it often.

If Dear Wife would let me get a cow or horse, you know I would be adding that manure to my composting.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Very nice setup and thanks for posting all those great pics. Wondering why you don't feed your kitchen scraps to the chickens? Or did I misunderstand your process?

I live in northern Minnesota, so for me to have a hot compost pile would take a lot of effort. I like the theory of those composting bins, but I don't have much confidence they would work very well in my colder climate. Sounds like it takes a number of months in Hawaii where you live to make compost, even in those nice tumblers and turning it often.

If Dear Wife would let me get a cow or horse, you know I would be adding that manure to my composting.

Have you considered a goat instead??? Smaller, less costly to feed, their manure isn't as "hot", and can be used more rapidly.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Cool. You live on a solar farm?

No, we lease pasture space from the old dairy and they installed a bunch of panels for the resort next door a few year back. It has been ok. 1/2 my town has PV on our roofs. Pretty good deal.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Very nice setup and thanks for posting all those great pics. Wondering why you don't feed your kitchen scraps to the chickens? Or did I misunderstand your process?

I live in northern Minnesota, so for me to have a hot compost pile would take a lot of effort. I like the theory of those composting bins, but I don't have much confidence they would work very well in my colder climate. Sounds like it takes a number of months in Hawaii where you live to make compost, even in those nice tumblers and turning it often.

If Dear Wife would let me get a cow or horse, you know I would be adding that manure to my composting.

If I work it I can actually get "black gold" in three weeks. Really amazing. Tumblers are brilliant.
I do feed some kitchen scraps but not all, we eat a lot of salads so only 1/2 the scraps make it to the chooks on average, the other gets composted.
I think you wife should let you get 2 ponies lol. Or maybe 2 friends with ponies

 

[NatJ]

There are a lot of problems trying to raise rabbits together in a pen. Bucks will fight with other bucks, and does will do the same. And you have to worry about an unreceptive doe castrating a buck. Not only that, but the alpha doe will sometimes castrate other does. I have even read that does will seek out and kill kits in other nests to ensure that only their offspring have a better chance of survival.

I've read about all those problems, too. The portable pens I read about were not being used that way. The portable pens were being used to allow rabbits to graze the pasture without escaping, but the rabbits were kept separated the same way you or I would expect in wire cages: each adult rabbit has its own cage or pen, while a litter can be housed together from weaning until butchering (with butchering happening before sexual maturity.)

Last time I had rabbits, maybe 15 years ago, I had my rabbits housed in wire cages outside with a roof over them. But I could not keep enough fresh water from freezing and my rabbits got dehydrated and eventually all died over a few months.

I find that interesting, because when I kept rabbits they lived outdoors, in wire cages, with a roof and windbreak, and we got really cold winters too. In winter, the rabbits were watered from crocks (dishes), and I brought them fresh water morning and evening. I sometimes did it one extra time in the middle of the day in the coldest weather, but that did not always happen. Water bottles with the little ball in the tube were fine in summer, but in winter they froze WAY too fast. With a dish of water, the rabbit could drink as much as it wanted at least twice a day (when the dish was refilled), even it would be thirsty again the next time.

I don't know how the winter temperatures compared with yours. There was typically a month or so when each day's high temperature was around 0°F and the low got down to -20° and sometimes to -40°. The rest of the winter was less extreme, but there was typically snow sometime in October and we didn't see the ground again until spring.

I knew several other people with outdoor rabbits too, although I didn't ever discuss winter water details with them.

So I'm curious what you tried for water (so I know what not to try or recommend in future.)