Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[politicalcenter]

I just found another source of horse manure. I have one pile that is one pickup load and a newer pile that is two pickup loads. My first pile has shrunk and quit heating. It was very hot at the first couple of turns but it has quit heating and looks like a pile of wood chips. I added nitrogen but it still won't heat. I may need to make the pile a little bigger. I will post some pictures later if anyone is interested.

 

[HennyPennyCO]

Yes, photos please! I like to see other people's composting efforts.
I'm about to advertise for someone to come build me a three-bin system in my backyard. I currently use several (5!) approx 4' diameter wire fencing circles lined with cardboard, and they are just too difficult for me to be able to turn the contents. I tend to just fill them and leave them all year to decompose, which is sort of OK, but not what I really want to do. I want active heaps!
We have a chain-link fencing 3-bin system at the community garden and it is SO much easier to work with.
Does anyone have favorite 3-bin systems they'd like to tell me about?
Thanks in advance!
Penny

 

[politicalcenter]

this is the wood chip pile.

this is newer stuff. I know they ain't very good pics and sorry for taking so long to post.

 

[vehve]

@politicalcenter Looks awfully dry to me, have you added any water at all?

@HennyPennyCO If looks don't matter, pallets can be used. Personally, I like ozexpats concrete brick system, seems to work nicely for him. He has 4 5x5x5 sections open on one side, and every time the first one is full, he empties the last one, and shuffles the piles one step further, that way it gets turned 3 times before emptying out.

 

[HennyPennyCO]

Hi Felix,
I have already one open-front, single-bin compost heap that is made of concrete blocks kept in place by stakes through the block openings.. It is SO easy to add to, and turn, which is why I want to get rid of my fencing wire circles (currently 5 of them) and get a more user-friendly set up.
I use that single compost bin for making compost for my plot at the community garden. The garden is at a school and the rules don't allow home-made manure-based composts. So no chicken poopy straw or goat droppingy hay go into that one.
It's also the heap that dog Paco (the same Paco the Chicken Killer dog) regularly "turns" for me when he goes digging for the mice that he just knows have to be living in the heap. Right now he's down to ground level and is tunnelling under the concrete blocks. (I think they've found a home inside some of the hollow blocks.)
I just might go for the concrete blocks, despite Paco's fascination with them. But I want them levelled & cemented together so they look good.
Cheers,
Penny

 

[lazy gardener]

Hi Felix,
I have already one open-front, single-bin compost heap that is made of concrete blocks kept in place by stakes through the block openings.. It is SO easy to add to, and turn, which is why I want to get rid of my fencing wire circles (currently 5 of them) and get a more user-friendly set up.
I use that single compost bin for making compost for my plot at the community garden. The garden is at a school and the rules don't allow home-made manure-based composts. So no chicken poopy straw or goat droppingy hay go into that one.
It's also the heap that dog Paco (the same Paco the Chicken Killer dog) regularly "turns" for me when he goes digging for the mice that he just knows have to be living in the heap. Right now he's down to ground level and is tunnelling under the concrete blocks. (I think they've found a home inside some of the hollow blocks.)
I just might go for the concrete blocks, despite Paco's fascination with them. But I want them levelled & cemented together so they look good.
Cheers,
Penny

Penny, you have given me a good chuckle. I find it so very amusing that the school will allow mice and their poop and urine in your compost pile, but will not allow chicken or goot poo, which IMO is so very much cleaner. For that matter, does Paco do his business on school property???

 

[HennyPennyCO]

Noooooo - the mice are in my home compost, and dogs are not allowed inside the community garden at the school.

We have the three-bin, chain-link system at school, although the school district does not allow us to compost (yet) (they've been discussing it for the past THREE YEARS!!!). We keep as low a profile as possible and refer to our heaps as "the coffee grounds heaps". The bureaucratic ban on composting at school is why I have a separate compost heap at home for my school plot, and that's the one Paco is intent on destroying.

We started working on our "coffee grounds" the day school got out, and we'll quit as soon as school goes back (August 18th). We've already got "product" in what we call the finished heap (bin 3), the cooking heap (bin 2) and the new heap (bin 1). The hot weather, chopping the contents small, observing the right N:C ratio, turning frequently, watering, and covering with heavy black plastic has done wonders for decomposition. Oh, and yes, we do put coffee grounds in there.

 

[politicalcenter]

@politicalcenter
 Looks awfully dry to me, have you added any water at all?

@HennyPennyCO
 If looks don't matter, pallets can be used. Personally, I like ozexpats concrete brick system, seems to work nicely for him. He has 4 5x5x5 sections open on one side, and every time the first one is full, he empties the last one, and shuffles the piles one step further, that way it gets turned 3 times before emptying out.

It is dry when I pick it up and I water it in when I unload it. I have two piles ready and four cooking. The new stuff I am getting has a lot of sawdust in it so I have been using some ammonia nitrate to see if it helps it decompose.

 

[lazy gardener]

Noooooo - the mice are in my home compost, and dogs are not allowed inside the community garden at the school.

We have the three-bin, chain-link system at school, although the school district does not allow us to compost (yet) (they've been discussing it for the past THREE YEARS!!!). We keep as low a profile as possible and refer to our heaps as "the coffee grounds heaps". The bureaucratic ban on composting at school is why I have a separate compost heap at home for my school plot, and that's the one Paco is intent on destroying.

We started working on our "coffee grounds" the day school got out, and we'll quit as soon as school goes back (August 18th). We've already got "product" in what we call the finished heap (bin 3), the cooking heap (bin 2) and the new heap (bin 1). The hot weather, chopping the contents small, observing the right N:C ratio, turning frequently, watering, and covering with heavy black plastic has done wonders for decomposition. Oh, and yes, we do put coffee grounds in there.

What ever it takes to keep the bureaucrats happy! Coffee grounds are wonderful. I would love to have a restaurant to keep me supplied. I bring them home from church when ever I get the chance. Today, I was poking around in the chicken run with a rake, just for the fun of seeing the black compost they are making. The run is 500 s.f. and I'm hard pressed to keep enough material in there. Time to get to work with the wheelbarrow.

 

[politicalcenter]

It seems like a compost pile at schools would be a teaching tool. It is biology in action. It also teaches that some things considered garbage can be put to good use. You could teach the kids to monitor temperature, the different phases of decomposition, saftey, and many other things.