Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

I'm not familiar with that book, but the principles sound smart.

 

[scottcaddy]

Compost pile heating systems take ALOT of maintenance.

Here some other ideas for greenhouse heating.

This thread has/is taking a interesting turn now.
Not to say that it wasn't interesting before, Felix does a nice job with poop.
Scott

 

[vehve]

Scott, there's a limit to the level of interest (and compost) one hot box can generate. It's nice that others contribute too.

At the moment, batch 5 is starting to look ready, batch 6 is about half way full and producing a bit of heat, but it's only generating enough to keep the air in the box about 15C (27F) above ambient temperature. Also, we're getting better at conserving bedding, so I'm not getting as much carbon containing material from the run, making the stuff dumped in the box mainly poop and kitchen generated waste. The temperatures are supposed to go below freezing this weekend, it might be time to empty out batch 5 to have enough space for whatever we accumulate through the winter. My options are to keep everything dry and getting it to heat up when there's a big enough mass to cook it properly, or to keep it simmering all the time at a lower temperature. I'm not sure I can awaken the pile if I do allow it to freeze though.

 

[scottcaddy]

See, you need more chickens to have more waste to run a 2nd hot box to see if you can cold start compost. I for one would like to know if it can be done.
Problem solved, what kind of birds you getting next?
Scott

 

[vehve]

Scott, going to pop some Marans eggs under a couple of broodies, but I don't have space for another coop, so our flock will never be more than 6-7 girls and a roo at this place. I think cold starting a compost with hot whey might work pretty well though. Every time I dump it in the bin after making peasant cheese it really gets the compost process going. It usually raises the temperature 10 degrees over night.

 

[Lacy Blues]

But if you heat the whey to "hot" won't it kill the organisms responsible for the heat up?

 

[vehve]

lacy, depends... it will kill some, but it will add heat too. Then it will thaw out the rest, and hopefully get it going. And it can't be boiling, but maybe 50C.

 

[lazy gardener]

Peasant cheese? Is that like the American "Cottage Cheese"?

 

[vehve]

LG, search the forum for peasant cheese, I posted a recipe somewhere.

 

[vehve]

The box is gathering some heat again, it was at 19 deg C this morning, overnight outside temps were around 1-2C. It was supposed to cool down today, but that doesn't seem to be happening yet, so I wont empty the box. I did check on the resting stuff in the cage, it was looking like some nice humus. There was a bit of mold on it though, so something is still happening there.