Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

The box is heating up a bit, -3C outside, and the air inside the box is at +22C.

 

[vehve]

+24C in the box today, and I poured some whey into it again. It does smell a bit though, since we've had freezing temps for a few days now, the warm and moist steam coming out of the box really carries the smells.

 

[Sabz]

Hi guys!

Very fun post, I didn't have time to read all of it yet but I am interested.

I tried to heat a greenhouse with hot compost
I failed for two reasons:

1 - I was doing a test run and I have a very small greenhouse, so it couldn't hold a pile large enough to produce heat. This could be addressed relatively easily.

2 - I have too much carbon in winter. During spring and summer I have to maintain my lawn, dig more gardens (so toss the grass in compost), trim trees, bushes, etc.. so I have a better "green" source. In winter, I have mostly the wood shaving and chicken poop from the coop and a bit of kitchen scrap - not nearly enough to provide a hot compost all winter long.

Since a few months I compost the office's scrap We are 14 people at the office. I barely fill up a small bucket per week, but the amount is increasing week per week. Many people here had no idea what compost was and what could be put into the compost bucket. They are getting better now, but still probably not enough to heat the compost pile.

Another issue is that my winter food is canned. So all my veggies are already cleaned up, I already did this step in September when I canned what I harvested from the gardens. This reduces the amount of food scraps that I have in winter. Along with no cleanup to do on the lawn, I am lacking a lot of nitrogen.

I know about the golden stuff, but.. the issue is that I don't want to open the greenhouse often - so it retains more heat. Thus, I'd have to "hold on" to the golden stuff a few days and (yes I tried) it STINKS!!!!! If I put it outside, it freezes, so that's not very good for heating...

So yeah, good thread! If you can come up with more ways to get nitrogen sources in winter, I am listening

 

[RichnSteph]

I've got to be more diligent with turning ours and wetting it. I made the mistake of dumping way too much pine shavings in there from our chicken run and now I'm struggling to find enough green material to get it to start cooking again.

Months of beautiful compost now covered by a pile of wood shavings.


RichnSteph

 

[Sabz]

Same issue as what I run into RichnSteph!

Too much wood in our coops versus the green we can find - at least in winter I think.

I read in a previous post about a 3 compartment compost bin. Here is mine. It was brand new in this picture.
I use compartment #1 for everything "dangerous", like the leftovers of chicken processing - so this one will remain on hold for 2 years just to be sure.





And here is my little test greenhouse. It is very small for the moment. I was testing Eliot Coleman's sayings and it seems very truthful. It remains warm even when it's freezing outside. I know this is off-topic, but just for fun:



EDIT: Oups, the picture is so small. Anyway, I was holding ice in my hands, it was about -5C outside. Inside is like 14C

 

[vehve]

Sabz, you could just let the golden stuff freeze and thaw it out on a weekly basis, in a container with a lid. For a more concentrated source, I suggest gathering only in the morning.

RnS, have you tried the golden stuff?

 

[RichnSteph]

Sabz, you could just let the golden stuff freeze and thaw it out on a weekly basis, in a container with a lid. For a more concentrated source, I suggest gathering only in the morning.

RnS, have you tried the golden stuff?

No idea what "the golden stuff" even is. Wait.... you don't mean pee do you?

RichnSteph

 

[vehve]

RnS, correctamundo.

 

[RichnSteph]

 

[Sabz]

Yep, yucky eh?
I was pretty relectuant to the idea but where I live, I pay for water. So by using pee in the compost I actually save on water AND it is a ratio of 1:1 nitrogen. It is the highest source of nitrogen that I know of!

Since that time.. yeah... I pee in a bucket.... not really proud of saying it, but I am really really green and ecological now haha