Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

Threw in some more material again, temperature had risen to 37 deg C. I made a pitcher of caipirinha the other day, and of course threw the limes into the compost after drinking it. It's interesting how they make the whole compost smell of citrus when turning.

 

[vehve]

It seems I have neglected updating this thread again. I've been busy building a cabinet shed in the yard to store gardening and chickening stuff. Hoping to get it finished today.

This morning it seems like the resting pile keeps cooling down, it was down to about 29deg C, and when I turn it it really isn't producing that much heat inside it anymore either. I'll have to figure out a resting spot for the stuff soon, but the better half seems to think that one of those wire cages would look ugly sitting in our yard. Perhaps she's right. If I have some wood left after the shed build, I might just use that to make an open frame to dump the stuff into. I just need to figure out a spot that's a bit out of sight, and easily accessible. Protecting it from the dogs might be a good idea too.

 

[vehve]

We're having a bit of an heat wave, 25deg C outside. The compost has enjoyed this, and was 41 deg C when I just checked it. The left side isn't producing much heat anymore, but we cleaned the run a bit yesterday and finally accumulated enough material on the right side of the compost for it to reach critical mass. Really hot in there right now, I would guess about 65 deg C. It's a bit on the dry side, but with this heat I don't want to add more moisture because it might start to smell again. Another week or two, and I will empty the first batch out into it's resting spot to wait to be utilized.

 

[vehve]

I checked on the compost again this afternoon, the temp was 39 now. On the left side, which I shall from now on refer to as batch 1, I found some strange white mushrooms growing. Didn't take a picture of them, just turned them back in there. But I'm taking this as a sign of the compost reaching a new stage in the process of breaking down.

In the middle of writing this, I realized I should take temperature measurements of the insides of both piles. I measured about 15 cm in from the middle. Batch 1 showed 46 deg C, so it really is cooling down. Batch 2 showed 63 deg C, so it's in the midst of being consumed by thermophilic bacteria, while batch one is at the late stages of the same bacteria and will soon return to being consumed by mesophilic bacteria. Batch 2 wasn't nearly as hot as batch 1 has been at it's peak, but I will continue taking temperature readings in the future. I'm also starting to scare myself.

 

[Hershy]

I checked on the compost again this afternoon, the temp was 39 now. On the left side, which I shall from now on refer to as batch 1, I found some strange white mushrooms growing. Didn't take a picture of them, just turned them back in there. But I'm taking this as a sign of the compost reaching a new stage in the process of breaking down.

In the middle of writing this, I realized I should take temperature measurements of the insides of both piles. I measured about 15 cm in from the middle. Batch 1 showed 46 deg C, so it really is cooling down. Batch 2 showed 63 deg C, so it's in the midst of being consumed by thermophilic bacteria, while batch one is at the late stages of the same bacteria and will soon return to being consumed by mesophilic bacteria. Batch 2 wasn't nearly as hot as batch 1 has been at it's peak, but I will continue taking temperature readings in the future. I'm also starting to scare myself.

Not scary, it's scientific!! I remember batch 1 got pretty stinky when it was super hot. Maybe batch 2 moving at a little slower pace is better for the noses...

 

[vehve]

Not scary, it's scientific!! I remember batch 1 got pretty stinky when it was super hot. Maybe batch 2 moving at a little slower pace is better for the noses...

Well, the neighbor did mention that she had felt a slight odor these past few days... batch 1 got stinky mainly because I watered it too much. Batch 2 is a bit wet right now, but I'm going to try to keep it a bit drier than batch 1, and also a bit cooler by turning vigorously. You don't really need (or even want) the heat, the bacteria is working anyway. The higher heat just means there's more of them working. But if you keep turning the pile so that they're evenly spread, and no part goes super hot, I think the composting will be just as efficient. The good part about the high heat is that is will kill any weed seeds, and take out a lot of potential disease causes.

 

[vehve]

Holding steady at 44 deg C in batch 1 (111F) and 62 deg C in batch 2 (144F). Both piles felt a bit dry, so I added about 3 litres of water to batch 1 and 7 litres to batch 2. I did read somewhere, that it's better to have changing humidity conditions, it leads to better composting. We also bought 2 of those leaf composting frames. Once batch 1 has cooled completely, I'm going to dump it over in one of them. Now if I could only find some worms somewhere. I found a place that sells them for 0.20€ a piece, but it's a bit out of my way and their opening hours are a bit silly. I would only need about 10-20 worms to get started. Maybe I'll just have to settle for some angling worms, but I would need a bit wetter weather for those. I know there are plenty living under our lawn, but they're burrowed down deeply since it's so dry, and the spot I intend to let the compost mature in is about 15 meters into the forest, I don't know how many worms live in the ground there naturally. Maybe I can just wait until fall when it gets wetter again and collect some worms then to throw into the maturing pile. Or if I'm lucky, they'll show up on their own. I don't really need to use the cooked compost this year yet, so I'm not in a hurry. I'm just a bit impatient.

 

[vehve]

Mr. Compost got to take part of a makeover today. I'm staining the fence grey, and decided to do the same to the compost. It hides him into the background a lot nicer. Next time I need to build a composter, I'm using treated wood all around though. Now I only have some parts of it built with treated wood, since I just needed something to use up all the remnants from the coop build in. Some of the boards that take most of the moisture are pretty crooked though, and I don't think that structure will last too many years.



Now he's taken almost the color of the bark of the pine trees.

 

[Hershy]

Great changes. Mine are black plastic. Not nearly as good looking.

 

[vehve]

Great changes. Mine are black plastic. Not nearly as good looking.

I just worked with leftovers I had. Ended up buying a tarp to put on the inside, since I had all of my tarps in use at the moment, everything else I had lying around, so I put a whopping 9 euros into this (one of those leaf composter shaped tarps and a normal tarp cut to overlap the places it didn't cover.