Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[scottcaddy]

They work in fall too, if the weather is a couple degrees below freezing. Just enough to take the edge off.

If you are doing a small green house, think about a small fan to keep the air moving and the temperature even. I had a very sad 1st year with the DW small greenhouse. Some nice person took pity on me and told me to add a small fan to move the air around, IT WORKED! Just a thought. Hoping all works for the best for you!
Scott

 

[vehve]

Well, we had a slightly colder night tonight, -3C (about 25F). But still, the compost had risen to 36C, so the night was almost 5C colder, but the compost was 1C hotter. It also looks like it's cooking more efficiently in there. It's pretty cool to open up the lid when it's still below freezing outside in the morning, there's an enormous steam cloud that erupts from in there. I'm adding about 5-10 liters (a gallon or two) of water daily to keep it moist, as well as about 20 liters (4 gallons) of poop, straw and bedding. We've been a bit too efficient about eating all the leftovers or feeding them to the animals, so I haven't accumulated much kitchen scraps lately.

 

[vehve]

It was a bit colder in the compost this morning, only 28C. Cold night too.

I framed the walls for the bunny pen today, tomorrow I'll paint the frames and put up the net on the bottom. Still need to pick up siding, roof material.

 

[scottcaddy]

Very nice looking help you have!!
Is that a small folding shovel I see in the top pic. on a fence rail?
Scott

 

[vehve]

Ah, yeah, German issue army surplus entrenching tool. I used it as a pick axe to get stones out of the way. Usually it lives in the car. I would have bought the Finnish version, but you need to buy that brand new for 50 euros, while the surplus German one was 20 euros. The shovel is waiting for me to have the energy to clean it and oil it before folding it back in.

 

[vehve]

Well, today was coop cleaning day (after about 5-6 months with the same bedding), so I emptied the left batch to get some space in there.


Old icky bedding.

Compost bin before emptying.

Close up of the stuff on the left side.

Didn't amount to all that much.

I again had some issues with the bottom not cooking properly. I tried to soak the new stuff that went in completely on the bottom now.

And here's a nice fresh coop for the chickens.

 

[vehve]

Outside temp was -5C in the night, and yesterday in the morning I had 18C in the compost, pretty much what I expected after emptying half of the mass out and replacing it with cold bedding. Today, 35C. It has heated up like crazy, and it isn't even properly cooking yet. I think it really helped to pour about 100 liters (~25 gallons) of water in there with the spent bedding. Now the bottom of the new pile on the left side is properly wet too, I hope I won't have the same trouble as I've had before. I'm just going to have to try and turn the pile from even deeper. The bottom part is just a bit difficult to reach.

 

[vehve]

Ah, and an update on the bunny pen.






The more and more I paint with this color, the less and less I like it. But since the house came with the color, it was pretty much an obvious choice for the rest of the stuff too. Either this reddish brown, or a creamy yellow, and that would have been even worse. I'm going to try and get the roofing and siding materials today, or tomorrow morning. Then just a few cuts of wood and a few nails, and the thing should be pretty much finished.

 

[aart]

Nice!

 

[scottcaddy]

But my dear Mr. Felix, it looks real nice from here!

Scott