Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[henless]

Henless, is the net attached on the inside of the horizontal parts? If not, I'd be a bit worried about it coming undone, a cubic meter of compost does weigh a bit... Other than that, looking very good.

It is stapled on the outside. I had thought about putting up the wire, then the boards over it, but decided against it. I would have had to run some boards on the inside to place the post, put the wire up, then put the boards on the outside and take off the inside boards. Make sense? lol I knew my energy levels wouldn't last that long, so decided to do it the way I did. I figured if the wire needed support, I could put in some more staples, or U nails as I call them. I used the hammer in staples, not staple gun staples.

I can always make improvements when it comes time to build another bin. As long as it works pretty good, I'm happy.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Maybe you can get or make some furring strips (1x2 strips of lumber) and screw them to your wood over the wire on the outside. Staples can either pull out or there will be so much pressure on the wire that the wire will just break at the staples.

Furring strips are fairly cheap and you wouldn't need many of them at all.

 

[henless]

Maybe you can get or make some furring strips (1x2 strips of lumber) and screw them to your wood over the wire on the outside. Staples can either pull out or there will be so much pressure on the wire that the wire will just break at the staples.

Furring strips are fairly cheap and you wouldn't need many of them at all.

That's a great idea! I check into them the next time I make a run to Lowes. Thanks for the tip!

 

[scottcaddy]

Quote: If you have and can use a skill saw and have old boards laying about you can cutup them old boards. Cut your own furring strips, most any size will work. Good luck and be safe.
Scott

 

[Lacy Blues]

Screws will also hold better than staples or nails. If you make your own out of older, drier wood, you'll need to drill guide holes so the wood doesn't split. After I drill, I usually "round-out" the hole so the screw head doesn't cause a split either.

 

[henless]

Congratulations vehve on getting coop of the week! You did a really awesome job on the coop! I really like the swing you put in the run.

 

[scottcaddy]

Congratulations vehve on getting coop of the week! You did a really awesome job on the coop! I really like the swing you put in the run.

Can you please post a link to this award? I have looked and even did a search, can not find a coop of the week anywhere.
Thanks Much for your time!
Scott

 

[aart]

Quote: It's on the rotating banner on the BYC home page.

 

[vehve]

Scott, on the main page. Seems to get more attention on Facebook though.

In composting business, I think we have by mistake started composting inside the coop too. The outside waterer froze, so we kept some water for the grown birds in the coop, and they tripped it a couple of times, and now the coop has an interesting sweet smell and the temperatures are too high to only be produced by the 60W heat lamp we've got for the chicks. So I think we've got a deep litter going on.

Karin forbid me from watering the compost any more (due to the smell), so in the cold and dry air I think it evaporated most of the moisture I added, and has now cooled down significantly. Just as well, it's not at risk of freezing at the moment so I can let it be a bit colder and heat it up again when we get colder weather.

 

[vehve]

Okay, I finally emptied out batch 5. I took about 2 wheelbarrow loads out of there, but I left about one load in there still because there were some apples that hadn't broken down completely closer to the bottom. I also came across some earthworms there, so I thought I'll just leave them some soil to live in, they're a welcome addition. They'll probably eat the decomposing apples too.



I'm going to have quite a lot of fertile soil to add to our raised beds, I don't think this can be used on it's own, might still be a bit too hot nitrogenwise. I am however going to try planting the tomatoes in pots with mostly this stuff and just a core of weaker soil that the plants can slowly ease their roots into the super fertile soil from.