Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[Sabz]

Ah, good idea for the water bottles

My system isn't closed ;( I used wooden pallet to make the bin. Eventually I will do an (almost) closed, insulated one like was shown in the forum a few times. Mine is frozen solid at this time.
I thought this year I would be able to keep it warm enough to go through winter but it seem like the strong winds and un-usual cold of -30 for many days in a row made it freeze completely. When I build it, I'll make sure to put the "entrance" downwind. So windy at my house, since I am surrounded by fields.

 

[RichnSteph]

I'll try a few gallons of +/-140 degree water when I get home this evening. Mine is in a closed system and several months ago was hot enough that it was steaming in the mornings. It even got hot enough at one point to run most of the BSF larvae out of it. I'm hoping some added heat will give it a jump start. I'd love for some more BSF larvae in there since they do wonderful things with waste material.

 

[HennyPennyCO]

I'll try a few gallons of +/-140 degree water when I get home this evening. Mine is in a closed system and several months ago was hot enough that it was steaming in the mornings. It even got hot enough at one point to run most of the BSF larvae out of it. I'm hoping some added heat will give it a jump start. I'd love for some more BSF larvae in there since they do wonderful things with waste material.

http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/ Is that what you mean RnS?
Wow ! Have you ever put me onto another whole new train of thought! Thank you!
Love the idea of the hot water bottles, BTW.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I wish we had BSF here. I think its too dry for them. I would have to build a box and import them.

 

[RichnSteph]

http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/ Is that what you mean RnS?
Wow ! Have you ever put me onto another whole new train of thought! Thank you!
Love the idea of the hot water bottles, BTW.

I've never seen that blog but yes those are the little critters I'm talking about. I absolutely love them for all they can do for a backyard chicken owner.

 

[henless]

I've been turning my compost every few days. Adding fresh poop and kitchen scraps to it. I stirred it up this afternoon, and in the middle toward the bottom you could feel a bit of heat coming out of it and a slight smell. Am I correct in assuming that my pile is starting to cook ever so slightly?

 

[hennible]

I'd say so.

 

[RichnSteph]

I've been turning my compost every few days. Adding fresh poop and kitchen scraps to it. I stirred it up this afternoon, and in the middle toward the bottom you could feel a bit of heat coming out of it and a slight smell. Am I correct in assuming that my pile is starting to cook ever so slightly?

Yes! Turn the entire pile and water it and then cover it. It'll start "cooking" within a day or so. You are making composted soil!! Congrats!

 

[Amberjem]

I thought smell was a bad thing?

 

[vehve]

@henless Sure sounds like it's waking up. You're pile might be a bit on the dry side, adding water will make it cook hotter and more quickly, but it will also increase the smell it puts out.

Jem, a compost will always have a bit of an odor. Especially if you throw a lot of chicken poop and kitchen waste into it. The drier it is, the less it smells, but it also cooks more slowly then. So you need to find a balance between how warm you want it to be, and how much smell you're willing to tolerate. At the far end of the spectrum you have a really wet pile that isn't composting anymore, it's rotting instead. That breaks the stuff down too, but there are different organisms at play and it produces a very pungent smell.

Right now my box is the same as yesterday, +13C air inside it. It doesn't smell on the outside, but when I open the lid there's definitely a slightly bad smell in it. Now, if I let it go up to above +30C in there, and at the same time the weather gets a lot colder, then it's going to stink up the whole place, in those conditions it can be smelled from 50 feet if the wind is blowing right (or wrong, really).

Some things I like to do when it starts to smell really bad is to put a layer of dry, used bedding on top. That will soak up a lot of the ammonia that is being released, and it will be put to use in your garden instead as fertilizer once that top bedding has broken down too. There's no point in letting all the ammonia escape.