Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

How much compostable material will you be producing? How many animals do you have, what kind of bedding do you use? How many people living there? Do you cook daily? How much gardening do you do, will that produce a lot of stuff that needs to be broken down? Any trees that drop leaves you also want to get rid of? And do you want to turn it to soil quickly (which requires a bit of maintenance), or have a huge no effort slow operation?

Is the water from the spring used for anything, is contamination an issue? What's the gradient there, where will run off from the pile go? Do you have a simple way of adding water to the pile? (If not, I might have a cool way to use the spring and the barrel to your advantage)

I'm guessing cold isn't too much of an issue in Tennesee?

 

[Ravynscroft]

I would to make both... The tumbling ones produce soil so fast. Then you can do the insulated one out of your pallets for the overflow...

That never even crossed my mind! lol Now to convince Jim we need both...

 

[vehve]

If you need water to wet the compost, you could also cut vertical slits all the way around the barrel and bury it in the ground by the spring. That way you would get a small well there.

*Edit* It's not something I've tried, but I read about it and it's a really cool idea for gathering water in my opinion.

 

[vehve]

Oh, and I should add to my questions, are you planning on composting foodstuffs, something that will attract rodents and other scavengers?

 

[Ravynscroft]

How much compostable material will you be producing? How many animals do you have, what kind of bedding do you use? How many people living there? Do you cook daily? How much gardening do you do, will that produce a lot of stuff that needs to be broken down? Any trees that drop leaves you also want to get rid of? And do you want to turn it to soil quickly (which requires a bit of maintenance), or have a huge no effort slow operation?

Is the water from the spring used for anything, is contamination an issue? What's the gradient there, where will run off from the pile go? Do you have a simple way of adding water to the pile? (If not, I might have a cool way to use the spring and the barrel to your advantage)

I'm guessing cold isn't too much of an issue in Tennesee?

Lots of chickens, just over 100 right now, but most are young, not gonna exceed 200 with chicks. Use pine shavings in coops, hay in runs. 2 adults only for now, children later. 4 indoor cats, not sure about composting their poop. 1 dog, he poops up in woods and outta the way, so no issues there. I cook frequently, but not much waste there. Want to start garden this year. No trees except above us and no leaf issues. Tennessee is wet climate and we have mixed clay soil. Spring is not used, it drains over the driveway on opposite side, this spot is at least 150ft from the edge of it seeping. I was thinking of digging down and around as much as I can and filling in with some rock/gravel to help drain down into ground. Not much issue with cold, we get sleet and some wet snow, but we get high humidity. I would rather have larger and less maintenance, I hate turning, but Jim is willing to turn, so open for anything.
Whew... hope I covered all of that, lol...

 

[Ravynscroft]

Oh, and I should add to my questions, are you planning on composting foodstuffs, something that will attract rodents and other scavengers?

Mostly composting chicken waste, maybe a little foodstuffs, but we wanna stay away from meats... Good idea about burying the barrel for water, I have 2 of those barrels right now and can get more eventually. Jim gets them from work, they hold windshield washer solvent...

 

[Ravynscroft]

Oh, yeah, gradient is a series of 20 to 30 degree angles with flatter spots... above that area tho it goes to at least 45 degrees...

 

[Amberjem]

What I like about our setup is that the chicken and compost spots are so close to each other that turning the compost is basically just an integral part of the chicken chores. After the coop has gotten it's 2 minutes daily clean, the stuff is dumped in the bin, and it's turned quickly, takes about a minute. Also, it's close enough to the house that it's easy to take kitchen waste out to the bin too.

ya I have been tossing my kitchen stuffd into my new raised beds that are over wintering n composting up.. or into my compost pipes I have in the big bed,,,,,,,

 

[vehve]

Ravyn, I think something that resembles what Oz has would probably work best for you, if you're looked at his thread. He has 4 sections, about maybe 4 by 4 by 4, open in the front for easy maintenance. He keeps rotating the stuff through there, so that it starts in the first compartment, and when it's full, it's moved on to the next one, and so on. Every time you've filled one up, you move each one to the next one, that way it all gets turned. By the time the stuff has been in all compartments, it's composted. He does have a slightly more tropical climate though, so it might be a bit slower for you. Big enough piles are going to heat up though, even without the insulation, so I think that's probably a good system for you too. Digging in to the mound will provide insulation from those sides, although it does also obstruct airflow. Covering the piles up with tarps will help keep moisture in there, but airflow is again an issue. With the amount of birds you've got, I might not build a fully enclosed insulated box, other than maybe to handle the food waste. One of those tumble composters might be enough for you even for that purpose.

The cat and dog poop I might keep away from the composter, they don't produce enough to really be of much help, and them eating all kinds of stuff makes them quite susceptible to pathogens.

The setup I've described won't run as hot as an insulated system would, but I think it would balance out the amount of maintenance needed to keep it going.

 

[Ravynscroft]

That sounds good, Felix. Thank you very much for taking the time to go over that for me. I will read the rest of this thread, too. Is Oz ozexpat? Still figuring out who is who, lol. I'll look at his thread as soon as I can. Only gonna dig in partially, so hopefully I'll still get enough airflow.
Oh, and Jim says to give you a huge thank you for the buried barrel idea for the spring. He's been trying to figure out how to make that useful and that idea never even occurred to him, lol.