Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

vpatt, welcome to the thread. If the compost is running very hot, it wouldn't take long for fish to break down. I've thrown in what was left after a ten pound salmon was filéed, and that broke down in a week or two. Nothing left of the spine even.

 

[Amberjem]

fish has been used in composting gardens forever......it's also why they would dig and bury fish throughout the fields for fertilizing and breaking down and enriching the soil it goes gooey fast




I have been thinking I might have a tote that I throw my kitchen waste in.. when we get cooking especially when we are veggie rich we can generate a bunch of waste and one of the biggests issues with compsoting is well in the middle of cooking it's near impossible to go out walk across the rpoperty dump the composting material...I already recycle everything I thought I could have a "recycle" compost bin that can let it do its thing as it fills and when I am ready to deal with it can take it to the compost pile and deposit in..........I thought I would recycle my paper materials as well shred it and layer it for the compost


do you think I am cleaning the coop way to much?

 

[Lacy Blues]

If it was me I'd use the pallets like you intend for a large compost pile/containment and the blue barrel (and yes I mention this in almost every compost or chicken feed thread I'm subscribed to) would be come a Black Soldier Fly bin. With the 100 chickens you have you could use some of that waste along with a little of your garden/kitchen waste and crank out pounds of free feed for the chickens. As others have said don't use any meat in the compost pile but you can put those scraps into a BSF bin and the little larvae will eat it up. There may be a small amount of time (a few days) where the meat scraps can attract regular house flies. Don't worry much about them since once the BSF larvae are on point they'll not only eat the maggots (I've watched them do this in my bin) but they'll also produce a pheromone that will drive out any flying insect other than the BSF Oh and dog/cat poo is a huge no-no in a compost pile or BSF bin. My guess is that in TN you have BSF flying around that you've just never noticed. Once established you'll also have them in the regular compost bin and trust me in that they turn waste into amazing soil amendments in a hurry. You'll probably also end up with red worms in the compost on the ground and they'll amend anything that the BSFs don't so soon you'll have rich dark soil for your garden and feed for the chickens all made out of stuff that most folks just toss into the trash.

Ok I'll stop singing praises to the Black Soldier Fly now.

I love to hear about the BSF. I would really like to get some some day.

Do you have a thread on BYC covering the BSF and ideas on attracting/housing them?

 

[RichnSteph]

I love to hear about the BSF. I would really like to get some some day.

Do you have a thread on BYC covering the BSF and ideas on attracting/housing them?

There are these just on this site.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/406797/anyone-using-black-soldier-flies
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/796194/black-soldier-fly-composter

There is also a Facebook page dedicated to them.
https://www.facebook.com/blacksoldierflyfarming?ref=br_tf

And there are countless site on the www that offer advice and tips. I read through a series of articles that highlighted the BSF in Indonesia (if I recall correctly) where a young lady went in and built a BSF bin in an unused 20x40 warehouse. They poured a concrete slab and shaped the self harvesting ramps in the middle then told the locals to bring all of their waste there. Within a few months they were producing enough feed for the chickens that the locals no longer had to grow feed and were instead dedicating that garden space to food for the people. Within a year they had the warehouse split in two (in the BSF harvest area). They would section off one side until all the grubs had left and then shovel out hundreds of pounds of compost and bag it up for the local villagers to use in their gardens. Then pack that side full of waste material and let it get full of grubs and do the same process on the other side. After the first 5 years they were on point and generating enough BSF larvae for feed that the locals were trading them to other villages. There was zero waste in the parent village and the quality of meat and eggs from the chickens (as well as the pigs and goats who readily ate dried BSF larvae) made for a drastic increase in overall health of the people as well as an amazing decrease in disease and sickness. In that study they threw everything in the BSF warehouse. Meat scraps, dead animals, kitchen, garden and even human waste.... all of it and the larvae converted it all into composted soil.

If you take the time to read and understand the life cycle of the Black Soldier Fly it has but one purpose. To devour waste.

 

[vehve]

Jem, I keep a small container next to the sink.

I know I wouldn't want to clean out completely that often. But I'm lazy.

Cool story about the village.

 

[Amberjem]

Jem, I keep a small container next to the sink.

I know I wouldn't want to clean out completely that often. But I'm lazy.

Cool story about the village.

it's super easy just put the wheel barrow by the door scrape rake and dump the bedding into the wheel barrow......I can open up the other side to hose it out...but don't usuall need to..toss some DE in and shavings and it's done...doesnt seem to be as much overload on the nitrogen from the waste..and breaksdown fast..the soils super sandy here it needs some good organic material in it....anyways with winter and all the wet just try to keep it in better conditions when being inside if it's cold or wet

 

[K-Kritter]

I just joined BYC, this being the second thread I have read and I am so excited about it! About a year ago, I become obsessed with the idea of edible landscaping which lead to composting. Currently, I have 3 books checked out from the local library about composting. I am planning on having a bin situated close to the coop but am still working on exact placement. I only read the first page of this thread but wanted to pop in and say 'Howdy'! Will keep a pot of coffee on and get comfy and read through the whole thread. And BTW, I don't think you are weird at all....I live by the adage 'Weirdos are my tribe'

 

[vehve]

Hi @K-Kritter , welcome to BYC and the thread. I hope you get something useful out of the thread, and I'm sure everyone would be thrilled to hear about your experiences and maybe see some pics of your setup.

 

[K-Kritter]

Thanks @vehve , I can already see this is the place to be. You jiggled the gray matter and reminded me that I always finish a project and wished I had taken Before pictures so I think I will document this whole episode with some pictures. And completely off subject but I must tell you that I really admire your country's education system! I have two school-age kids and have read some really wonderful things about how the schools operate there. The ones over here could really use an update.

 

[vehve]

Lately the education system has been in a bit of a state of stagnation though. Class sizes are increasing, and discipline seems to be more and more of a problem. Kids today are very aware of their rights, and take advantage of them. Also, due to budget issues, there's a problem with not all teachers being qualified. Tough stuff to figure out with decreasing funding.

Taking pics before and during the builds is great, that way you can show others how you've built something, and you can also point to specific things that you should have done differently when you've started using whatever you've built. I look forward to seeing pics of your build. That's the handy thing about smartphones these days, it's easy to keep it in your pocket and take pictures along the way.

*Edited to make more sense