Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

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I'm a big fan of filtering beer overnight also, and I think it helps the pile out a lot!

Scott
My mother called it her Secret Ingredient.
I'm not sure I need the Secret Ingredient in the compost now that I'm incorporating the nitrogen of chicken poop.
However, I'm not getting as much poop as I thought I'd get as the hens have a ball scratching through their bedding and flinging it high into the air. Much of it flies through the chain link of the run and lands outside where Paco the Chicken Killer Dog & his chihuahua buddies have a happy time fossicking through the debris and finding little chicken delicacies. (Same dogs that find little delicacies in the cat's litter box.)
PK
 
Added some more Secret Ingredient today. Temp was about +14C with ambient temp at -1C. The heating up is taking forever, but judging by the smell that greets me when opening the lid, it's waking up. One of the baby roosters spent some time out in the run today, so I think they'll start moving out for longer periods of time soon. Then it's time to empty the bedding from the coop. The hemp is amazing, by now there's probably about 20% of poop mixed in with it, and still it's keeping things dry. But knowing how much stuff there's in it, I think I want to give them fresh bedding soon. It's been over 4 months since it was last changed.
 
@HennyPennyCO
Noticed the PK at the bottom your post, are those you initials? Wondering because those are my sons.

Yup, sure are. We were foster parents for many years and everybody's clothing (& other possessions) was marked with their initials, even mine, so all my family have ended up being called by their initials. Fortunately none of them the same.
Cheers,
PK

On the composting topic: Paco the Chicken Killer Dog has discovered a mouse, or something, hiding in the compost and is making a valiant effort of uncovering it, meanwhile doing an effective job of turning the contents for me. Compost doesn't smell, but dog does.
Temp was in 60s F today, 17C. Latest snowfall is melting rapidly. We in this location in Colorado also have not had a "proper" winter. The northeast of the US is having our snow for us.
 
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I wouldn't let our dogs into the compost... because they're allowed in the couch, and I don't want my couch and compost to have any sort of contact, even via a proxy. But it would save a lot of trouble, so nice job, Paco.

17C sounds amazing. That's what the temp in my compost was this morning too, so it's getting warmer in there each day.
 
Yup, sure are. We were foster parents for many years and everybody's clothing (& other possessions) was marked with their initials, even mine, so all my family have ended up being called by their initials. Fortunately none of them the same.
Cheers,
PK

On the composting topic: Paco the Chicken Killer Dog has discovered a mouse, or something, hiding in the compost and is making a valiant effort of uncovering it, meanwhile doing an effective job of turning the contents for me. Compost doesn't smell, but dog does.
Temp was in 60s F today, 17C. Latest snowfall is melting rapidly. We in this location in Colorado also have not had a "proper" winter. The northeast of the US is having our snow for us.
PK: Yeah, we're taking the hit for you this winter. I'll expect you to reciprocate next winter, and I'll thank you in advance.
 

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