Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

Yup. I sure do...

Compost was at +22C this morning. It's now putting out sort of a earthy smell. The right side still doesn't seem to have started, I don't know what's wrong. I haven't been adding that much water to the left side for a while, and it was starting to dry up a bit, so I added a few liters this morning. I'm going to continue adding water slowly, don't want to make it all soggy. If the right side hasn't started cooking by the time I empty out the bedding from the coop, I'm going to layer it with the spent bedding. The bedding in there is starting to be saturated with poop, but it's still all dry and nice and doesn't really smell, so I'm not in a hurry to empty it.

 

[RichnSteph]

Went and checked the bin last night and stirred it a bit. It's warmer than it has been and has a nice smell of damp earth so I know something is happening in there. I did find a small nest of fire ants in there though so I'll have to put something in there to get rid of that little mess.

 

[vehve]

Ants usually mean it's too dry. At least around here.

 

[hennible]

Yep ants mean things are too dry, even regular garden soil, if it starts getting invaded with ants you need to up your water...

 

[vehve]

Yup, ants means too dry, flies means not turning enough and too cold, stinky means too wet.

 

[hennible]

 

[RichnSteph]

Yup, ants means too dry, flies means not turning enough and too cold, stinky means too wet.

It's a lot of work making dirt.

 

[vehve]

Depends... the no effort method takes time. But if you want to do it quickly, then yeah, it can be a lot of work. It will be nice to see how that dirt works now, this will be my first full summer with homemade compost. I got to try some of it last fall, but I'm hoping on a lot of stuff to harvest with the help of my soil this year.

 

[scottcaddy]

Depends... the no effort method takes time. But if you want to do it quickly, then yeah, it can be a lot of work. It will be nice to see how that dirt works now, this will be my first full summer with homemade compost. I got to try some of it last fall, but I'm hoping on a lot of stuff to harvest with the help of my soil this year.

And when you are dealing with a few tons of old hay piles and all of the poo that several horses can produce, then add in several chickens (alright alot of birds) and you will have a pile thats about 40 foot long and 10 foot wide. Way tooooooo much to turn by hand or even my little red 24 hp poop scooper, so I use the time method. Time works well, if a bit uneven, just work it in real well and all will be good.

Scott

 

[vehve]

Yeah, you don't turn that kind of a pile daily... Although, have you thought about setting your chickens loose on that pile? They might help you a bit with it...

This morning temps had shot up a bit, it was 26C in there. Might have been the sprouts I threw in there yesterday that added some sort of beneficial bacteria, I was trying to sprout some for the chickens, but they started developing a bit of mold on them so they became compost feed instead. Or then it was just the water I added yesterday. I added a couple liters today too. But still, nothing on the right side, it's just sitting there, doing nothing.