Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

Yup, bunnies are meant to be the main attendees at dinner. Pictures you say?

View from the back. The back door will get hinges on the bottom.



Front view. After I've painted the whole thing, I'll cut one panel to form and attach it to the triangle, and hinge it on the bottom as well. Then I still need to figure out a locking mechanism, and get something resembling a long broom handle to stick through on the inside of the top ridge to form a support and handles at the ends for easy moving.



The compost panels cost 10 euros for four, and you need three of them to add one 28"x36" section, so it's pretty cheap to make it bigger.





The middle shelf is attached with nuts and bolts and can be removed, the top is attached with a piano hinge, so it folds together. I can store this whole thing in a space of about 28" x 36" x 8".
I'm still going to add one or two sections of run before we take it into use, but I think we'll wait for the snow to melt away before getting our doe.

 

[aart]

The beauty of bunny poop, IMO, is you can put it right on the garden...no need to compost it.

 

[vehve]

Yup, not nearly as hot as chicken poop. The lawn should like it, and bigger clumps I can collect and use for other plants.

 

[aart]

Yup, not nearly as hot as chicken poop. The lawn should like it, and bigger clumps I can collect and use for other plants.

I used it for years when planting my garlic, dug it down before planting.

My buddy set up an angled screen under the hutches that would direct the turds towards the front and allow the urine to go thru to the ground.
Worked a charm.

 

[vehve]

This thing is just going to rest on the lawn, not legal to keep bunnies on a screen here unless it's in direct contract with a supporting surface.

 

[aart]

This thing is just going to rest on the lawn, not legal to keep bunnies on a screen here unless it's in direct contract with a supporting surface.

That's strange and seems rather unhealthy, they do need a solid surface to rest their feet, but most the bottom was mesh.

 

[vehve]

I think I would prefer bedding to mesh myself too. The tractor will be on grass though.

 

[scottcaddy]

Thanks for the bunny pen pic's! Wooden dow rod is sold by the foot this side of the pond.
Have you been near your fav. tree lately?
Scott

 

[vehve]

Scott, I've been near, but haven't taken pics. I'll try to do so next time.

I've got two unused broom handles in storage, I think I might just attach them to each other and use that. That should work ok, there won't be much stress on the middle part of it.

 

[lazy gardener]

The worm bin will be a great project for next winter, Felix. Mine is in a Rubbermaid tub too, and it sits on top of the compost bins in the kitchen, so it doesn't take up any extra room in the kitchen. Even with finding healthy treats for the chickens, I still have enough stuff for the worms. They don't mind if the veggies are slimy & past their prime (like those strange sludgy green things in bags at the back of the crisper drawer). I wouldn't feed those things to the chickens. On general principles I won't put chicken poop in the bin for the worms to eat, but let me know how your bin fares (please).
There is NEVER any smell from the worm bin. The contents are covered with cotton cloth or layers of newspapers (to keep moisture level even) and there is a lid on the bin. The bin sits on a larger lid from a defunct plastic container and I do check regularly for possible escapees.
My task tonight was to redo the bin as they've eaten practically all of their bedding. I really need to do some research to find an easier way of separating out the worms from the castings/old bedding to put in the new bedding. It is a TEDIOUS job. I gave up at 650 worms (had to get dinner ready and my back was giving out), but will continue tomorrow. On the 3 previous times I've done this I've been ignorant of looking for worm eggs. This time I've learned what the eggs look like and have now been quite surprised as to how many eggs I've found. (I mentally apologized to the 3 previous batches of eggs that I must have missed and thus let die.)
On my compost front:
Remember Paco-the-chicken-killing-dog and his hunt for mice under the compost heap? Well, in the lovely warm weather we had this past week, Paco found the nest of mice and dispatched them very efficiently. Poor little mice. In so doing he destroyed the compost heap! He even dragged off the bin surround to get a better approach. I haven't had time to put the heap together again, and tonight we are (at last) having a decent snow storm, so it will stay scattered for several days more.
Penny

My understanding is that the worms are repelled by light. So, if you put a strong light source at one end of the bin, they'll migrate to the other end. Then, you can scrape the un-inhabited top layer off, and continue until you've harvested enough castings for your use. Personally, I wouldn't worry much about the eggs. I'd just scoop out the uninhabited castings, and replenish with fresh bedding on one side. Put some good food source in the fresh bedding, and the remaining worms should migrate into the fresh side, then you can harvest the remaining castings. Of course, this is theory... let me know how it works. My bin is very small, and I've only harvested castings on several occasions.

As far as Paco was concerned, he wasn't making a mess. He was doing you a favor by turning and aerating your compost!

The beauty of bunny poop, IMO, is you can put it right on the garden...no need to compost it.

If you're into keeping tropical, (or any fish) Bunny poo is great to put under the substrate to help cycle an aquarium, and also provide nutrition for the plants.