Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[HennyPennyCO]

I'm sorry to be more of an onlooker than a chatter, but this is quite the learn-as-you-go thread, and I love it. The coop litter is now in the pile with other assorted goodies and cooking along with golden garnish at 128 F. Today, though, I'll be busy getting cabbage, cauliflower and other things into the ground here in N. Idaho. Chickens are waiting for their mealworms, so I'll get going for now. Hope your pile heats up today, Felix.
Sandy

Love that "golden garnish"!
Can I assume you mean that freely available, high-nitrogen liquid fertilizer, aka "secret ingredient" and other descriptions?

Reminded me that I keep meaning to pass on this info:
To use the above secret ingredient to fertilize plants safely, dilute at a 20:1 ratio.
For US people with 1 gallon (128 fluid oz) milk jugs, that means using 6 oz secret ingredient and 120 oz water. I then add 1 oz kelp fertilizer so that the mixture becomes a lovely brown shade and doesn't offend prudish people. (I take it to my plot at the community garden.)

Your compost looks lovely, Felix.
Penny

 

[lazy gardener]

Love that "golden garnish"!
Can I assume you mean that freely available, high-nitrogen liquid fertilizer, aka "secret ingredient" and other descriptions?

Reminded me that I keep meaning to pass on this info:
To use the above secret ingredient to fertilize plants safely, dilute at a 20:1 ratio.
For US people with 1 gallon (128 fluid oz) milk jugs, that means using 6 oz secret ingredient and 120 oz water. I then add 1 oz kelp fertilizer so that the mixture becomes a lovely brown shade and doesn't offend prudish people. (I take it to my plot at the community garden.)

Your compost looks lovely, Felix.
Penny

Also reputed to repel raccoons. Wonderful additive to condition hay bales for bale gardening.

 

[Bugseye]

Wow, more ideas than I can implement. Though I want to get more things into the ground today, I have to rein in myself so I can do some of my neglected list. I'm kind of excited because the longish bamboo poles for making teepees arrived last night, but I think that project can wait a couple of weeks more. The compost pile needs turning today. I'll post pictures when I can. The pile is really going well.

 

[HennyPennyCO]

Also reputed to repel raccoons. Wonderful additive to condition hay bales for bale gardening.

Yes, you use it neat, as it comes, for conditioning the straw bales. Works well.
Haven't tried it for repelling raccoons.
Penny

 

[vehve]

It's been quiet on the composting front again, so time for an update.The right side has been resting for a few weeks now, it's an uniform brown color, but it's nowhere near cooked yet. I don't know why, but the temps haven't wanted to go up properly. I'm starting to be in need of some more compost space soon, the chicks keep messing up the egg nests, and the bunny hutch has been facing some peeing issues, so we're producing a lot of spent straw at the moment. The left side is almost full, so yesterday I sprayed the stuff down soaking wet, and today I'm finally starting to see the results. I'ts been staying at around 35 C in there until now, but today the temps had risen to 42C above the mass, so hopefully we're building up a good heat again.

I've also used all of my compost from last fall, so soon I'll have to start using the stuff from this winter. Before that I think I will shuffle it over to the now empty resting cage, to get the freshest stuff on the bottom. So far the compost has been working well, it doesn't appear to be too hot, but it does give a lot of nutrients to whatever's planted in it. The chilis and tomatoes have grown big in it, although I had to move the tomatoes outside a little bit early, so they're not looking too hot at the moment. We should be getting a lot more heat within a week, I'm hoping they'll bounce back then.

Bunnies and birds are all doing great, and the mouse trap I bought a few weeks ago caught it's third victim today. They get to become part of the soil too, I'm just dumping them in the compost.

 

[Bugseye]

Yep, it's been quiet, but here I've been sticking plants into the ground as fast as possible with the advent of very warm weather in North Idaho. So far, so good, but little time to chat and keep up. I'm chasing larvae and slugs off the plants and playing keep-away with ticks. Last time was my first year gardening in this climate, so I got part of the space planted out. Then I took a gardening course in February and March. This year I don't know where I'm going to put all my starts--hah! I see tiny green raspberries and strawberries out there, and the robins and jays are very interested in anything that looks like food. Potatoes, tomatoes, peas, squash, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower and what-have-you are adapting to the soil. My pile too is a bit cooler than it was but not ready for use yet, so it'll get some more attention soon. It's decomposing,but needs some encouragement.

 

[vehve]

On the bugs and slugs, it's crazy how well the occasionally free ranging chickens keep the population down. I haven't seen many slugs in our yard, but a couple of hundred meters from here if I go walking through a field, I can't take one step without hearing a crunching sound. When we moved here two years ago the slugs could be found in great numbers, but not anymore. I read somewhere that killing a slug in spring will eliminate a hundred of them by fall.

 

[vehve]

Now we're up to about 44C/110F in the box. And the left side is compacting nicely, still leaving room for adding more stuff to it. Hopefully the right side will look cooked enough this weekend for me to empty the bin - I'm really running low on compost space.

 

[Bugseye]

You're really cooking that pile! I'd turn the chickens loose out there, but they need their wings clipped first--and some confinement so they don't run into the neighbor's yard. I'd love to put them into my garden, but when I did it some weeks ago, they tore out the seedlings, so if I can figure out a way to keep them on the raspberry side, they may get some of the ticks and slugs. Later when things are more established on the other side, I'll let them have full range. They would love it, for sure!

 

[craigwg]

Interesting. My compost set up is different. I'm in the state of Utah in the US so our cold cycle is really November-March or so. I just have a open pit, 4'X4'. I find your fight to keep pests and flys and smells at bay interesting. I have no problems with that. The only animals in my compost are worms, spiders and the like. I THINK the difference is what I choose to compost. I only compost plants. So kitchen scraps, yard waste. I add NO grass. The mower mulches that and it stays on the grass. I add a heap of pumpkins after halloween. I put a sign up in my yard and the whole neighborhood drops off their pumpkins. I also add the leaves from the trees around the yard. I used to try to pay attention to the mix of "browns" and "greens". Now I don't care. God will compost it all eventually. I let the weather keep it moist. I turn it myself once a week. The whole system is as low key as I can make it. But I never put eggs, meat, dairy or such foods in the compost pile. I've read that if you do you're just asking for smells and pests, which are the things you are trying to avoid. Are you putting eggs, meat and dairy in the compost? I've read that they WILL compost, there's just the cost of attracting pests.