how to dispose of offal?

[chickenannie]

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I had always heard the same thing, but after attending some agricultural composting workshops I learned that meat is ok to compost too. I think the fear of meat composting maybe has to do with attracting rats etc., but I'm not sure why we "all" learned that....I'm sure someone else knows the reason. I think it's also important that the compost pile gets "hot" to a certain temperature to kill off any unwanted bacteria.

 

[EliteTempleton]

Just don't forget to take it out of the freezer.

I've got some freezer burned fish that I have been meaning to take out on trash day for like 3 months now...

I always seem to remember the day after...

 

[kinnip]

In reading about composting, I've found that older literature aimed at homesteaders suggests using all manner of things that newer, back-yard gardening oriented books don't. The oldest books I have suggest using everything from meat scraps to bread to spoiled milk. They do, however, say you should keep piles containing these things far from the house to avoid the associated rodents. A few cats wouldn't hurt either. I poured a whole gallon on spoiled milk (I know shame on me) on my pile about five months ago. It smelled a little funky for a few days then stopped. When I turned the pile, that layer was very dark and looked like good compost in the making. Waste not want not, as my grandma graciously points out.

 

[spook]

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Well, I'll let you know, us Yankees like Gizzards too! lol. The one old time favorite of the elders is fried livers in salt pork fat and a gravy to slather the fried onions and mashed potato's....ick!

I plan on dumping my innards over a banking far from where we live and anyone else lives, the last girl I dispatched drew the coons during the day for their tastey treat. I just rather not encourage feeding them.

 

[brandywine]

You could save the guts (frozen) for whenever you might have to bait a raccoon trap around your henhouse. The 'coon came for the chicken dinner, right? Give him his request for a last meal, or at least, a last meal at your place.

Or, there was a thread a few weeks back on making a maggot-feeder for free-range chooks. You put the <dead thing that you have on hand> in a bucket that has holes drilled in the bottom. Hang the bucket from a tree so the bottom is about 3' off the ground, or perhaps higher. Be sure it is far from you and downwind. Three days to a week, you'll see your chickens going crazy under the bucket. Maggots! Yum!

I'm contemplating it. Fortunately I haven't had anything dead to dispose of lately, other than a barn swallow that chose to die in a rolled up tarp -- by the time we won the game of midsummer "hunt that stench" there wasn't anything left but feathers and a persistent miasma. I'm still not sure that my chickens will ever range far enough for me to be willing to try the bucket feeder trick.

We feed giblets, heads, necks, feet, lungs, to the dogs. But not intestines.

 

[farm_mom]

How did the processing go, Ninjapoodles?

 

[ninjapoodles]

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It went REALLY well !