Winter waste (droppings and shavings)

[montana girl]

This is the first year that we have 13 hens. We live in town. The temps have been just above freezing for a few weeks and everything is melting into one big ugly goo pit. I am concerned with the smell.
In the summer, we compost our rabbit and chicken droppings.
What do i do this time of year?
Tonight when I was walking my dog past my sidewalk, I could smell ... icky smells from the compost bin. Nothing is composting and its smelling yuck. ( I have rabbits too)

what can I do?

Thanks,
Darlene

 

[Dar]

i know at the local TSC they have a powder that you can sprinkle in your composter.. it is supposrd to "kick start" the composting action i dont know if that will work

 

[catdaddy66]

You can compost in winter but it will occur more slowly. If the smell is too strong I would take that to mean you do not have the best ratio of green/brown materials. Try adding a good amount of leaves/twigs/bark or whatever dried plant material is available. Stir the mixture regularly every week or two and this should help the smell. Good luck! The proper ratio BTW is 70% brown, 30% green!

 

[CityChook]

Quote:
excellent advice. the only time I notice my compost is smelly is if the mix is wrong. Do you need to toss the pile? Maybe that will help until the temps warm up a little.

 

[montana girl]

Well, up until the past few weeks, the pile has been frozen solid. I guess thats part of the problem.

I will see if I can get my hubby to go out and turn it today. I am wondering though if its going to be frozen in the middle.

Do any of you cover your compost piles?

Does the weather (rain and melting snow) drain the nutrients out of the compost?

Thanks for any info you can give me!

 

[95yj]

3:1 carbon to nitrogen. I only know that from science class at school, we live in the middle of nowhere so we just dump stuff in the bin and wait for it to work. In the winter I dump all of my waste shavings and hay in a pile down a hill and cover them with snow, the snow insulates them and helps them breaks down faster.

 

[CityChook]

I dont' cover my pile(s). The snow cover insulates it, and they continue to cook for part of the fall/winter, but eventually succumb to the temperatures. Mine are frozen through right now. I'm going to guess that your pile is not frozen in the center... I grew up in N. Idaho and the ground rarely froze although we got our fair share of snow... Often they will be thawed, maybe even warm, in the center of the pile.

I don't think that the rain will drain nutrients from the compost, but I'm not an expert here. I do tend to keep my pile on the "damp" side to help it decompose more quickly. It seems to help the pine shavings break down faster. Not WET, but damp like a squeezed out paper towel.

Hope this helps.

 

[matte]

When it's that cold and your pile is drenching wet, I would just lime the outside of heavily and then cover the whole thing with a thick layer of straw or hay until better weather. This should keep the smell down. When spring arrives, you can work on turning some cabon (brown) materials into it.

 

[catdaddy66]

Moisture is also important but not too much...damp is better than soggy. When my pile is too wet I break it down (rake it down) and let it dry out a day or two, then build it back up.

 

[card5640]

Mine is the same these days, I save bigs of leaves and put a layer on top when it is smelling and it calms it down, I put a fresh layer of old leaves everytime I add fresh poop. It has stayed hot this whole winter as I can se the snow melts off of it most days.