I’ve inherited a compost bin in a rental flat. This is the state of it. Nearly full, eggs all the way down with the odd chicken bone. What can I do to sort this out without having to bin it all?
Personally I would empty , turn it over and refill the bin and then just keep addign to the pile. The mixing will help break the egg shells down to smaller pieces
Edited to clarify
Neither_Conclusion_4
I compost egg shells like this. It break down a bit slower, and when the rest is finished you usually can see little pieces of egg shells left. It doesnt hurt the soil, and many plants such as tomatoes love calcium rich soil. Its only a “visual” problem with egg shells in finished compost for most plants.
It goes away after a few years in the soil, atleast where I live. I guess that pH and moisture content of the soil matters alot.
Bones from the finished compost, i either put in a pit somewhere (out of sight out of mind) and cover with soil, or throw em in a barbecue grill/burn barrel/fire pit. Only a short amount of time in fire make em super brittle, you can crush them easy without tools.
I would just continue filling the compost with your stuff, let it sit/mature, and use it.
If you want to lazy compost with little effort, you nedd atleast 2 bins, one that you fill, and one that you let mature.
If you want eggshells to “go away” faster, you can crust them a little and run them a short period in the oven (or firepit). It will break them down much faster, and make the calcium available for plants. But not really needed, according to me.
matt552255
Sift it
Benbablin
Id dump it all out, give it a stir, add browns and water if needed, then put it back in there. Eggshells won’t hurt anything. Just take longer to break down if they’re bigger pieces like that. Every egg I’ve ever eaten goes into the compost “whole”.
prspider
Can’t figure out how to edit the post, but let me just emphasise the volume of eggs… a person familiar with compost would do a good balanced mix, weeds, food scraps, etc. this is 70 – 80% eggs, with a coating of vegetable matter holding it together.
As I write this I feel like a solution would be to get rid of maybe a 3rd, then turn and start adding my own stuff
cirsium-alexandrii
The eggs aren’t a big deal, neither are the bones. But are those plastic bags I’m seeing? If so, those are going to be your real headache. And the longer you leave them in there, the harder they will be to remove. Nothing really to do but put on some sturdy gloves, dump the compost somewhere you don’t mind getting dirty, and pick through it.
When you put everything back in, you probably want to consider adding some “browns”, meaning something with a high carbon:nitrogen ratio like fallen leaves, wood chips, or sawdust. The compost is looking a little dark and sloppy, which suggests too much nitrogen. It’ll break down like that, but it makes it stinky and unpleasant to work with.
6 Comments
Personally I would empty , turn it over and refill the bin and then just keep addign to the pile. The mixing will help break the egg shells down to smaller pieces
Edited to clarify
I compost egg shells like this. It break down a bit slower, and when the rest is finished you usually can see little pieces of egg shells left. It doesnt hurt the soil, and many plants such as tomatoes love calcium rich soil. Its only a “visual” problem with egg shells in finished compost for most plants.
It goes away after a few years in the soil, atleast where I live. I guess that pH and moisture content of the soil matters alot.
Bones from the finished compost, i either put in a pit somewhere (out of sight out of mind) and cover with soil, or throw em in a barbecue grill/burn barrel/fire pit. Only a short amount of time in fire make em super brittle, you can crush them easy without tools.
I would just continue filling the compost with your stuff, let it sit/mature, and use it.
If you want to lazy compost with little effort, you nedd atleast 2 bins, one that you fill, and one that you let mature.
If you want eggshells to “go away” faster, you can crust them a little and run them a short period in the oven (or firepit). It will break them down much faster, and make the calcium available for plants. But not really needed, according to me.
Sift it
Id dump it all out, give it a stir, add browns and water if needed, then put it back in there. Eggshells won’t hurt anything. Just take longer to break down if they’re bigger pieces like that. Every egg I’ve ever eaten goes into the compost “whole”.
Can’t figure out how to edit the post, but let me just emphasise the volume of eggs… a person familiar with compost would do a good balanced mix, weeds, food scraps, etc. this is 70 – 80% eggs, with a coating of vegetable matter holding it together.
As I write this I feel like a solution would be to get rid of maybe a 3rd, then turn and start adding my own stuff
The eggs aren’t a big deal, neither are the bones. But are those plastic bags I’m seeing? If so, those are going to be your real headache. And the longer you leave them in there, the harder they will be to remove. Nothing really to do but put on some sturdy gloves, dump the compost somewhere you don’t mind getting dirty, and pick through it.
When you put everything back in, you probably want to consider adding some “browns”, meaning something with a high carbon:nitrogen ratio like fallen leaves, wood chips, or sawdust. The compost is looking a little dark and sloppy, which suggests too much nitrogen. It’ll break down like that, but it makes it stinky and unpleasant to work with.