Hi all, have a compost bin setup at the house I'm renting. We have chickens and everything I've seen online has said to throw your chickens used wood chips/bedding and poo into the compost. We also throw food scraps and coffee grounds in there pretty consistently.
It looks like it's just not super active and the wood bedding from the chickens isn't breaking down much. The food scraps are definitely breaking down over time. Do I need to separate the poo from the wood chips? Is there a way to kickstart some of the bioactivity?
Thanks!
by ClimbCarsChickensGuy
21 Comments
Needs at least a lot more moisture. It sounds like you’re saying you put a lot of greens in but not browns — and the browns that are in it are not easily broken down. Might wanna get that easy carbon added, like shredded cardboard.
Some pee wouldn’t hurt either.
My first thought is that this looks kind of dry. Wood chips take a long time to break down anyway though. If your greens are breaking down efficiently then I’d say pee on it, but also consider just adding water.
Hard wood chips are going to take time to break down. It’s a process, don’t rush it.
Maybe use the wood chips as mulch next time if you think they’re the only thing taking too long in your pile.
You’re looking for 60% brown / 40% green.
Looks like you’re working with about 90% brown / 10% green (could be closer to 80/20 if there’s chicken waste in the chips).
Can you add any of the following?:
*Lawn clippings
*Garden waste
*Aquarium waste water
*Human Urine
*Chicken poo
My neighbor bags and curbs their lawn clippings. I’m gonna start grabbing them to feed my own pile soon as it is getting nitrogen deficient.
Edit: How old is the pile?
Looks way to dry, definitely water it/ pee on it. When you pick up a handful you want to be able
To squeeze it tightly and have 5-8 drops of water coming out of the hand full. You don’t want to have a stream of water Coming out when you squeeze cuz then you are
Over watering.
If you have chickens, best thing you could do is to put your food compost in their run. Dump it in a pile, let them scratch, eat, and poop in it for a few days, turn it, repeat, and then add it to your compost pile. Chicken composting is one of the best processes you could possibly use!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlUnh73v6w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlUnh73v6w)
Happy chickens = Happy compost.
Composting works best when your carbon-rich materials are balanced with nitrogen-rich. Additionally, you want the moisture content to be right. The wood bedding is carbon rich and will absorb a lot of water, which can have a drying effect on the compost. Things like fruit/vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, etc can add some moisture, but if you don’t have enough to balance it out, you can just add some water and give it a good mix. You want it to be moist, but not wet. Wood can take a while to break down, though.
How deep is that? I find height helps. My bin is 4×4 split in two so I have more depth. I also add the chicken chips n shit but water heavily when I put them in. Like soak it and then add some more. Takes a while for chips to take all the water in.
Lignin-rich materials take long time to decompose. From my experience, fungus works faster than bacteria or worms on woody materials, but still takes longer than other kind of browns.
If you have excess amount of woodchips to the greens, you can pile it somewhere in shade and cover to retain moisture. Cold & humid environment encourages fungal decomposition.
Good luck.
More greens. More pee. More moisture
looks dry as a mummy fart. if it’s full of chicken shit it will be hot as hell in no time if you wet it down.
Get it wet, have a mighty piss all over it
Get some sugar on that thing
I’d pour in a gallon of heavy cream and see what happens
I’ve found that wood chips of that type take forever to break down, or require a lot longer or more nitrogen and moisture than sawdust does. So yes, either pee on it, or keep bringing materials such as coffee ground to mix with it again and again.
Or you can use it as a mulch on top of the soil but it is generally not advised to mix a lot of wood chips with large surface area into the soil. On the surface it should be fine.
Or just keep watering it so it doesn’t dry out, and be very very patient.
I’m composting my dirty bedding (eco flake) and a LOT of coffee grounds from my Starbucks. I just put the thermometer in and it’s up to 160, but looks exactly like yours.
Might just take time?
Piss.
Try dumping buckets of water right into the center of the pile. To add to other people’s comments about moisture, the center of the pile can be hard to soak. Even after a big storm it might still be dry so try really saturating it with buckets or a hose
For too much browns I think.
The organisms that do the composting need water and oxygen. Wet down the compost and turn it often to get oxygen into it. You should start to see it steaming when you turn it. That shows that it is composting
Too dry