To think in laws are storing a mini-slurry pit in the highly used garden ?!!

[BellsAreRinging1]

And is it a problem? MIL told me a few weeks ago that FIL has a bin in the garden full of sheep poo and she's told him he will above to get rid of it before it explodes as he's had it for ages. I told her she may have to ask environmental health to come and remove it as my initial thoughts.

None of us know anything about farming etc. It's just for his home gardening and I recently learned what a slurry pit is and how dangerous they are regarded. Is this bin in their garden a comparable (but scaled down) concern?

For context, it's in an easily accessible bin in a small rectangle garden (approx. 8mx12m) next to the grass area where four children under-5 play when the weather permits.

Is this a risk I should consider before allowing DD to play in the garden again?

If so, can anyone point me to some information I can share with them? I think they will ignore it and it will stay there for a long time if not prompted. They are also quite ignorant and if they 'had one in our garden when we were kids and we were alright' then they won't acknowledge any risks (they smoke and don't 'believe' in secondhand smoke etc).

Love them and don't what to cause any drama but thinking of children's health first.

He will be making sheep manure tea for a fertilizer. I've done it in a dustbin before on a (remote) allotment. Reeks to high heaven but won't hurt your children, the worst they would do if unsupervised is tip it over and stink.

Slurry pits are deep tanks that industrial quantities of muck are tipped into to make much the same thing. I remember being terrified of that PSA film where a boy, playing on a farm, falls into one and drowns.

The only real risk is if they get in it and drown. The same risk as a water but really.

Don't know about exploding poo, but according to this it doesn't need composting stinks mind.

Are you seriously comparing a dustbin of sheep poo to an industrial slurry pit?

Don't come down too hard on the OP, we build up strange fear associations. For years I wouldn't take a bath soon after dinner because of the warnings not to go swimming after food. I though that it was something to do with being in water, not the muscles used to swim part

The reason a slurry pit is so dangerous is because it is rather like a swimming pool full of shit. Very easy to fall into. As a country child I knew to never go near them. I never even went in the yard where grandad’s one was.

A dustbin full of sheep shit does not have the same danger of slipping and falling into it.

Your concern sounds a bit strange. Making compost and/or composting manure are age-old farming practices and perfectly safe UNLESS you get to a very large size where you could drown in it or suffocate in the gases given off. Farm slurry tanks or slurry pits are typically two or three times the size of the whole garden you mention here and many metres deep, so I think your concern is overdone.

Is the main problem here your own suburban denialism about poo ? Does it just horrrify you ? Poo is everywhere: it’s part of nature. Like all parts of nature it has to be handled appropriately.

LizTaylorsFabulousTurban - that would be Apaches. Between that and the one where the boy gets electrocuted trying to get a football - traumatised as a child. I vaguely remember a train PSA film too that was like a school sports day but with trains.

ThanksForAllTheFish - argh yes! And the frisbie caught on a pylon.

Can he not dig the stuff into the garden and get rid of it that way? Sheep poo isn't very nice but sheep aren't meat eaters so it's not the same.

A bin full of sheep poo is nothing like a slurry pit. As long as your children don’t climb in it and drown, it’s not an issue.

It's fine. It'll stink, but it's fine.

My granda used to make liquid fertiliser from cow shit in old sweet jars. Carrying them home in the back of the car was fun.

Me too Francis 😂

I wouldn't be thrilled about the proximity of stinky sheep poo but I wouldn't be worried. It's not the same as a slurry pit. I've also seen Apaches, where the little boy drowns in one. It's fairly horrific!!!

PSA films- kids sports day on the railway tracks is called "The Finishing Line" and the little boy who loses his legs is "Robbie".

Ok good news it's nothing to worry about! Thanks everyone!

@FrancisCrawford

Bit unneccesary. I was asking for advice about something I don't know about so I could act accordingly.

Slurry pit drowning can be two fold - yes, the depth of the tank, but actually a large pit is an oxygen deprived atmosphere so people can and do lose consciousness as a result of working too closely to the fumes, are overcome, fall into the slurry and drown that way.

Recent example: www.farminguk.com/News/Two-farmers-drowned-in-slurry-pit-after-attempting-to-remove-blockage_49322.html

If the OP is talking about an enclosed bin, there is no concern. If it's an uncovered pit, I'd be more worried. However, Environmental Health are not going to come out and empty it for them under any circumstances - they're not there to do that.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19614688 this is the incident I had heard of - it got a lot of publicity at the time - it's the gases that killed this family I think.

Either way, a small bin in a garden is very unlikely to do harm. Other than stink to high heaven.

Oh god that apache film!

Nightmares for weeks - 1001 ways to get yourself killed in the countryside.

Do they still show it nowadays? I'm guessing not.

Basically, as well, sheep poo is solid, cow poo is more liquid, so the consistency of a bin of sheep poo will be a bin full of hard shit whereas a bin of cow poo it would leak all out the sides because it's liquid.

Out of interest where is he getting the sheep poo from?