Inherited compost bin

[OldEnglishSheepDog]

I recently moved into a house with reasonable sized gardens (something I've not had previously) and a quite full, plastic compost bin.

The previous owner of the property had dogs and I have my suspicions that they may have put their dog poo into the compost bin. There's a sliding door at the bottom of the bin which I used to get some compost out for planting. The smell was quite intensely fecal but as I'm new to this stuff I'm really not sure if that's how it's supposed to smell any way.

We are going to have to move the bin at some point. Should I get rid of the compost that is there and start again? And if so.... how? Or is it actually fine and I'm just being paranoid?

Also, if anyone can give me some general tips on compost, I'd be really grateful.

Compost doesn't smell when it's ready. It can smell a bit on the way to being ready (vegetation rotting down) but it shouldn't smell faecal. It's a kind of crumbly earthy texture. I'd be inclined to dump and start again.

I'm not a compost expert. My first batch is nearly ready. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along.

I think I would lift the bin off the compost and inspect (they just sit on the ground). Ready to use compost has no offensive smell, it's brown and crumbly and apart from a few loose cannons like avocado stones/mango stones should look a lot like what you get in a bag from the garden centre. If you still suspect dog poo when it's open at least you can deal with it - maybe barrow it to a far off corner of your garden? Behind a tree?

I'm a complete newbie to this stuff. There is a corner where I could dump it - would it not potentially be a health hazard?

One thing you could do is move it into a new compost bin in the corner - though I suspect that being open to the daylight might kill the nasties faster. It shouldn't be too near watercourses, ideally, for environmental reasons. If it was me I would wear gloves and move it into a corner, maybe 'fence in' with a row of bricks to stop it spreading out, and leave it for a year or so. Mind you by then it will almost certainly have become a thriving nettle patch ready-made wildlife corner!

If it really stinks though, bag it up (something strong like garden compost sacks) and take it to the tip.

There is an obvious patch where I could dump it - nowhere near water and away from other people's gardens too... I think that might be the plan - thank you.