Composting ... can someone educate me please!

[Millie1]

I guess my first question is, do compost and rats go hand in hand? I'm going to get a compost bin (more on that in a moment!) for chicken droppings, bedding etc and don't intend composting food leftovers or anything like that. So, will rats be attracted to chicken poop (maybe I ought to post this in the chicken topic but reckon I'll get good advice from gardeners . Re Compost bins - is it best to buy one with or without a base? Or is there a choice? Anything else I should know? Thanks!

Hi,

all compost bins have no base, the worms etc come up through the soil to work your waste into compost. Roughly dig the ground beneath your bin, place some broken up sticks on it and then your bin, the reason is that bacteria and worms need air to live, likewise it is good to frequently airate your bin ( stick a compost stick in and twist). As far as rats are concerned, it is good if your household has a cat. Avoid putting any kitchen scraps (no meat or cooked foods) veg peelings are great. It is thought potato peelings bring rats put I have always put them in my compost bin anyway. And yes I have had the odd rat, I always rid them with a present of poison quickly. It's only happened 3 times in many 10 years. Sometimes you could put in some diluted wee, it will put rats off and will aid composting.

Good luck, composting can become addictive.

Thanks Seashore .... that's great information, esp about roughing up the ground etc. And reassuring about the rats! Guess it'll be ok to keep the bin near the henhouse then. Is a 330 litre bin a decent size? How long does it take til I have usable compost? I'm planning on bedding chickens in aubiose or a hemp bedding of some sort and have read it composts in a few months. Does that make sense.

Thanks a million for your help

You will soon be a composting addict! I love emptying my compost bins, it's truly an amazing process. I have three bins, one in the house garden and two on the allottment.
I have never seen a rat near the compost, though the chicken keepers on the lottie had some trouble last year, as a result of poor hygiene.

Our local authority has a discount compostor scheme; you ring the authority and they send you a voucher that you can use locally. They are the plastic bins, we have them on the lottie. At home we have a rather fetching beehive as it's much prettier.

I add newspaper every couple of weeks and use a compost accelerator, though your chicken poo will have that effect I think. Also if the children *(or adults ) wee in the potty bucket in the shed we throw that in too!!

I've just emptied the bins and would like to warn you about the compostable bags you can use for peelings; they don't break down as quickly as the veg, paper etc and leave ugly bits and shreds in the compost. I tried to remove them as I emptied but we had to riddle all of the compost and it's tedious work that can be avoided. I wrap the peelings in newspaper now, then put it a bin near the door to take over to the lottie. We use the home one in the winter as we don't go over as often.

One of the reason I love Monty Don is the sensuous pleasure he took in his compost making, It's such a simple and effectiveuse of resources and mirrors the Earth's pattern of life, death and regrowth....told you I was a serious compost freak!!

Tea bags are scary though! They take forever to breakdown in the compost. I'm a bit about the chemicals, but hate it when my organic, hand-knitted teabags disintegrate in the cup!!

We don't add newspaper to our compost. We never dug over earth under compost bin either. In fact, the compost bin at our last house was based on concreted, fairly close but not right next to a border. And it still had a great number of worms... No hens here - chincillas instead, bedded on the sawdust pellets - and that helps to make great compost. Teabags have never been a problem... egg shells and peach stones more so!

I am so glad to see this topic! We have a garden for the first time in forever and a gardener in this week and next completely revamping it. HE is building us a compost bin from railway sleepers. I have bought a kitchen scraps caddy all ready. So, I also need to know how to do it.

When you are literally starting from scratch, what do you put in first as your first layer? And can coffee grinds go in? We grind our own beans and use an espresso maker so have no foil, pods or other bits - just the grounds. Can you, or should you, put cardboard in?

we put all kitchen waste, chinchilla litter, teabags, coffee grounds, garden waste and grass clippings - you don't want a big thick layer of grass clippings - ours goes on and has other things added on top before the next lot, so its fine. Not sure what would happen if you have LOTS of coffee grounds though...

DH put chicken wire under ours and as yet (touch wood ) we haven't had rats that we're aware of. I've just been using ours for sowing seeds and potting on, very satisfying !

My gardener & I dug out the bottom of our compost bin yesterday - oh it was lovely stuff

He used to work on a farm (rather than actual gardening) & he has kept telling me I was wasting my time as 'muck' was the way to go

But he ate his words (& went off to buy a compost bin for his allotment)

Only 1 problem as we cook a lot (no, I mean an awful lot - up to 18 at a meal) we have more compost than we can use.....I wonder if anyone would buy it off me?

Katymac, I would buy it off you if you were local. Why don't you stick a sign up outside and see if anything happens?

Have a compost bin and chickens. Most of my vegetable food waste goes to the chickens and the chicken bedding goes on the heap. Never had a problem with rats in the compost heap but rats, unfortunately are attracted to chickens. To prevent rats keep your food secure, don't leave any out overnight. I also chops scraps in a food processor so rats can't take the food away into their burrows. If you see evidence of rats operate a zero tolerance policy. There's quite a lot of stuff on the chicken keepers topic on rats. Betadad is the resident rat expert .

There are a few interesting videos HERE and lots of info about composting at home.

Our compost bin does have a plastic base, but I've previously had one without, I haven't moticed much difference in decomposition rates.
As others have said shredded newspaper can be useful, but we usually have a fair bit of woody waste, so I never bother. The trick is to build it up in layers it keeps the compost nice and aerated and accelerates decomposition.

Giving it a turn (ie emptying it and putting it back in) also helps, especially if it starts to smell sour or you suspect it's not decomposing very fast. You can get rotary bins to do that these days. I've never used one and would be interested to hear from someone who has as to whether they really make that much difference.

I also make bags of leaf mould every year as we don't really produce enough compost for the garden. This is dead easy (fill a big plastic bag with dead leaves, water once and then forget about for a year) and really seems to help soil fertility as well.

Good luck, as others have said, composting can get addictive, the first year I was more proud of my compost than all our flowers and vegetables!

glacierchick - would you like some of mine?

Oh & we are getting a wormery next - does anyone know anything about them?

We put everything uncooked (except meat) into our compost bin and it makes beautiful compost.
I read that you need to treat the heap like a sandwich - it needs a 'carbohydrate' layer as well a 'moist filling' layer. By this I mean screwed up cardboard, straw etc for the carbs to match the moist vegetable waste. Found this that explains it better than I can.
We use a compost stirrer to mix it all in every now and again. Oh and we empty the odd wee filled potty in there too for some nitrogen.

Hints:
Add screwed up cardboard - egg boxes, cereal boxes etc now and again.
Teabags - try ripping them open before you put them into the caddy - means the contents can escape into the mulch and it mixes and disintegrates better
Coffee grounds are fine
Grass cuttings - not too much in without mixing or adding a "carbohydrate" with it

I can't see why adding chicken poo would attract rats any more than keeping the chickens themselfs. Have fun composting!

We don't even have a garden, just a concrete yard, and I chuck everything compostable into a 40 litre bin which I knew had a few worms in it. I turn it over with a fork every now and again and it's proved such a successful habitat for worms I nearly heave each time, but they do a great job. I made a few holes at the bottom so it doesn't rot and use the resulting compost for flower pots, veg, herbs, emergency cat litter and I give a bit to neighbours when it threatens to overflow. My parents were composters and in all my 35 years I've never seen a rat near a compost heap. It can be a little fly-y when it's hot (little fruit and storm flies not bluebottles).

I don't know if the above is against compost etiquette but it does the job and I've never understood why the phrase compost heap seems to be such an emotive and complicated one. It's easy!

Sorry, it's 100 litres, not 40.

Cardboard can go in, but should be ripped up into bits first. I have a shredder and know I ought to shred any bigger twigs/stems, but rarely get round to it . So my compost tends to be a bit twiggy, but I just sift it out.

We have 2 open bins built out of old pallets and I find it does help to cover the piles to keep a bit of heat in (old carpet's the key). It does need to be kept moist enough, but not too wet...I just water it when it looks too dry. We also put grass cuttings in, and paper (contents of the shredder, which always seems to be working overtime) - as others have said, it's the right balance of ingredients that does the trick. I don't get stressed over it, though....it does just seem to happen by itself!

I put almost everything apart from bones in mine. All the food waste goes into a bokashi bin to ferment first and my compost is luverly .

My tip is get some weldmesh (the tough stuff rats cant get through) and lay it on the ground first. Worms can get through still

Oh wow ... what a fantastic thread! Thank you for all your replies and information. Compost bin shall arrive this week, chickens at the weekend and we're off!!

I had rats in my compost bin, they were burrowing underneath through the soil. Now I've stood it on paving slabs with little gaps for the worms to crawl up.

There is a little mouse called 'Stig' living there but he seems happy enough nibbling potato skins and orange peel.