I Finished My Compost!!!

[sunnychooks]

I finished building my very first compost bin about 2 weeks ago! I found a book on organic gardening and took some ideas from that. Let me know what you think.

I had some old concrete blocks from a building on our property that had fallen into rubble. I made a 3 sided compost with the first layer having the concrete block holes facing out so that air could get to the bottom of the compost. Then I propped an old piece of plywood across the front.

I started the compost by soaking hay for about an hour and used that for the first 6 inches of my compost. Then I took some litter from the chicken coop and added another layer. I've been throwing coffee grounds, potato peels and egg shells in the compost. I plan on adding a layer of leaves this weekend.

The only "problem" I've had is that my chickens will go into it and eat the egg shells (I give them oyster shell, but they seem to like the egg shells better). Should I be putting some type of cover on it? What would be best? A tarp? Another peice of plywood? Thanks for your input!!!

 

[digitS']

:coolsun, I've never covered the compost with anything other than cow manure (which doesn't hardly count as a covering) or soil.

Could you bury it deep enuf in soil that the chickens can't get at it? A tarp would make sense altho' you shouldn't cut the air off to the pile. But, that shouldn't be a problem seeing how you've turned your concrete blocks .

You are on your way to building good garden soil !

Steve
:tools

 

[patandchickens]

So, either let the chickens play in the compost pile (tell them they're assigned to turn it weekly!), or bake your eggshells and feed them back to the chickens instead of composting them, your compost will be fine either way.

It *can* be very useful to cover a compost pile, *if* you are having a spell of either very dry weather or very rainy weather. You don't want it drying out too much nor getting soggy. Old piece of carpeting works really well, but old rotting piece of plywood is fine too, or anything like that, the details don't really matter. Tarp is apt to take flight in strong winds and disintegrate fairly rapidly in the sun so it is probably not the best choice, but fine for short-term use.


Pat