I thought I'd done the barrel right...

I got one of those barrel composters that sits on the base that collects compost tea. I put in fresh grass clippings, a few kitchen scraps (all vegetable), a ton of shredded newspaper, and about a quart of compost just to get things started. About a week ago I checked it and it looked like it was full of green dog's droppings. (I can't bring myself to use the "t" word here.) So I threw in a bunch more shredded newspaper and pulled it over to where it gets more sun. I roll it just like they say to -- every 2 -3 days. Now it looks like a bunch of green dog's droppings with newspaper garnish. I pretty obviously put in too much fresh grass clippings, but can I remedy this? Or should I spread this out on the ground and start over? It doesn't smell bad. It's generating heat. It's not soupy. Or am I just overreacting, and this is what it is supposed to look like?

Thanks

Edited to say the compost tea is fantastic. I diluted it by half for my roses, and they really perked up amazingly. So the composter is worth it for the tea alone!

This message was edited Jul 21, 2006 11:20 AM

Shucks, nobody's responding yet. I was anxious to see the answer! I just started my first compost bin in a plastic bin that I drilled holes in. It's not working too great so far.

*could imagine the green dog "t" with garnish*

~*~ Suenell

You are having the same problem everyone who uses the barrel does. Too much moisture and no where to go to drain. Not enough oxygen and anerobic decomposition. I am a simple man and stick my compost on the ground and it becomes black gold in less than 2 months. All I have to do is add water and turn it a couple of times. You will probably need to add a way of draining off the tea and use it where ever. Then be careful when adding ingredients that they have dried out. IE grass clippings, kitchen waste etc. Have a dehydrating area IE compost pile to let the fluids drain off. After all water is produced when compost is being made so you always have enough in a barrel.

Thanks for the input, Soferdig. You may be right, but I'm not sure. It does drain out the holes in the bottom (into the base for "tea") but it might not be draining enough. When I had a "real" compost pile years ago (which I'd made out of old corrugated metal with holes punched in it) I had FABULOUS compost. Now I pay for a device, and I end up with green dog t#^ds. Super. I think maybe I'll spread these t#^ds out and let them dry in the sun, then try again. Or maybe I'll just bury them, till them under later. And make a real compost pile. I emailed the company, and they referred me to an article, and it said to add more green -- but I'd started out with a lot of grass clippings. Am I crazy, or aren't grass clippings considered green?

Yes green is nitrogen. Paper is carbon. But you have to remember that most of the plant is water and a little chemical. So as the cellulose and other fibrous parts break down they release the water. Also H2O is generated in carbonic acids breaking down to anerobic hydrocarbons. Cows and Camels use this in their composter called the rumen. Then the water is taken up farther down the stomach.

If you have a few chickens and let them into the compost bin they will do the turning for you. We use to have a few rabbits and we thru all kinds of stuff under their cages. The chickens had free access to all of it and kept it well mixed and turned for us.

leaflady, if I had chickens I think I'd be in heaven. What a great way to keep the circle turning instead of filling up the landfills.

I did what this article suggested and added some kitchen scraps, though I don't think that will solve the dog t#^d problem. Soferdig, I'm doing what I can to get it oxygenated -- turning it daily. I'll post whether it works.

Shoulda just started a pile.

For those of you who'd like a few chickens but don't have the space... you could try a moveable pen or "chicken tractor."

http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html

Zeppy, that is so utterly cool! Ooooooooh, is my fella gonna be mad at you, now that he has to build me a chicken tractor!

I don't know what you're talking about, of course.

*evil snicker*

My tractor is at the bottom of that gallery, buff colored, with a converted doghouse at one end. That chicken poo does make the garden nice...

edited for grammar atrocities

This message was edited Jul 25, 2006 1:36 PM

Zeppy I have a chicken tractor but no chickens. I saw that one three year ago and had to build one but my DW does not want chickens. She is worried about coyotes, mountain lion and bear. Just figure. Mine is made out of Pvc pipe1 1/2" and it is all connected together to allow me to fill it with water at the top and then it waters my future chickens and holds the tractor to the soil with the weight of water. I want 2 Barred Rocks so bad.

Hmm, Sofer, I was going to say, "nothing gets into a chicken tractor!" and then I re-read that part about mountain lion and bear. The Mother Earth News one is a really heavy affair that can be moved by folks by a neat system of wheels at one end... I don't know if a bear would go to the trouble of moving it, but I suppose one could. Everybody loves chicken.

The one you built sounds great. You could always put bells or some other noisemaker on the exterior to alert you (or the dog) if someone's rattling it.

Bears can rip open steel garbage cans, mountain lions can rip open chain link fences so the chicken tractor is no match. But I still want one to give me some big brown fresh eggs. Oh I didn't mention the eagles and hawks to do them in. Of course you know the joke about Grizzley bears. there bellies are full of bells when any are posted in the fish and game autopsies.

I know the bells don't deter, but they could help you intervene... or perhaps that's a bad idea.

Maybe a chicken bomb shelter, then?

Well we have our 3 acres all fenced in and we only get the lions, tigers and bears when we leave the gate open. So really I wouldn't worry------ but my DW would! You can always get more chickens I tell her.

You tell that to the chickens.

Well, here's to you getting some Dominiques. Beautiful birds.

As Bo Derek said in an interview about horses being used for food in France. Question from Dave Letterman "what about cows being used for food then?" Bo " well they expect to be eaten!" Can you imagine when a chicken or cow is born they say: " Well this isn't good I'm a cow (chicken) Bummer."

Are cows in India born expecting to be eaten? She's not a bottle blonde, I guess?

What we can and cannot, do or do not eat is mostly cultural and taught. Many cultures eat dogs, cats, even rodents like rats and it is normal to them. My husband was in Europe in the 50s and saw jellied blood in buffet types of eateries all the time. We have had Orientals raise pigs on our farm and they caught the blood and used it when they killed the pigs. They couldn't believe we kept horse just for pets and pleasure riding.

Others items are personal and learned mostly from those around us. I was raised to not eat male animal testicles. My husbands family considered them a real treat when they castrated dozens of pigs or bull calves a few times a year. I learned to cook them and can even eat them if I don't think about what I am eating. WE don't have livestock now and sometimes I think it would be great to find some to cook and eat. I have to admit to really liking turkey ones. Some people don't eat organ meats at all. We love liver and I cook heart and tongue occasionally. Again, it is a very personal issue.

Ahh yes Rocky Mountain Oysters. I still eat and enjoy these chicken gizzard like meals. There is a small town here that has a street festival and the whole thing spins around the eating of testicles. "Testicle Festival" a lot of fun. It is held during the round-up in the fall when all the calves are castrated, vaccinated and dehorned. You didn't think what all those famous paintings with branding Irons, cowboys, and fire were all about. LOL

sofer, do you have a picture of that chicken tractor? I'm in the planning stages and am intrigued by your water setup. Trying to do it right but cheap, you know?

And by the way, as a follow-up, I dumped the green lumps into a trench I'd dug and covered them with shredded paper and dirt. I'm in the process of building a brick wall around the trench (it's about 4x4), with spaces between the bricks for air, and setting it up as a REAL compost heap. Still trying with the barrel, but I don't have much hope for it. Live and learn.

No I don't I need to get it back from some friends who are using it up in the mountains. I wanted to see if coyotes and wolves could get into it. The pictures are on the Chicken tractor google site. You have to buy the plans but its pretty easy to inprovise and build you own. I used plastic pipe and it is the source of water for the chickens. only have to fill it less than once weekly.

This "feels" like a stupid question, but would there be anything wrong with just dumping everything that needed to be composted into my chicken coop?

Lots of people do dump it into the chicken yard. I wouldn't put into the actual house. I dump all compost they'll eat in their yard, but put in the regular compost pile things like potato and banana peels, onion/garlic/leek bits, etc.

Zeppy what is wrong with potato peels? I know my girls don’t like onions, but I don’t think it would hurt them if I threw the peels into their yard to compost.
This is what I’m thinking. If I piled grass clippings, leaves, and kitchen scraps into their yard. They could play around and scratch through it all they wanted while adding their own nitrogen. In the Fall I could move it to the coop. The pile would be larger, creating more heat, but I think the heat would be nice and cozy for the girls.

If I threw in cow manure they might eat the seeds out of it....not sure if they can catch anything from it though.

That is why we have chicken tractors. Put the scraps in the area and when pooped out move it to the next area of bugs, or weeds, or poor soil, or whatever the rototiller, weeder, bug catching chicken can rejuvenate.

I understand that raw potato peelings are hard for chickens to digest. And I don't feed them spoiled veggies. The manure shouldn't be a problem.

The combination of paper and grass clippings would seem to have a problem of "matting" flat really bad and going anaerobic. I think a quick fix would be to pick up some bales of wheat straw which works like hollow tubes to keep the pile breathing. I'd try 1 part grass clippings, 1 part shredded paper and 2 parts straw. I use scrap hay and the older & moldier, the better. I've been letting the chickens do a lot of the shredding so I don't have to send it through the shredder.

Yes, anaerobic is what happened to the grass and paper. Buried that, and am putting in kitchen scraps and an equal volume of shredded paper now. So far, so good. It seems to be generating some heat, anyway, and not turning into dog's droppings. I just feel like I really got suckered in by the "black gold" marketing thing. Shame on me. (No, wait -- it's shame on me if I buy another!) It's just really tempting to think you could put your garbage in the thing, then two weeks later have compost! Live and learn.

okay. The second try with this thing is doing the same thing. this time the green "dogs droppings" are smaller. It's cold and damp in there and I'm about to dump it into the compost bin I built from pallets at soferdig's suggestion, which, by the way, seems to be working like a compost pile should.

I mainly wanted to "bump" this so anyone considering buying one of these would think hard about it.

We had the same problem with the compost tumbler up at Tahoe. I'd always thought it was due to our dry climate. Guess it's the barrel design. LOL!

" am putting in kitchen scraps and an equal volume of shredded paper now."

Not sure what kind of kitchen scraps you put in there but with just those two ingredients there is nothing there that will generate heat, creating a breakdown environment.

If you don't want to go back to using grass clippings then pick up a bag of alfalfa (feed store sold as horse feed, even pellets will work) and throw some of that in there. That should kick it back into high gear.

Sorry you've been having so much trouble with your tumbler. I think they are just plain finicky in what you put in and in what measures.

Shoe

Shoe, I agree. I'm sure they wouldn't market it like they do if it just plain didn't work.

I have alfalfa; I keep it for making tea. I'll toss some in this afternoon. I think it's moist enough that I don't have to put in any water. I'll post the results.

See, that's the problem with this thing. If you put the ingredients in a pile or "real" bin, you get compost sooner or later even if you don't have the right ratio. Plus, as I understand it, this one used to have air holes in the design, and they did away with them due to pests. That has to be a major flaw.

Our tumbler had air holes in it. It would get to dry, no matter how we watered it. We'd get "garbage eggs" that had composted material crusted on the outside, sewage smelling goo on the inside. We finally tossed everthing into the regular compost bin with the worms. Our regular bin was a hexagonal frame of cedar 1x2 strips with a metal rod at the joints. It was about four feet across. The composting materials kept the worms warm through the winter. In the spring we'd sift out a large garbage can full of dark, sweet, crumbly compost.

That's what I did with the first batch, and what I'm going to do with the second if the alfalfa doesn't work. I have no problem with drying out. "Garbage eggs" -- nice way to put it.

I have a tumbler for sale :)
sue

Sure now you want to sell it. I am not going back to the midwest for a while now. You are mean. Have you used it for soil mixing yet? Tell me if it works. There is one for sale here in the flathead for 50 bucks. I want to know if it works for soil mixing.

I have used it for soil mixing , it works great for it .
what is the matter don't want to be in t he land of superior football teams LOL
a giant wasp nest is inside of my tumbler . we found out the hard way when my 3 yr old son turned it , not pretty. Everyone is ok ,just a minor sting or two. DH says to get some spray, "yeah right, no way i say " to him, i will wait for him to do it.
but it is great for the compost tea. very expensive compost tea LOL
i would say for 50 bucks it is a good deal, but i have found they are harder to turn then they claim,depending on modile type of course. mine when full is pretty hard to turn, but i m girl , :)))) LOL .
sue

One thing I know is as a Spartan football fan we never brag about football outcomes. You have doomed the Buckeyes now against UofM.
I am going out to see the soil mixer drum today. Hope it is better than yours. LOL

Too bad we brag before the UT games. sigh... oh, well...