Compost Question (please don't open if you're eating your tea)

Lizbetty

Hello!

I hope this is the right place to post, I'm needing some compost advice please and I thought maybe old stylie is the best place?

We have three chickens (hoping to rescue more soon), seven rabbits (all rescue) and as a consequence, lots of poo (!!). I understand you can put rabbit poo straight on the garden but we have so much we have to compost some too. We have a large lawn and so lots of grass cuttings, and also a giant tomato tin that we burn stuff in, so a lot of ash once that gets half way full.

Is it ok to mix all this together in the compost bin, can we put any directly on the garden at all? It would be for veggies as well as plants and trees. My husband wants to take some to the tip because he says it's too much! But I keep making him save it. (Putting that in writing makes me feel like I might need help actually! :rotfl: )

All advice welcomed! Thank you!

PollyWollyDoodle

Chicken poo is 'hot' - if you put it straight on the flower or veg beds it can kill things. I put it in a composter, with green stuff, shredded paper etc and it breaks down (and reduces in volume) but you need a few months for it to break down. I do occasionally empty the poo straight on to empty veg beds in winter, on the basis that it will have broken down before I want to plant anything.

Definitely don't waste it - if you can't use it all, bag it up in old feed sacks and offer it on Freecycle, I'm sure it will be snapped up.

thriftwizard

Agreeing with PollyWollyDoodle - don't waste it! It's rocket fuel for plants. Yes, it does need to be composted, mixed with lots of green & brown stuff in layers, ideally - cardboard & shredded paper do count as brown, along with straw/leaves etc. - but if there really is too much for your situation, list it on your local freebie site or FB allotment group & someone else will be very glad of it!

Primrose

Oh lucky you! Dont waste an ounce of it. Most keen gardeners would give their right arm for some of this stuff without having to lug heavy bags of fertiliser from a garden centre.

However fresh animal poo is high in amonia so you will need to compost it down for several months to avoid burning or damaging plants. Add grass cuttings, cardboard and shredded newspaper to your composters. You can add the ash too.sand give it a bit of a stir and possibly a drop of water from time to time it it starts looking too dry. Dont forget that the mass will eventually decrease in size to about 60% as it all rots down.

You can either sprinkle the bonfire ash straight onto the bare earth in winter or mix in in with the composter but don't put wood ash on any bare area where you're about to grow potatoes as apparently it can cause problems.

VfM4meplse

I'd like to own a rabbit, and useful poo is a very handy side-effect. However I'm less than keen on having it embedded all over my lawn (I wasn't impressed at spending a whole hour clearing the leaves from my lawn prior to its last cut of the year at the weekend). I'm fascinated how you incentivise the rabbit to poo in just one place.

Lizbetty

Sorry for the delay getting back, thanks so much for your replies! This sounds like it might work well as we use auboise/hemp stylie bedding for the rabbits and hens and there's hay and newspaper in there too. It's great to know it's all usable!

There's some allotments not far away actually too, thinking on. I'm sure they could use any excess ��

VfM4meplse the rabbits are in a huge run together as the males have been done (apart from one who is anti social and he is waiting for his own run to be built). They have a huge Ikea plastic under bed storage drawer they use as a loo. Mostly! There is the odd one who is a bit random but we haven't sussed out who that is yet ��

Thanks again everybody!!! xx