Jeni's Musings

Certainly the conventional wisdom is not to put meat in compost bins because it attracts critters (and there can be an odor problem). But disposing of chicken carcasses is an interesting problem. It occurs to me that a flock of chickens might be just the ticket: chickens will eat almost anything and they’d certainly eat the meat off of a carcass. You could then dry or bake the remaining bones to grind for bone meal. Hmmm. We do give our chickens meat scraps. And you get eggs in return.

I also recommend worm bins. Everything that doesn’t go to our chickens, goes to the worms. This is mostly coffee grounds and stuff, but includes moldy bread, veggie peels and stuff that might be inappropriate for chickens or would just be too messy for the coop.

If you have ready access to horse manure, it’s easy to build a large, hot pile that you could probably put anything into and have it digested quite quickly.

Finally, I have a composter similar to the Green Cone (although not quite so fancy). I never found it to be quite as advertised, but then I may not have kept it full enough (or maybe I was insufficiently patient). I find that a simple bin kept full with grass clippings or manure works as well and the worm bin does a better job of composting the kitchen waste.

Also, worm bins can be kept indoors as they don’t smell if kept functioning correctly (that is, not too wet so that stuff doesn’t get really icky). There in England you don’t really have to worry about the heat or humidity outside but here in Texas it’s easy to either freeze or bake an outdoor worm bin.

Cheers,

E.