Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: orfy on August 15, 2008, 09:54

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: orfy on August 15, 2008, 09:54

Can I add feathers to the compost pile?

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: GrannieAnnie on August 15, 2008, 10:02

I dont't see why not Orfy, My chicken poo and shavings go on there, and I certainly aint picking out all teh feathers!!!! lol  I suppose the shaft through the middle would take a little longer to compost down, but then I leave my compost bins for a year anyway!

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: poultrygeist on August 15, 2008, 10:35

Apparently you can compost hair and fur too. If you have a natural fibre carpet, the contents of your cleaner could go on as well, but obviously man-made fibres won't rot down. At least not in our lifetime.  :?

Rob 8)

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: orfy on August 15, 2008, 10:38

So dog hair is okay? I have 2.

2 dogs that is not 2 dog hairs (I have millions of them) :lol:

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: poultrygeist on August 15, 2008, 10:43

As far as I can remember, yes. Though we don't bother beacuse they get sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. Except the ones that just refuse to shift.  :?

You can basically compost anything that's organic. It may take a while to rot down but if you get the heap hot enough, anything goes. Except the usual exclusions (meat, dog poo, etc).

That said, I'm a beginner at it myself, so best to check with a google search.

Rob 8)

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: richyrich7 on August 15, 2008, 10:55

Following what Rob has said if you have a green cone composter then you can compost bones waste food dog/cat poo etc

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: netserve on August 15, 2008, 17:37

A friend emptied his compost heap onto a bed and planted spuds in it back in May. He's been saying they've done better than ever this year and it must be down to the compost.

Having boasted to everyone about how good the crop is, he's discovered from the family that while they were residing in a caravan in his back garden that they were emptying the chemical loo into it.

I'm just glad I grow my own :-)

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: WoodyK on August 15, 2008, 22:15

I've emptied my dog hair into my compost bins and they have rotted down ok.

I'm not sure about dog/cat pooh as advised above though. I was told that if your dogs and cats are wormed then the worm drugs persist in the pooh and kill the worms in the compost heap. I have no evidence to back this up but all dog/cat pooh goes in the black bin not the green bin. Happy to be advised otherwise by someone far more knowledgable than me.

Title: Silly question maybe. Feathers compostable?
Post by: dawne on August 17, 2008, 18:09

definately, feathers are full of nitrogen (if my memory serves me correctly) and so they are very good for the heap :)
dawn