Growing > Grow Your Own
Bones, yes or no?
Grubbypaws:
My husband loves his home made compost hotbin and makes tons of great stuff but he insists on putting chicken and lamb bones in. He insists that they add beneficial nutrients but as far as I am concerned they just dont breakdown and require fishing out of the compost when I use it. Who is right? He says that he will start cutting them up into smaller pieces but I worry that this will just make them jagged and sharp for when I extract them :(
New shoot:
I have a hot bin I purchased and I don’t put bones in. Having said that I did find a dead blackbird in the garden last year and as our grey bin wasn’t being emptied for over a week, I did chuck that in there. It disappeared and there was no trace of anything when I emptied the bin.
You might get away with cut up chicken bones, but I think lamb bones might be a bit of a stretch. Just my opinion, but the risk of injury from cutting up bones or stabbing your fingers on sharp splinters when using the compost outweighs any minor nutritional benefit they might add.
Subversive_plot:
Make no bones about it ...
No bones in the compost. They don't add much of anything unless they are finely milled into bone meal. I'm fairly certain a mill (grinder) capable of making bone meal would be too costly to be worth doing that bit at home.
Hampshire Hog:
Depending how secure your hot bin is you risk attracting rodents certainly applies for a conventional bin. Also if you have had bones in the compost it could attract rodents to the beds where the compost has been used. As I’m not a rodent I don’t know how long the smell would linger. ;)
Grubbypaws:
--- Quote from: New shoot on April 08, 2024, 20:40 --- Just my opinion, but the risk of injury from cutting up bones or stabbing your fingers on sharp splinters when using the compost outweighs any minor nutritional benefit they might add.
--- End quote ---
Thank you New Shoot. He has listened!
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