Composting- how long?

the way my Brian does mine at the moment, about 10 years!!!!

He cuts the grass and puts the whole lot in my 3 pallet bins, about 2 ft deep.  then we clean out the chickens, so 2ft of manure and shavings.  then the manure he can't get in the bins, he makes a bonfire and burns them so then we get 2ft of ash.  Takes much longer to rot tat way, so that's how NOT to do it.  I usually just chuck eveything in and after 6 months to  year I have lovely black compost, but someone will come on soon and tell you how to do it PROPERLY!!!!! lol

Last year was my first with a (dalek) compost bin and it took till the autumn to fill it as the level drops all the time   When i tipped it out in march it was all good to use except for a few woody stems. Wasn't like potting compost quality (like it always is on Gardener's World) but good for digging into the veg beds
But be warned i only got about a quarter binfull out you don't get much out for all that stuff that you put in