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I am going to get a compost bin one the 120 gallon pre-made ones. I am thinking of putting it out a back door or out a side door near the kitchen. I will be using it mostly with kitchen scraps and some lawn clippings. is there a smell problem and do bears try to get in to them?

If you be sure to cover your kitchen scraps each time you add them, with a good layer of leaves, weeds, whatever you have around, no there is no smell to the compost pile. (I have a pile, not a bin, open to the air. I assume the bin will be similar as long as it has plenty of air circulation.) That means no smell detectable to humans. Bear are totally outside my experience! But I will say we have plenty of raccoons on my property and they don't seem to be interested in the compost (but mice and shrews are).

you only notice smells when something is out of wack, otherwise compost should smell just like a walk in the woods.

it will only smell if you let it, meaning if you let it sit and rot without air. anaerobic bacteria make smelly compost, aerobic microbes make beautiful earthy smelling compost.

My compost bin is about 15 feet from my back door. I have never noticed any odors from it.

But, yes, it very well could draw bears. Bears are omnivores and eat pretty much anything, including grass. You might be able to create a pile that contains absolutely nothing in the way of food wastes, but I actually stopped maintaining a compost pile, because my dogs were eating the finished compost, even after I mixed it with the soil in my containers. I can see a bear doing something like that, as well.

As I recall, Tom, you already have had a problem with bears getting into your garbage. That means they now have your place marked in their minds as a source of food. You might want to build a bear-proof cage out of the heaviest chainlink you can buy, and store your garbage cans and compost bins in there.

I have a compost right next to the back door. It makes it very easy to toss in kitchen scraps. Open the door just a little and toss it in. If its raining my hand might get a little wet.

If you keep the ratio of browns and green somewhat right there should be no smell. If all you are adding is grass and food scraps you might have an odor. Adding browns and keeping it mixed will eliminate this.

I wouldn't recommend shooting the bears, unless they're attacking one's person, but I'm pretty sure Tom knows the hunting laws around here. Oregon is pretty tough on poachers.

Bears will root around in fire pits in camps. They can smell food, even if we can't. And they're always hungry.

I'd just be leery of drawing them in that close to my house. I have 2 friends who live in different rural areas near my town who both had bears break through windows into their homes while the people were asleep in bed. Both bears came through bedroom windows, which were closed and locked. Just came right through the glass in the middle of the night.

Have you considered trying an indoor bin instead? As long as you have a decent balance between ingredients and keep your compost material covered with a good layer of soil you wouldn't have to worry about stinking up your house and keeping it inside the kitchen, if you have the space, would be the easiest acces I can think of. As an added bonus you wouldn't have to worry about animals getting into it, unless you have indoor pets.

Mind you, I'm thinking about a vermicompost indoor bin. I'm not sure if an indoor bin works with regular composting, because I usually just vermicompost.

My compost bin is about 10 feet from the back door and 5 feet from the closest operable window. I don't notice any smell. Occasionally I notice fungus gnats flying around the window. Probably means I don't manage the bin as well as I should.

tomf wrote:I am going to get a compost bin one the 120 gallon pre-made ones. I am thinking of putting it out a back door or out a side door near the kitchen. I will be using it mostly with kitchen scraps and some lawn clippings. is there a smell problem and do bears try to get in to them?

These are my compost bins they are 3' x 3' x 4'. They are mixed half lawn and garden debris and half horse bedding. What you see in the background is the loading dock for the local post office which is about 15' away. I have not had one complaint in 37 years. John
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