Animal cover for wooden bin

[wsommariva]

Hi everyone

In the winter the animals get at my compost and make a bit of a mess. I was considering a 3/4 inch plywood cover on top of my bin with a hinged door to add my kitchen scraps weekly. To keep the door secure add a concrete block. Do you think this will keep out raccoon, possums, fox and coyote? Or just let em at it?

[tomc]

A covered bin, If you also have a steady supply of manure and leaves to keep the bin cooking, will compost faster,

Less fats and things to tempt critters will slow their visits.

[rainbowgardener]

Well, I have never had to deal with coyotes and foxes. Your plywood would definitely keep out the raccoons, possums and such like, but so would wire grid:



This is the heavy weight coated steel wires. You just need something like this but with a matching wire grid top that hooks securely.

Except as I said, I don't know about coyotes. The wire grid should be enough protection for foxes also.

You want good air circulation around and through your compost pile.

[wsommariva]

Great thanks for the replies. I do not add meat to my piles. The bin I will cover is my winter bin. Just for kitchen scraps and leaves to cover. It has perforted 4 inch pvc for aeration.

I'll build my cover - maybe $40 in total costs.

Thanks again.

Bill

[tomc]

If you are not putting in fats-meats in, then you have occasional critters hoping for worms.

The critters won't visit that often or stay that long. I might not do anything. You might only be getting young (kitten) skunks who visit after being turned out of the nest.

They (the kittens) will move along when they find a neighbor who puts out cat-food out of doors.

[rainbowgardener]

Well, depends. When I lived where we had lots of raccoons, before my compost bin had a cover on it or if the cover was ever left off, the raccoons would get in there and drag the kitchen scraps (I'm vegetarian, there was never any meat, but raccoons are omnivores) all over the yard. Eat some and make a mess with all of it. When they finished, the yard would look like the aftermath of a big drunken raccoon party.

[tomc]

I'll trade you two of your raccoons for one of my bear.

Although I really shouldn't. The ululation of a screaming flat-lander is quite rewarding. But them bears can sure be messy...

[rainbowgardener]

Yup! I was four miles from downtown Cincinnati on a big busy street. We did not have bear! But we had deer, raccoons, possums, groundhogs, once a fox, coyotes occasionally spotted in the neighborhood, but not in our yard, lots of squirrels, a variety of small rodents. Lots of animals are adapting to city life! Cincinnati is a very wooded city and our backyard there included a little patch of woods which was connected (without fences) to the neighbors little patches of woods. So it was very urban in front, but pretty woodsy in back -- hence the deer, etc.

[toxcrusadr]

3/4" plywood is pretty heavy and unless you use treated plywood (even more expense) it's going to rot in the weather.

You could use corrugated steel barn siding (sometimes you can get a couple used sheets on Craigslist cheaply). Or look at what they have at your local big home center or farm supply. A metal sheet with a wooden edge will be just as hard for them to get through as heavy plywood but much lighter and more durable.

[wsommariva]

Almost done. I used PT severe weather ply. Should last 15 years. Will be on a slight angle for water runoff.

I will also apply an outdoor stain. And winter only use.

The mess bothered me a bit and I needed a project.

Anyone know how to easily post pictures?

[ButterflyLady29]

Raccoons love banana peels and egg shells. In fact they will eat a large assortment of fruits and vegetables. I've had them in my blackberries and my grandma caught them eating her grapes. They really go nuts for corncobs and melon rinds.
Foxes and coyotes will come in after the mice and such that also forage in compost bins. I don't know how to keep mice and voles out of a compost bin. They can get through the tiniest of openings and can climb even enclosed bins.
I've used the wire bin pile before. Squirrels think I put it there for their personal nut storage facility. Also you get mice, voles, shrews, and snakes in wire bins. And then as the stuff decomposes it falls out through the gaps in the wire. When I get a chance I'll be tearing out my wire bin so I can put an enclosed bin in it's place. I may rework it just for leaf composting. That works well if I dump rabbit litter or used waste potting soil in with the leaves.

[wsommariva]

Leaf composting; I use year old leaves as mulch sometimes. And around my ferns.

[wsommariva]

Just occurred to me that I guess I can add meats to my winter compost with my "animal proof" bin.

I'll give it a try after the bears go to sleep for the season.

[ButterflyLady29]

Things slow down in the winter and meat and bone take a long time to decompose under the best circumstances. I've found steak bones in my yard that look like the dogs just got done with them, and I don't have dogs. It's really strange too because crushed oyster shell breaks down within a couple months.

[wsommariva]

Yes this winter will be interesting.

[applestar]

If you want to "compost" materials that are generally not recommended for regular aerated composting, you may want to look into other processes. (You don't want to ruin a good compost pile by doing the wrong thing....)

Bokashi fermenting is batch processed in anaerobic conditions and can (need to) be done in tightly closed container -- large scale projects are done in metal drums. Smaller projects can be done with 5 or 2 gal buckets. But they need moderately warm conditions and are better for warmer months, though I believe they can be left dormant outside. I usually start a bit of this in the garage during fall-winter since the strong kimchee-like smell didn't go over well with rest of the family when I tried it in the kitchen. (Personally, I think it smells kind of yummy....) During the summer, it gets too hot for good fermentation temperatures -- somewhere between 50's to 70's °F. If you have a basement/cellar that would be ideal.

If you have outdoor structures with frost protection, and livestock or pets or hobbies that can benefit from the by-product, BSF (black soldier flies) "composting" -- actually more like digesting -- bin can handle meats and other proteins and will generate feed or bait. Outdoor structure for obvious reasons -- namely the inevitable adult flies. I have read about this often but have never tried it, though I do find some BSF LARVAE in my regular outdoor compost bin during the summer.

[wsommariva]

My bins are in the shade and don't get very hot.

Will be a learning curve. I don't expect many meat items. I get a good gallon a week of kitchen scraps. Later this month I will get a large turkey carcass. I'll throw that in. A good test.

[rainbowgardener]

You started out this thread saying you didn't put meat in. Personally I still wouldn't. Boil the carcass for soup then let the bones dry out thoroughly. Then you can grind them into bone meal, a good soil additive for phosphorous and calcium.

[wsommariva]

I never put meat in due mainly to the bears. But in the winter I can add the little meat products I get, maybe. I guess I'd have a problem in the Spring when the bears are hungry and the frozen meat thaws out.

So I'm unsure of adding meat at this point.

But my cover looks great. Hope to have a mess free winter.

And as far as my left over leaves I think I use them as mulch next Spring.

[toxcrusadr]

Beef and pork bones will last a long time, being solid bones. Bird bones - chicken and turkey - go faster. I've put the entire turkey remains - after boiling for stock for course, and skimming off the fat to use in bird suet blocks - into the center of the pile, vegetables and all. By spring all I find is the breast bone and maybe a leg or two. If you break the large leg and wing bones open they will go even faster.
If I ever sell my house people are going to find steak and ham bones under the mulch and buried in the garden. They're probably going to think I was a mass murderer, but I'm just recycling. I swear, Officer.

[wsommariva]

All my bins are in the shade. At what temps do you think decomposing stops?

[rainbowgardener]

As ambient temperatures drop composting slows down. Probably doesn't entirely stop until the compost pile freezes, but it gets slower and slower. In a larger compost pile, the center will stay warm from the heat of decomposition a lot longer than the outside. You can help it stay working longer by putting a tarp over it or otherwise enclosing it to hold heat in (but it still needs some air circulation). Even in zone 6, I kept adding compostables on top of the pile all winter. It would freeze, but then it starts composting again as soon as ambient temps start warming. Even through winter, stuff is gradually breaking down some, from the action of freeze thaw cycles, etc.

[wsommariva]

I'll start adding small amounts of meat weekly. See what happens. If my brand new fancy cover ends up damaged, I'll stop.

Thanks everyone.

[toxcrusadr]

We don't eat a ton of meat at our house, there are two of us, and almost nothing goes to waste, so I would say we are very light on the meat inputs. I have a plastic bin with a locking cover and I always cover the kitchen scraps with leaves or other stuff and keep the lid on. We aren't in the country but close a creek and forest so there is plenty of wildlife not to mention neighborhood dogs. I don't have problems with varmints or flies. One other thing I do besides making stock to reduce meat waste: any fat gets rendered out or scraped off the top of the stock pot and put into a jar in the fridge. I make suet blocks for the birds using bread crumbs, stale nuts, cereal rubble, etc. So by the time anything reaches the compost it's been boiled and rendered within an inch of its life. I haven't taken the time to dry and grind the bones and the turkey and chicken bones disappear fairly quickly.

[wsommariva]

Update

Varmits 3
Me 0

First they pushed out my 4 inch pvc aeration pipe; secured it

Then they dug under at the only place I did not have heavy pavers; added another paver

Then they just moved the cover off the top; I just added 50 pounds of pavers to the top.

But no messes.

Long winter ahead