Compost pile smells bad!

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I have a compost pile where my family dumps waste from my chicken and pigs and leftover food. I love that its great for the environment and all but it's really starting to smell. I can't enjoy the scent of my roses without chicken excrements attacking my nostrils! Is there any fix to this or do I just have to live with it?
 

Chuck

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I have a compost pile where my family dumps waste from my chicken and pigs and leftover food. I love that its great for the environment and all but it's really starting to smell. I can't enjoy the scent of my roses without chicken excrements attacking my nostrils! Is there any fix to this or do I just have to live with it?
This sounds like an example of having too much green products in your compost pile, too much nitrogen too soon making the compost pile go anerobic and producing ammonia. The ideal ratio sould be about 1 to 10, green to brown. It sounds as if you have more green manures than anything else. What I would do is have 3 compost piles. One manue pile, which wouldn't be a pile at all but spread out fairly thin so it can get lots of air. A seperate pile for leaves, grass cuttings, kitchen waste etc, and then a 3rd pile for the semi-composted manure milxed with the semi composted plant pile. I would also spray heavily a molasses mixture of 4 oz per gallon of water to your pile about every 2 weeks. Keep your compost pile moist not wet.
 

Rosyrain

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That is interesting, I never knew that you should seperate the items that you compost into seperate piles. I always assumed it was just supposed to smell real bad by nature.
 

Chuck

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That is interesting, I never knew that you should seperate the items that you compost into seperate piles. I always assumed it was just supposed to smell real bad by nature.
The only reason you should seperate stuff is when you have a lot of "green stuff like raw manure" and for example a bunch of bags of freshly cut green lawn clippings. If your compost pile smells bad you are doing something wrong. A compost pile should smell earthy, kind of like wet peat moss. Most often when a compost pile stinks it is because of too much moisture. Aeroate your pile and add carbohydrates like molasses. It ain't rocket surgury folks
 

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