Compost question

 In all the books and papers I have read, it seems that the only reason
to avoid adding meat scraps to a compost pile is to not attract
unwanted critters like possums and raccoons. Is this the case? Or is
there a biological reason not to add animal matter to a compost pile?

Thanks

Chris

 On Mon, 30 May 2011 12:26:58 -0700 (PDT), Chris


Meat takes about ten times as long as vegetable matter to compost and
during all that time ROTTING MEAT STINKS.  My composter is too great a
distance from neighbors for them to smell it but still I don't want to
smell rotting meat either.  Meat composts far more efficiently inside
carnivores, I feed meat scraps to crows and other carrion eaters who
in return fertilize my property.  I save larger quantities of meat
trimmings in my freezer for feeding birds during winter.

 On May 30, 4:18 pm, Brooklyn1 <Gravesend1> wrote:

While I am not disputing you (since I never composted any animal
product except egg shells) I really would like to see some kind of
evidence instead of bald assertion. I spent many years as a field
biologist, and while I realize there are lots of scavengers out there,
if it took 10 times as long for animal products (excluding bone, which
probably takes even longer) it seems to me that when I was humping the
national forests and wildlife refuges, I should have been ankle deep
in unrotted animal carcasses.

Now, I am not talking about tossing whole turkeys into the compost. I
am talking a few steak or burger scraps here and there.

Decomposition, like any other chemical reaction, depends mainly on two
things: temperature and surface area. The higher the temperature (to a
degree, pardon the pun) the faster it goes. The smaller the item (with
its higher relative surface area on which bacteria and fungi can work)
the faster it goes.

Chris

 Now, I am not talking about tossing whole turkeys into the compost. I
am talking a few steak or burger scraps here and there.
__________________________________________
I've composted chooks that have died (that's hens in USian).  All that was
left once I broke up the compost heap was a few bones such as the keel bone
(aka breast bone) and the long bones of the thigh.

 
For small amounts of bone. I have heard it is best to use real good blender
are grinder that turns the bones to a powder. Then put it in a garden for
the minerals. Not sure about this though.

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R  (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)