In article .com,
wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
The advice to avoid meat scraps is well-founded. I have seen two of
these daleks destroyed by badgers, after chop bones and the like.
Shredded, they were.

How do you know they weren't looking for worms - one of badgers'
main foods, and an unavoidable/essential component of compost?

I don't, really, other than the fact that other peoples bins weren't
attacked, and they hadn't put things in that smelled so strongly. Of
course, once the badger had learned what the tall things were...

Ah! Yes, avoiding things that smell strongly of food is a good idea.
Because of the way that I run my heap, it almost never smells, even
when I put meant bones, turkey carcases and forgotten stew on it.
At a recent party, one person said "but your compost heap doesn't
smell!" I don't know how you would avoid a BIN smelling if you put
certain classes of material in it, but an open heap is much better
aerated.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
writes
Dani wrote:
[various questions, well answered already]]
2. Should I raise it up on bricks to add air? Wouldn't this allow
rats/foxes to get in and fish out the food scraps? We have had our
black sacks opened by both rats and foxes in our garden, so we know
they are around and don't want to attract them (the rats, anyway)

You are supposedly never more than 5 metres from a rat in the UK, if
our local environmental health expert is to believed. But that is no
reason to feed them.

Can anyone tell me why rats should have a preference for cooked food?
--
Kay
________
Cooking is a form of accelerated digestion or rotting~~ all are very
similar. This makes cooked food much easier to eat. Many animals bury
fresh food till rotting makes it more palatable.
I always thought it was my wife who coined the phrase about "never being
more than 5yards etc"~~ she jested!!
Best Wishes Brian.

Kevin and Karin wrote:
We have a similar Darlek and have started to get lots of small (fruit?)
flies in the bin. When you take the lid off it's like a cloud of them and
they have started to get inside the house.

Hi Karin,

You are suffering a very typical problem with your dalek - it is
probably too dry. Ants in your heap would also indicate that it is too
dry. Try giving it a good water every now and again, and the fruit flys
should soon go.

Try adding waste liquid from the kitchen to the heap (tea, veg water,
pasta water, gravy, coffee) to help generally, and to avoid having to
water it specially.

HTH,

Sarah

In article , Mike Lyle mike_lyle_uk@REM
OVETHISyahoo.co.uk writes
Kay wrote:
In article .com,
writes
[...]
You are supposedly never more than 5 metres from a rat in the UK,
if
our local environmental health expert is to believed. But that is
no
reason to feed them.

Can anyone tell me why rats should have a preference for cooked
food?

I pondered this many years ago, and came to the conclusion that
people meant not cooked food as such, but the mixture of food left
over from a meal, which would include animal products which we would
rarely throw away before cooking.


I thought rats preferred grains and seeds, so I'm not sure why animal
products should be supposed to be so attractive.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article , Brian
--- writes

"Kay" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me why rats should have a preference for cooked food?
--
________
Cooking is a form of accelerated digestion or rotting~~ all are very
similar. This makes cooked food much easier to eat. Many animals bury
fresh food till rotting makes it more palatable.
I always thought it was my wife who coined the phrase about "never being
more than 5yards etc"~~ she jested!!

That's a possibility, and a better explanation than many I've heard.

Corbet, Collins Guide to Mammals, says "they are very versatile feeders,
concentrating upon grain and weed seeds when available, but capable of
exploiting an enormous range, including root crops, sewage, kitchen
waste, shellfish, earthworms, carrion, eggs, buds and fruit"

Faced with that statement, I couldn't see why 'cooked food' should
particularly attract rats - if anything, the advice would seem to be
'don't put the remains of your muesli on the heap' ;-)

--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Kay wrote:
the advice would seem to be
'don't put the remains of your muesli on the heap' ;-)

I seem to have music on the brain. Elsewhere I reported an image of a
bunch of football supporters singing "there's only one Issuezilla".

You have now evoked a picture of Noel Coward singing
#"Don't put your muesli on the heap, Mrs Worthington,
# Don't put your muesli on the heap..."
and I need to lie down to cure the giggles.

If this was ye shedde, JG would supply the rest of the words in about
11 minutes.

Kay wrote:
In article , Mike Lyle
mike_lyle_uk@REM OVETHISyahoo.co.uk writes
Kay wrote:
[...]
Can anyone tell me why rats should have a preference for cooked
food?

I pondered this many years ago, and came to the conclusion that
people meant not cooked food as such, but the mixture of food left
over from a meal, which would include animal products which we
would
rarely throw away before cooking.


I thought rats preferred grains and seeds, so I'm not sure why
animal
products should be supposed to be so attractive.

I think they're opportunists: the usual natural diet may be seeds,
but people do recommend bacon and fish -- and chocolate -- as bait
for traps. There can't be very much future in specialising in grain
and seeds in suburban gardens, so high-protein and high-fat kitchen
waste would be very attractive. As I say, I don't think the pundits
really meant "cooked" as such, but were carelessly using the word to
cover non-leafy food waste.

--
Mike.

"Kevin and Karin" wrote in message
...


We have a similar Darlek and have started to get lots of small (fruit?)
flies in the bin. When you take the lid off it's like a cloud of them and
they have started to get inside the house.

Should they be there and is there anything we can do to keep their numbers
down.........our new pond might help once we get the frogs, but that'll be
next year!


We've got the same problem. I've found leaving the lid off for 24 hours
does the trick, as they all seem to disperse then. I've also seen adding a
layer of 'brown' material as a suggestion.

I thought the thing about cooked food was that it doesn't decay into nice firm organic matter but rots into slime because it's been 'broken down' by the heat.

Could be wrong...

In article ,
undergroundbob wrote:

I thought the thing about cooked food was that it doesn't decay into
nice firm organic matter but rots into slime because it's been 'broken
down' by the heat.

Could be wrong...

I am happy to say that you are :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Many thanks to everyone for your helpful replies, and sorry not to have
responded earlier (just been away for the weekend). I am much
encouraged and will proceed with renewed enthusiasm!

Kind regards to all,

Dani

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:34:03 +0000 (UTC), "Mike"
wrote:

Dani makes reference to a small garden. Ours is 20 ft x 75 ft at the back of
the house and 20 ft x about 20 ft at the front. We still produce enough
'stuff' to feed 2 big Dalek Composters and if we shred the bushes, another
Beehive Compost bin.

Mike, if you saw my garden, 27ft x 15ft, (front smaller) you would not
call yours small!
However I have 5 Daleks on my allotment!

Pam in Bristol

On 19 Aug 2005 04:55:51 -0700, "Dani"
wrote:

I sent off for a subsidised compost bin in the hope of reducing our
household waste output (kitchen scraps and guinea pig bedding, mostly -
we already recycle as much as we can).

Now it has arrived, it looks enormous in our very small garden, even
though it is the smaller of the two on offer (220 litre size).

I have been reading the archives on this group and becoming more and
more daunted. I have a few specific questions - sorry if they have all
been answered befo

1. Do I really need to put the thing in a sunny spot? It takes up the
whole width of our flower bed, and would have to go in the spot
currently used by a lovely plant that pops up all by itself every
summer.

2. Should I raise it up on bricks to add air? Wouldn't this allow
rats/foxes to get in and fish out the food scraps? We have had our
black sacks opened by both rats and foxes in our garden, so we know
they are around and don't want to attract them (the rats, anyway)

3. If I don't need to get the compost out in a hurry, would it be OK
to just pile stuff and let it rot down slowly, or is turning a
necessity to make it work at all?

4. Can someone explain to me what the difference is between a hot heap
and a cold one?

Dani, I also have a very small garden, and the Dalek I ordered from
our council was taken to my allotment. You can make a smaller one by
getting an old plastic dustbin, cutting out the bottom and standing it
directly on the soil, upside down, with the narrower opening at the
top, making it easy to lift off.
Don't put it up on bricks.
Sun will get it hotter so it will rot more quickly. An activator
(from nettles to pee) will help.
Tell us more about the "lovely plant that pops upevery summer".
Can you put it somewhere that you can put your bin and plant a bush to
hide it?
I just fill mine up as I go and when full leave it to rot down.
Ideally you need two, so one can be left while you fill the other.


Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:34:03 +0000 (UTC), "Mike"
wrote:

Dani makes reference to a small garden. Ours is 20 ft x 75 ft at the back
of
the house and 20 ft x about 20 ft at the front. We still produce enough
'stuff' to feed 2 big Dalek Composters and if we shred the bushes,
another
Beehive Compost bin.

Mike, if you saw my garden, 27ft x 15ft, (front smaller) you would not
call yours small!
However I have 5 Daleks on my allotment!

Pam in Bristol

Small to our last one which was half and acre. The one before that in
Leicester was also half an acre, but now has 2 blocks of flats on it..

Small/Large must be compared to something I suppose :-}

"Pam Moore" wrote
Mike, if you saw my garden, 27ft x 15ft, (front smaller) you would not
call yours small!

Pam, my garden is the same size as yours and I'm having a heck of a struggle
right now deciding what to keep and what has to go - the borders are just
not looking right but I can't figure out why. I have a 3ft-4ft deep border
across the back 27ft and a narrow 1-2ft border along one 15ft side. I have
a good mix of shrubs and perennials, but there just doesn't seem to be room
to do anything justice and consequently nothing looks good.

I've just been scowling at my 3 large asters because they've been sitting
there all year, boring dark green dumplings, still no flowers yet and taking
up valuable space. They are lovely in bloom but the rest of the
time...yuck.

How do you manage your garden - do you compromise and grow only shrubs or
only perennials, or do you have an artistic touch? Advice anyone?