Spent grain, compost bin and mice

[man_beach]

I've always put my spent grain in the compost bin. This was fine at my old house - the bin was at the bottom of the garden, 50 yards from the house.
I've now moved and got one of those round, plastic bins which is quite close to the house - and I've got mice activity around it. They might even be nesting in it, for all I know. I assume that the mice are going for the grain, but what do I do? We get a weekly food bin collection but I can't really put 5kg or so of wet grain in it, can I?
Any suggestions please?

 

[Clint]

Sling it in your garden waste bin (what I do) ,fill it up,put it in a bag in your normal waste,ask for a bigger bin,flush it down the toilet a spoon at a time..

 

[Saisonator]

I've always put my spent grain in the compost bin. This was fine at my old house - the bin was at the bottom of the garden, 50 yards from the house.
I've now moved and got one of those round, plastic bins which is quite close to the house - and I've got mice activity around it. They might even be nesting in it, for all I know. I assume that the mice are going for the grain, but what do I do? We get a weekly food bin collection but I can't really put 5kg or so of wet grain in it, can I?
Any suggestions please?

Put an ad on your local Facebook page and see if anybody wants it for their chickens.

 

[terrym]

I've had rats in a compost bin. And that was without grain going into it. If you think there are rodents of any sort in your composter I suggest you dig it out.

 

[MyQul]

 

[chillipickle]

You could always get a patterdale, or jack russel terrorist.Never again will you have a rodent issue.

 

[Clint]

My Pip would fix it...she's like a little white furry crocodile...

 

[chillipickle]

Haha sounds like my 8 month old chocolate patterdale clint, i dare you to try and get the ball out of her mouth lol.

 

[Clint]

A nice bit of cheese would shift it...or ham..or chicken...or a sausage!

 

[chillipickle]

yep, greedy little **** sry for derailing the thread guys.
But trust us you will never have any unwanted 4 legged animals come in the garden with a terrier.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Put an ad on your local Facebook page and see if anybody wants it for their chickens.

I always used to just dump mine until I saw a thread on here saying they were good for Chickens. I now stick a note on the local community FB page whenever I have them and have a queue of people happy to collect in return for half a dozen eggs.

 

[Leon103]

They will be meeting up in it if it is dry and warm. In my old house I had a plastic composter and had nesting mice. Just used to through them into the field. In the new house I have a proper composting system and no mice ,grain goes to the chickens now

 

[Jim Brewster]

And I thought it was bad having ants going after the spent grain

 

[spigley]

Wild birds don't seem interested in the grain, mine goes to my neighbours chickens in return for access to her village spring water (my supply is metered on Severn Trent) some of which I return to her as beer

 

[UKSkydiver]

I always used to just dump mine until I saw a thread on here saying they were good for Chickens. I now stick a note on the local community FB page whenever I have them and have a queue of people happy to collect in return for half a dozen eggs.

Eggsactly this. Super easy to find a chicken owner, and if they’re nice you will get some œufs in return.

 

[fury_tea]

We have a bokashi bin, it uses a bacteria inoculated bran to break down food (including meat, bread etc) really quickly. My local council offers a discount through the council website too. There's not much left after the bokashi has had a go at it for a month or so.

That said I'm not sure how it would cope with 5kg of grain a week. Although I recently learnt of making your own bokashi bran from spent grain...

 

[cushyno]

I had rats getting in the compost earlier this year, so dug the whole lot out and put a chicken wire base on both our plastic compost bins. It won't stop a determined mouse but certainly keeps the rats out.

 

[man_beach]

I think I'll see if there's anyone local with chickens. Exchanging for eggs sounds good to me!

 

[Baz Chaz]

I think I'll see if there's anyone local with chickens. Exchanging for eggs sounds good to me!

Yup, another here who uses an 'eggschange' with neighbour.

... or another one with a horse, although their 'eggs' are only any use to put on your rhubarb patch !

 

[AdeDunn]

You could always try hotbin composting, they're closed units, so no way in for the rodents. Supposed to be faster too.