The Walden Effect: Homesteading Year 5. Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Homestead Blog

Innovations:

Homesteading Tags

Recent Comments

Search


Blog Archive

User Pages

Login

About Us

Submission guidelines

Store

Squirrel-proofing the compost bin

Holes in the compost binMy compost bin was dog-proof, just as I hoped.  Unfortunately, it wasn't squirrel-proof.

We usually walk past the compost/worms/parking area at least twice a day while walking Lucy, and that tends to keep critters away, but when we got flooded in, the wildlife got bold.  As soon as I was able to cross the creek, I peered in the compost bin and saw two big holes where some kind of wild animal (I'm guessing squirrels) had squeezed through the lattice and had a feast.
Chicken wire reinforcement
Although it doesn't matter too much if a few squirrels nibble on the food scraps, I want to keep my compost, so I added a layer of chicken wire around the outside of the bin.  I'm not sure if even that will be enough to keep out a determined critter.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see if someone else breaks in to eat.





Sick of messy chicken chores?  Our chicken waterer never spills or fills with poop.




Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.


RSS
comment 1
My guess would be raccoons going over the top.
Comment by Errol — Sun Mar 6 09:15:37 2011
Not a raccoon
Good guess, but if you follow the link back to my original post about the compost bin, you'll see that there's a lid that's tied closed. It was still closed when we saw the damage, which means the compost eater was pretty small. Squirrels dig just like that and I see them around the parking area all the time, so I'm pretty sure they were responsible.
Comment by anna — Sun Mar 6 18:57:36 2011
Add a comment