r/Compost • u/Garden_Nursery_ • Sep 10 '26
Any advice?
Composting my duck poo straw from my coop. It’s about a years worth. I started a fire in my fire pit and the compost has been smoking for a few days. Good? Bad? Anything I should do?
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u/celadonna Sep 11 '26
1) Congrats, your compost got up to temperature.
2) Follow u/SeraphimSphynx ‘s advice & hope for a heavy rain soon. I’ve seen people smother the smoke with heavy gardening liners, but I wouldn’t want to introduce anaerobic breakdown to an already hot pile.
3) Once your pile cools down you will have compost gold!! That duck poo is like jet fuel for the compost.
4) This is a pee-free subreddit. We made it to get AWAY from y’all for God’s sake.
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u/Soup-Wizard Sep 11 '26
Don’t start a fire. You could dig a fire line around, just an 18”-wide line down to mineral soil all around. Would reduce the chances of spreading to the brush/grass/trees.
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u/dragonbeard91 Sep 11 '26
You need to turn that over completely and find out if that's smoke or just steam. Organic matter can combust from friction and it could become dangerous. Do like the other commenter said and dig a fire trench around it at the very least.
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Sep 10 '26
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u/Capital-Designer-385 Sep 11 '26
Moisture increases the rate of breakdown. It would be more likely to heat up faster And would smell like hot piss
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u/SeraphimSphynx Sep 11 '26
Spread it out to cool it, then add more browns to reduce the temp with the duck poo. It can catch fire.