Use for chicken bones

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Use for chicken bones
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Steel

Joined: 07 Nov 2008
Posts: 72
Location: Northamptonshire

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 08 9:09 am Post subject: Use for chicken bones
I boil up chicken carcasses for stocks and soups, but what can I do with the pile of bones afterwards I can't add them to the compost heap or bury them in the kitchen garden in case I attract rats. Any suggestions? Is there any useful purpose for them? I thought about perhaps grinding them up (with what I'm not sure at the moment) to use as a fertiliser around plants?

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9886
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 08 10:43 am Post subject:
we send ours to landfill.. and I'm ok with that as they will rot eventually. I never understand this thing about meat and bones attracting rats.. rats eat a lot of vegetation too, and so will be attracted to a meat free compost heap. Rat poison is usually laced wheat grain...

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6612
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 08 1:05 pm Post subject:

I, personally, have never had a problem with rats on the compost. (that doesn't mean I've never had them, just never seen them...) and I've been known to toss bones, meat, fat, etc on to the compost. Around here, I would be more worried about it attracting raccoons, but they undoubtedly paw through compost piles anyway.

Not that I'm advising you to compost them, just that I've never had a problem with it.

Grinding them into bone meal sounds like a great fertilizer, how would you go about grinding them?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 08 1:07 pm Post subject:
in small quantities bones will burn mixed with other hot fuels, but they do have a distinctive smell

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 08 4:18 pm Post subject:
I'd be tempted to dig them in as they are and extract the last goodness as organic matter in soil.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46233
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 08 4:24 pm Post subject:
good heap eats bones

Steel

Joined: 07 Nov 2008
Posts: 72
Location: Northamptonshire

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 08 6:58 pm Post subject:

colour it green wrote:

I never understand this thing about meat and bones attracting rats.. rats eat a lot of vegetation too, and so will be attracted to a meat free compost heap. Rat poison is usually laced wheat grain...

Same here. I used to keep pet rats at one point and they ate anything and everything, meat, veggies, the cuff of my best mate's coat, etc. But for some reason I've always obeyed the mantra about not putting meat in a compost heap. I fear I've been indoctrinated. Perhaps I need to be really brave, run outside and fling some meat bones in.

Then hide behind the sofa and see if the Compost Police visit....

Steel

Joined: 07 Nov 2008
Posts: 72
Location: Northamptonshire

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 08 7:03 pm Post subject:

Slim wrote:

Grinding them into bone meal sounds like a great fertilizer, how would you go about grinding them?

I did think about one of those old fashioned manual coffee bean grinders that has a little drawer in front that collects the grindings. You could dry the bones out in a low oven first.

Typically my father got rid of one last year, after it had sat on the top shelf in his kitchen for 35 years collecting dust.

gnome

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 730

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 08 2:00 am Post subject:
i wouldnt worry too much about attracting rats - there is a very simple solution. Get a cat.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 08 8:01 am Post subject:
I burn them on the woodburner then feed the soil with the ash.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 08 8:32 am Post subject:
I would have thought that by the time you've boiled them up for stocks and soups there would be little left to attract a rat, or at least the little that is left would be no more attractive than the vegetable waste.

James

Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 2866
Location: York

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 08 10:31 am Post subject:
After I've boiled the bones for stock, a potato masher (or even your hands) can mash the now soft bones down to a slimy brown mush. Dig this into your veg beds and it'll be gone in no time. This is the best fertiliser you can get your hands on- it's like gold dust for hungry plants.

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 08 11:36 am Post subject:

James wrote:

After I've boiled the bones for stock, a potato masher (or even your hands) can mash the now soft bones down to a slimy brown mush. Dig this into your veg beds and it'll be gone in no time.
This is the best fertiliser you can get your hands on- it's like gold dust for hungry plants.

Ooo I'll give that a try.

James

Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 2866
Location: York

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 08 2:45 pm Post subject:
I shoud add that we use a pressure cooker for cooking the carcas. I'm not sure if thats why our chicken bones are nice and soft....

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 08 2:46 pm Post subject:
It is. They don't go soft with normal boiling.

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