I had been having trouble finding a good way to dispose of the animal carcasses that we get from unexpected deaths or just heads/feet/wings left over from the processing of the meat animals. Burying is an option but I find the local foxes tend to dig them up. I guess I need to dig deeper holes, but I still feel this is quite wasteful.
I found this idea about composting them and decided to give it a go. I placed several chicken carcasses in a big tub completely surrounded in wet wood chips and left it in one of the polytunnels for about 4 months, watering occasionally and sometimes with compost tea, the following pictures are what was left over when I emptied the tub.
Everything but the feathers and bones had composted nicely, there were loads of worms and wood lice which is a really good sign of fertile compost. I put the remaining feathers and bones through the wood chipper with some green weeds and wood and spread this on the garden too.
Job done, everything was recycled back into the garden, completing the cycle of life! I think I will use this technique for all future disposals.
