I'm always trying to find ways to make things instead of purchasing them. I sometimes buy bone meal for the garden. I like to use it when I plant garlic, onions and other bulbing plants. I don't like to buy the stuff at the store, because I know it comes from animals that have lived in CAFO's and have been fed antibiotics and hormones. Since I buy my chickens at the local farm, they're pastured and happy and healthy as can be. I try to make the best use of them when I buy them, they are expensive and I don't like to waste anything. When we get done eating a chicken, this is what we have left.
Usually I bury these bones somewhere in the garden, or put them in the compost pile. They do take a while to break down though, so I thought I could make my own bone meal instead. I simply put the bones in a blender and I had bone meal. Not quite as fine as the stuff you buy, but much healthier for my garden.
I feel good knowing that nothing is going to waste and the bone meal I'm using in my garden is the best quality.
What do you do with your chicken bones? Have you ever made your own bone meal?
24 comments:
Do you dry the bones before blending? If so, how long? Do you have a standard kitchen blender or a commercial-grade machine like a vita mix? Thanks for this post! This seems like a much better alternative. I remember years ago during the madcow scare, that gardeners were told to be wary of commercial bonemeal. Not sure if that was a groundless scare... but doesn't hurt to be wary.
Mmmm very interesting, and makes a lot of sense. I do bury all my fish and shellfish scraps, and they get broken down in no time at all. I am not sure my blender would handle bones so wonder if buring the whole bones would be just as good.
I think I read somewhere to actyually put them in a fire then crush them
I actually save my bones and skins in a bag in the freezer and then I pressure cook it till it is very soft, then the outdoor cats have a feast.
I bet if you made stock with the bones first (which is major yummy), the bones would be easy-peasy to crush or blend then. Or does that take all the nutrients out that the plants want? I'm glad to see this! I hate throwing out the bones after making stock, I thought there was something more to use them for.
If you had a strong enough blender/food processor, could you do the same with beef or pork bones?
In the alternative (after making stock) allow the bones to dry, and place them in a cloth sack and crush with a hammer (just watch the dust, it can be very harmful when inhaled, or so I am told).
Love to reuse as much as possible. I usually just bury them around the yard and let time work on them.
Hmmm, interesting. Funny, I never put 2 and 2 together. Bone meal, is actually bone! hahaha, I feel like an idiot. And to think I thought it was some fancy garden speak!
I do this with chicken bones, but haven't tried with any harder bones. I make stock with the bones first (so they're clean) and then bake them in the oven (just put them in when it's on for something else). I don't think the nutrients will have leached out, as it's the chemicals that actually make up the bone you're after.
By the time they've been cooked the three times, I can snap even the thigh bones in half with my hands. It's good to cross something else off the shopping list!
Hazel
This is great! We were just wondering if we could do this. We raise our own chickens so it's extra exciting to have them back in the ground. (Thanks, chickens!)
Am also wondering, though -- we also make stock of pretty much everything -- will they still be effective as bone meal after stock-ifying?
Another question for you. I use canned sardines a lot -- canned in vegetable oil. I don't think it would be a good idea to put the oil in the compost bin, but it seems like there would be lots of nutrients in it. So how can I use this stuff in the garden -- if I should at all?
Thanks
Oooo, Lots of good stuff. Here's my thinking: bigger bones, beef, etc. Make stock, then crush with hammer (they break down faster in smaller pieces).
What about the sardine oil (previous comment) or the cartilage, etc that if left after making stock in addition to bones. I've also read "don't put in compost pile", but that is usually followed by "otherwise you'll attract animals." Could I have an "animal waste" pile that is separate and further from living areas (just imagining the vast number of flies). Can the worm farm handle it? (instructions say "no")
I dry them in the oven after I've used them to make stock. I simply put them on a cookie sheet and put them in oven whenever I take whatever I'm baking out of the oven. Usually once is good enough to dry them thoroughly, but sometimes I do it twice.
I have a Cuisinart blender, not a super heavy duty one. I'm not sure a blender would work on beef bones, they're a lot tougher. I let the dog make quick work of the beef bones.
I make stock with mine first and don't worry about them not being as nutritious. I figure there's still something of value in them and it's better than throwing them away in the garbage!
And for the Younger Rachel. I disregard all claims to not throw animal products in the garden. I usually don't throw them in the compost pile, I bury them in a hole. Usually the chicken cartilage is fed to the pets and the rest is buried. I also bury fish bones, clam shells, shrimp shells, etc. I however don't throw oil in the garden, I will only include fat if it's natural animal fat or bread or cookies with fat in it.
I put the sardine oil on my dog's dry food and that makes her a very happy camper.
What a great idea. I've been saving my poultry bones for stock, and it will be great to have an alternate to throwing them out.
Animals you would regret attracting that would all find bones and animal waste attractive:
rats
raccoons
bears
ravens
Once they have incorporated your garden to their territory, they are all very hard to get rid of
I read in a book the old farmers used to soak bones in water and wood ash... Then crush up.. Said this was the best fertilizer.
I know that if you soak chicken bones in vinegar it leaches the calcium out so if you use vinegar, or probably any other acid, you'd leach out some of the calcium. It's the calcium, I think, that's most important in bone meal. Of course, your stock is healthier for you with the added calcium.
For the kids, put one or more chicken bones in a tall skinny glass jar, fill with vinegar and wait a few days. Take out a bone and it should bend, not snap.
It's the phosphorus as well as the calcium that makes bone meal valuable in gardening. I've just found this http://www.vitasoil.com/bone%20main.htm
which says farmers used to make their own bonemeal by roasting or fermenting bones. :-)
Phosphorous is water soluble, but I would think only over time, as to make the commercial product this company pressure steam their bones for 3 hours.
I can't think making stock leaches out more nutrition than that does.
To compost animal products or cooked food that can't be fed to one of our animals I use the bokashi system. This effectively pickles the food, meaning it composts quicker in the heap or in the ground and makes it less attractive to scavengers (chief of which is my dog Mabel...)
The microbe infused bran is pricey, but it's easy to ferment newspaper in yoghurt whey and use that instead. You dry the newspaper afterwards, so can make enough to last a year or more in one go.
Google 'bokashi' or 'newspaper bokashi' for more information.
Hazel
Awesome. Bone Meal = Crushed Bones, that makes sense! lol... silly me.
IIRC Mary Appelhof (author of Worms Eat My Garbage) used to bury her bones in her worm composters, then when she took out the compost she hung them up to dry for a few months... then put them in a bag and bashed them with a hammer to make bonemeal. Sounds very therapeutic :)
Thanks for sharring importent information in this blog.
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Anonymous, Younger Rachael -- do *not* create a compost pile *just* for meats! It won't be a compost pile at all, unless you add plant matter. Apologies if you know this already; it just sounds like it could be so horrible and stinky if you don't. And I hope I get it right -- my husband's the compostmaster so I may have some of the details wrong.
To heat up and decompose actively, a compost pile needs a more-or-less equal ratio of carbon (kitchen scraps, leaf litter, grass clippings, straw, wood chips) to nitrogen (manure, chicken coop bedding, meat and meat-bits). We compost our chicken guts and feathers, but we put about 2 feet of carbon (wood chips or straw, usually) down, and line the sides too to make a little well, into which the guts go. Then another 2 feet of carbon on top.
We did get raccoons -- and flies, and serious bad smell -- when we didn't have enough carbon on top, but another layer of wood chips solved all of these.
Has there been a Simple, Green, Frugal post about hot composting? Maybe there should be one.
But yeah, the dog wants the delicious sardine oil. :)
Lauren -- Thanks for your thoughts, I haven't added more than plant matter, egg shells and coffee grounds to the compost bin. I'd like to be able to compost the leftover bits from chickens and such, but I'm just not sure what to do... anyone know about the worm farm?
The Younger Rachael, worms farms can be a little tricky to manage from all I've read but are simple enough once up and running. The major problem is they are temperature susceptible. In colder months they won't work and you are left with your waste again.
I use a bokashi system, I have detailed it on my blog but the basics of it is a sealed fermenting unit into which you can put nearly anything organic before you add it to the compost pile some weeks later.
I have put meat, fish and bones in mine as well as rotten fruit and veg in addition to the usual scraps. It pickles everything for want of a better word. This makes it unattractive to vermin so they won't trouble your compost heap. It also produces a lot of fluid which can be drained off and used as a plant feed, dilute 1 part to 100 in water, or put neat in your drains to clear up odours!
Limitations are it won't handle a lot of overly wet stuff and you ideally need two pots as when the first is full it needs to 'mature' for 6 weeks. Also you have to keep buying in bokashi. The wormery has an advantage here as once you have worms they take care of providing more.
Check out my blog for details or look them up. I'll answer any questions I can for you as well.
In answer to another question here, oils can be composted as can anything organic, it will attract pests though so be aware of this.
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