"What am I doing wrong?", nothing! Sounds like you do cold composting---give it time, egg shells go slowly and the smaller the pieces, the faster their slow decomposition will go.

Well, it's SUPPOSED to be hot composting. :-)

Unfortunately, I don't move in until next week, so I haven't been actively turning the pile or adding things on a frequent basis. It's been a cold compost for a while.

I'll try to heat it up when I move in. And to be more patient.

Thanks!

Did ya wave a dead chicken over it? Sometimes that helps.

Lloyd

P.S. Just kidding, egg shells last a long time even in a hot composting system.

And don't worry if they don't break down all the way, either. Some gardeners put eggs shells around their plants to combat slugs/snails.

Egg shells, even when finely crushed, are very difficult items for the bacteria to digest whether in your compost pile or your soil, which is why they do make a relatively good control for slugs, and do not do much to prevent Blossom End Rot in tomatoes. Whether your compost is "hot" or "cold" makes no difference, egg shells are just hard and hard to compost.

This is interesting, it seems my egg shells disintegrate ultra fast. Once theyÂre in there I never see them again. My compost runs about 140⦠most of the time though. I do have some shredded bank statements in there that have lasted a MONTH now. They were shredded into the diamond shape pieces of paper. They are still white and holding up well to my dismay. The statements were from 1998 or so, so maybe there was something in the paper that doesnÂt want to compost. Time will tell. (DidnÂt mean to hijack).

Crushing them isn't a big deal. I throw the used eggshells into a quart-sized container by themselves. When they dry out, I use a thick wooden spatula and smush them down. They crush down into small peices and then you can throw more eggshells in. Takes 1 minute.

I happen to use pulverised eggshells in a suet mixture I make for the birds. After crushing, I microwave them for a couple minutes (for sterilization) and then throw them into the blender. They blend into the texture of fine sand. This provides extra calcium during nesting season, and grit for the birds stomachs.

I have some eggshells that I failed to crush up that are in a batch of nearly completed compost. They still look like the day they were put in! When the compost is done I'll either take them out and throw them in the next batch or crunch them up and just use them for slug control.

bradley - I notice the same thing sometimes.. for some reason I'll see something in there that should have been long gone and wonder what's up with that. However, a dead squirrel - hair, bones, and all - disappears in a matter of days. Glad about that one.. I was nervous about putting it in there, but I couldn't stand to just see him laying in my neighbor's yard.

"However, a dead squirrel - hair, bones, and all - disappears in a matter of days."

Gerri

Tell me you didn't run him through the leaf-vac!

Lloyd

Gerri------now we know the "rest of the story" as Paul H would say........

haha.. Calm down Lloyd. I'm more careful now about what I suck up in the leaf vac these days. However, since the town brought me this latest load of leaves, and most of them are finely shredded already, the leaf vac has been resting comfortably lately. :)

What's the fastest way to debag major leafage? I have to get rid of these so they will bring me more!

D, yep, now you know that you don't have to fear dead squirrel + hot compost. And you have no idea how many people I have told about the squirrel. :)