# What do you do with feathers, blood, bones?



## Sandi (Oct 4, 2011)

I tried searching first but couldn't find a thread on this. What do you do with chicken blood, bones, and feathers after processing? I'd like to waste as little as possible, but we also have dogs on our property and we have to be careful about how we compost or dispose of animal parts. I'd love to hear what you all do and how you do it!


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## DayBird (Jul 26, 2004)

If composting is absolutely out of the question, bury the remains deep under your garden.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

You could dig a hole and bury it, then place a piece of tin or plywood or a bunch of big rocks over the hole to keep dogs out.
I did that the last place I lived.

You could drive out somewhere and dump it to feed the coyotes.

I bury it in the bottom end of the compost pile but my dogs dont run loose in the garden area.


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## Sandi (Oct 4, 2011)

we only have a small dog that is loose in the garden area, but i don't want to attract possums, etc, either. so how do you do the big hole? i don't want to dig a huge hole in the garden every time i have an animal carcass, but it seems like leaving it uncovered to be ready for the next time would just invite animals. do you keep it covered with something really heavy or do you dig new holes each time? thanks for the advice!


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

You just need a few inches of dirt to cover the remains, and something to put over it to prevent digging.

How many birds are you talking about?


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## DayBird (Jul 26, 2004)

a new hole each time


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

We have enough predators here that I toss it a pile on my farther from home land, and the next morning it is gone.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

if you have enouth carbon in the compost pile and cover it well it wont smell and will help compost the nitrogen from the animal products faster anyway, also if the compost is deep enough to be working properly then unless the dog is compleatly left alone for a long amount of time you would be able to stop any possible digging into the pile before its a problem,.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

farmerDale said:


> We have enough predators here that I toss it a pile on my farther from home land, and the *next morning it is gone*.


 
Same here.

I've had entire sheep carcasses disappear overnight when the bears are roaming, and Bald Eagles dining on "sun ripened" possum

Sometime the Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures find it before I can get back to the house

I'll bury my pets, but many things just get "recycled" back to Nature


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## DayBird (Jul 26, 2004)

You could "feed" the feet, head, entrails, and any leftover bones to the dog.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

we bury it or give it to the pigs


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## Sandi (Oct 4, 2011)

I'm not sure yet how many it would be, it's currently a sort of hypothetical question. I want to make sure we don't waste our precious home produced "waste" but also don't want to attract critters. We have coyotes and all the normal small rodents and the dog would be out unsupervised. It sounds like perhaps bagging it in the freezer until I have enough to be worth digging a hole and then starting a new one each time, well buried might be the ticket.

How many of you all let your dogs eat chicken bones and waste? I have heard that the splintering and choking hazards are less of an issue when it is raw than when it is cooked, but I still thought chicken bones were off limits. We have two labs (which are not the ones who run loose, that's a little mutt) and I've had problems with them swallowing hole the bones of much bigger animals, though so far always cooked. I'd love to start getting them more "raw" material but I don't want them to choke either. This advice has been very helpful, thank you all so much!


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## notasnowballs (Dec 28, 2010)

My dogs get the bones and guts, half the time the feathers, too. The pigs will get some, or the pigs eat a freshly killed chicken that my stupid dog nailed (fixing that problem as we speak). Husband used to throw it out at the back of the property, but we found it was an open invitation to the coyotes that dinner is served (I have rabbits in free range tractor thingies). Besides, it is creepy to be butchering in the evening and see a row of eyes waiting on the berm at the back of the property. We used to bury, but we have crazy rocky (I'm talking 10 inch diameter) soil here. Not fun to dig deep holes in. We have burned it in the burn pile as well, and then buried or dumped in back of property. Once it's been burned, it's not as much of a predator problem. I don't put it in my compost pile because I transfer my compost pile to the garden pretty quick and my chickens when free ranging scratch through everything. I don't let the creatures eat of their own species because that's gross.


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## mitchell3006 (Apr 1, 2010)

Feed them to the hogs.


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## DayBird (Jul 26, 2004)

other than the head and possibly the neck and feet, what bones are you throwing out?

When butchering, we save all the bones for stock.


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## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

We pour the blood around the apple trees. The bones go in pressure-canned dog food (they get very soft and safe to eat and we can them up with the hearts, livers, feet, backs and necks). We haven't found a use for the feathers yet so we rake them up and throw them away. I suppose we should think about composting them.

You didn't ask about the guts and heads. We throw them on top of an old shed and let the ravens have at them.


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## Zeet_Cranberry (Jan 11, 2011)

On a slightly related topic....is it true that raw chicken bones don't splinter and are safe for dogs while cooked chicken bones will splinter and are dangerous???


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