Plenty of enthusiastic composters will tell you that it’s possible to compost chicken bones at home — and we’re not here to disagree with them. Chicken bones, like all bones, are biodegradable organic material. That means, yes, they can be composted. 

However, and it’s a big however, chicken bones aren’t something you can toss into your backyard compost pile without a second thought. Why? Because chicken bones tend to get quite odorous, which can attract pests. Many home compost piles will not reach a high enough temperature to break down chicken bones, and even when they do, they can take months or even years to decompose. But don’t get discouraged — rather, read on to learn how to set your compost pile (bones and all) up for success. 

How to compost chicken bones

If you intend to compost chicken bones at home, here are ways to reduce the risk of smells and critters in your pile.  

Remove all the meat

Bones are appetizing enough to pests on their own without meat on them, so there’s no reason to make them more appealing by throwing a half-eaten chicken leg in your compost pile. Meat can also turn especially putrid as it starts to decompose, and nobody wants that sitting around for months or years. If you are planning on composting chicken bones, make sure there’s no meat left on them whatsoever. If you want to compost the cooked meat, you can, but be advised that this is also generally reserved for expert composters.

Ensure the bones are cooked

Did you buy bone-in chicken thighs that you plan to debone for a dinner of boneless, skin-on chicken thighs? Or are you planning on deboning a whole chicken for a heaping plate of fried chicken? In these cases, you’ll be left with raw chicken bones — which you’ll need to cook before you compost them in your backyard. 

There are three good reasons for this. One, cooked chicken bones will decompose faster than raw chicken bones. Cooking the bones helps to start drying them out, and less moisture means faster decomposition. Second, cooking the bones will kill harmful bacteria like e coli, which can contaminate your compost pile. Finally, cooked bones smell less bad than raw bones. This doesn’t mean there will be no smell, but it just means the smell might be unpleasant, as opposed to rancid. 

Pre-process them with Mill 

The Mill food recycler turns kitchen scraps, including chicken bones, into nutrient-rich food grounds that can be added to your compost pile. (Or sent to curbside collection, or sent back to Mill to get back to the farm!) Not only will Mill grind chicken bones into tiny pieces so that they decompose quickly and don’t attract pests, but Mill also kills potentially harmful pathogens present in chicken bones. This means you don’t have to stress about waiting months or years for chicken bones to decompose, and you don’t need to worry about pests poking around your compost pile. 

Ensure the temperature of the compost pile is hot enough

When it comes to composting chicken bones, the hotter the compost pile, the better. Generally, a hot compost pile is one that’s kept at temperatures between 113°F and 160°F. Hot compost is different from cold and warm compost because of the temperature, certainly, but also because of the amount of attention that is required to keep compost at that temperature. Frequent turning, balancing greens and browns, and monitoring moisture levels are all necessary parts of keeping a compost pile hot. To successfully compost chicken bones, you’ll want to ensure your pile is consistently hitting a minimum temperature of 135°F, while not exceeding 160°F. 

Even in a hot compost pile, you’ll want to be specific about placement when composting bones. Generally, the center of the pile is the hottest, so that’s where you’ll want to put them. Keeping the bones in the hottest part of a hot pile can help mitigate foul odors and offers the best chance of breaking down quickly. 

Compost through a city-run program

If you’re not ready to take on the task of composting chicken bones at home but are still interested in reducing food waste and keeping it out of landfills, take advantage of your local municipality’s composting program. While it’s always good to double-check first, most commercial-scale composting operations usually accept meat and meat byproducts, including bones. 

Because most municipal programs use machines to aid in the composting process, bones, and especially chicken bones, which tend to be smaller than other animal bones, are handled quite easily. If you don’t live in an area with curbside compost collection, check in with your waste management service to see if there’s an option to drop off materials you would like to compost at a designated facility. 

Reduce food waste with Mill

If you want to compost chicken bones without smells or pests, try Mill. The Mill food recycler dries and grinds uneaten food into odorless food grounds, which you can add to your compost pile, send to curbside compost pickup, or return to Mill to get them back to the farm. This way, you don’t need to feel like a chicken when it comes to composting bones. 

Sources:

1. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service: “Proper Heat Treatment Kills Deadly E. coli Bacteria in Food.” July 31, 1998. https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/1998/proper-heat-treatment-kills-deadly-e-coli-bacteria-in-food/