Help! Humanure has gone cold!

I don't know what happened, but suddenly our humanure pile is cold. It was fine for about a year and a half and then stopped cooking. I tried adding horse manure to the deposits for a while, thinking maybe that we had too much carbon, but it didn't seem to help. Now, I've tried to cover it. Maybe it's too wet? I live in the PNW. It's not super cold outside, but quite rainy. Wondering if anyone has experience with bringing your pile back to temp? I know that I can't turn it like a normal compost pile, but hoping I can do something to fix it!! Thanks for your help

It Doesn't response to your question directly, but here up north my humanure pile does not heat up enough, so i compost it for 2years instead. I turn-mix it once after a yearto be sure, but i read after 2 years, most of the harmful bacteria-virus etc are dead. Could it be a solution for you ?

I think in the Humanure book Joe Jenkins says what Raphael said - not to worry if it cools down over winter, it will heat up once the weather warms, and just let it compost longer.
I have no personal experience yet, not on my homestead yet and will be setting up humanure there in the spring. But my feeling is a cold humanure compost pile needs more nitrogen rather than carbon, as the faeces and cover material are already high in carbon. Extra urine ideally, though if the pile is already too wet, more liquid might not be good. Do you know anyone with hens who could help with some fresh chicken manure?

Sarah Peller wrote:suddenly our humanure pile is cold. It was fine for about a year and a half and then stopped cooking.

Sarah, how tall is your pile?  If you've been building the same pile for a year and a half I'm guessing its getting tall.  I find my piles struggle to keep hot when I get around 4ft - 5ft.  That's when I start a new pile.

I'm not sure how to reply to individual posts here, so I'll try to reply to all of them...

My pile isn't that tall yet. About 3 feet. It keeps sinking down.

I haven't seen it yet be this cold over the winter. Our winters are very mild here, so it seems the pile could still keep cooking. One thing that is worrying me is that critters are now digging into the pile because it's not hot anymore.

I really like that idea of (if I can't get it up to temp), to let it sit for 2 years and turn/mix after 1 year. That's a really good option!

Sarah Peller wrote:I'm not sure how to reply to individual posts here, so I'll try to reply to all of them...

You can use the quote button on top of each post. I think you can keep open two windows of permies open if you want to write multiple quote-response, try it !

Sarah, What are the dimensions of your pile?  How often do you feed your pile and how much?  How much horse manure were you adding and for how many feedings?  Any chance the pile was exposed to a stiff cold wind?

I've heard of a deluge killing an uncovered compost pile.  Water carries heat away very efficiently.  The typical recommendation for that in the non-humanure composting realm is to take your pile apart and rebuild it with fresh material, treating the old material more like carbon.  If a deluge was the issue, since you're continuing to add fresh material I'd think it could recover.

Another way I've seen a pile turn cold quickly is too much exposure to a stiff cold wind.  That can chill a pile in a matter of hours.  I use welded wire fencing for my bin walls, so I learned I needed to use a layer of cardboard or a tarp to break the wind.

I've recovered from a pile gone cold before, so I know its possible to do.  Since your pile doesn't sound too tall I'd add as much fresh horse manure as you can with your contributions.  I've also successfully started a humanure pile with frozen manure and animal bedding, layered with snow to ensure its hydrated when the pile wakes up.  Our winters here can get much colder than in the PNW where I grew up.  This winter we saw -25F with wind chill down to -47F.