Beehive Compost System

We built several compost bins inspired by a design James found in a book ('Compost' by Ken Thompson). It's a stacking system involving several levels, built on a slant, with a wooden lip nailed on the inside, toward the bottom, so they stack neatly. Levels can be added as your compost pile gets bigger, and subtracted as it breaks down. The lid is just a similar nailed lip and a rope handle. We had a little bit of rope laying around...

We just slapped a coat of paint on these. Actually, it was one coat of paint followed by black spray paint. They are holding up OK. There's room for improvement on the design and execution here...some wax or tung oil maybe, or sturdier varnish, or two coats of proper exterior paint.

Here they are after their first coat of paint. There is also a dog standing
on a boat in this photo, because why on Earth would anyone crop that out?

A single section

The bins in use today, showing a small compost bin for 'finished' compost, a
larger bin used for daily food scraps, and a spare section awaiting use.