Bone meal - can it be made at home?

[Greg Nelson]

Not sure if this is the best forum for this, but since I don't know much about the process, I thought it might be a good place to start.  Does anyone know if you can make your own bone meal, or have any experience with it?  I see a bunch of conflicting info about this online, ranging from "it's an industrial process you can't do at home" to "just throw your extra bones in a blender."

I've been thinking that it's one of the commonly recommended organic supplements, and it would be rather nice if there's a way to make it (the ultimate in local sourcing) rather than buying it... especially because bones take a lot longer to compost than most of the other stuff we put out there.  Lots of questions follow, like:

• What kind of bones can bone meal be made from?
• Do they need to be "fresh" or can they be cooked?
• Do you dry them before grinding, or after?
• What kind of grinder does it take to get them fine enough for use?  What is fine enough, anyway?
  
• Is there any other processing involved, like sun bleaching them or burning them or soaking them in lye or something else I might not be aware of?

[Mark Norton]

I would not recommend throwing them into a blender. You're more likely to break it than break your bones up. Much depends on the kinds of bone you want to use as meal. I suspect you'll have more luck with smaller, brittle bones like those from chickens, ducks, geese, or even rabbits than from beef or pork. Fish bones would seem like a natural to me, if you fillet your fish by hand.

I've not tried any of this, but you might consider a large stone mortar and pestle. Let your fowl bones dry out as much as possible, then try grinding them up. I think that might work.