The rate of compost is based on the available food, the size of the composting material, how much air you have in the mix, and how moist it is.

The way to tell if your mix is active is that it will start generating its own heat, building up to 160F for hot compost.

Unlike those commercial, expensive, automated composting machines it will take a minimum of 6 weeks of turning and adding until you start getting finished compost. Do not worry about perfect ratios, just add material. You want it to be more dry than soaking wet, because you can always add moisture.

Thanks to BiotechFarmer for his contribution to this section.