I have an apartment with a balcony - the flooring of the balcony is a lot of wood boards.
My compost bin is a big plastic recycling bin which I have perforated with an awl and rubber hammer on the bottom and sides.
What this means is that when it rains (anything beyond a sprinkle), I have a real hard time turning the compost enough to encourage that water out of the bin.
If I have newspaper around I shred and toss some in to soak up a bit of the water.
My question is if there's any better material I could use to try and absorb the water a bit more. A few days of sun will eventually dry it out, but generally the water really gets trapped between the compost and wood boards, no matter how perforated the bottom is.
edit: I do have a cover and have used as suggested Ed here. This appears to work well barring heavy rain. I have also place bricks under the corners of the bin, which has drained a little water and provided some more aeration.
All the same, I would like to keep the question open a bit longer as I'm still interested in the question of some organic material which may be able to absorb some of this moisture.
Many thanks for your help as the bin is already operating better.