Best Chicken Treats EVER (plus garden extras)

[wawafiveseven]

Make sure that when you do composting with worms, that you use the right kind of worm.

Endogeic worms are the worms that you dig up in your garden and promote aeration.

Epigeic worms are your composting worms.

I'm sure if feeding worms to your chickies, either one would be fine as long as the worms themselves have not been feasting/living in chemical and disease prone areas. If feeding the epigeic worms, it should be okay because you should not be feeding your worms any type of meats, dairy, or anything oily. IMO, these foods are the reasons why people disagree with feeding worms. The worms that eat these rotten and bacteria eaten foods could be the reason why people fear that they pass on parasites and make our chickies sick.

Here are some very informative sites that you can visit:

The right worms for the Job
http://www.waikikiworm.com/3wwaboutwms.html


Types of Garden Worms
http://www.gardenguides.com/97558-types-garden-worms.html

Bin Diagram
http://www.working-worms.com/

 

[WashingtonCowgirl]

We have both kinds, mostly because when my nephews are over and they find a worm it MUST go in the bin.. lol

 

[Chick CJ]

In response to wawafivesevin;


Okay, so Washingtoncowgirl seems to have fishing worms, which I believe are nightcrawlers, and worms from her yard, also nightcrawlers in her worm bin. I read the difference in the worms and the jobs they do but I didn't see why you couldn't have bins of regular garden worms. Also, I have not heard form anyone that they wouldn't want their chickens eating worms. Can you tell me more on the subject? Any actual cases of sick chickens proven to have been from them eating worms? My chickens eat a lot of things on their own that I would think might give them problems but they don't seem to. I'm always very happy to give my girls worms as they love them so much and am now feeling like it's a bad thing to do. I would like people to way in on either side so I can then make my own decision to feed or not to feed. How about it...
CJ

 

[WashingtonCowgirl]

I have always fed worms to chickens, ever since I was little with no problems. When I was growing up, if you said worm, you would be mobbed by our chickens. They LOVE them. None of our chickens have ever gotten sick, nor have I ever heard of that happening

 

[Roy]

Maybe it just the country boy in me, but, I get my fishing and chicken worms for free. After it rains and it gets dark, take a flashlight outside and look just about anywhere on the ground and there are millions of worms all stretched out just waiting to be picked and fed to a fish, a chicken, or anywhere you would like to store them...

 

[LarryPQ]

Quote:
Chickens can get sick from the parasites which plague worms---gapeworm is a common example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapeworm

 

[wawafiveseven]

Quote:
Usually, you want to keep your endogeic (garden) worms in the garden where they are most beneficial by aerating your soil. They are mineral eating worms.

Epigeic (composting) worms like moist living conditions.
(I would suggest that if you want fast eating and reproducting worms, try red wigglers.)

I found this site to be very educational. It also explains how worms eat

http://www.worms4earth.com/aboutworms.htm#7

I hope this helps!

Edited to fix grammar