The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mtn Laurel]

I'm thinking about doing night crawlers as well. They are more a dirt based worm, and I'd have to research a bit more before I knew exactly how to care for them. The cool thing about the red worms is that they compost. You feed them kitchen scraps, veggies and fruit and all that stuff. You still get the casings from them, and they're high in protein for the chickens. You're right about the meal worms, even my husband refuses to touch them if I start a batch.

I gave my son-in-law a "earthworm habitat" one year for his birthday. They were living lakeside and love to fish so thought he'd have continuous bait. It worked really well. I got a huge plastic pot from a local nursery - a pot that a tree would come in. I then dug a hole and sunk the pot into the ground. Filled it with dirt, compost, bagged soil, a little bit of everything I could find. Added some oatmeal and a splash of water to keep it slightly moist. Then bought a bunch of bait earthworms and threw them in and topped it with a garbage can lid to keep them from escaping. They lived and he had a continuous supply of bait the entire summer. He would feed them with some oatmeal, veggie scraps, etc. occasionally and made sure it didn't totally dry out.

They moved from that house the end of the summer so not sure how the worms did over the winter. I'm sure there's a "real" way to raise them, I was just going on what I observed and it worked for the time he needed them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Has anyone started a worm farm, with something other than meal worms? I bought hubby a red worm composting habitat, and am pretty excited to get that going. The worms are for two things, one buying fishing worms has gotten so expensive and two for the chickens. Just wondering if anyone else is worm farming.

I have started a redworm bin. I was looking for some extra protein from "animal" source for the winter and decided to give it a try. I ended up getting on of the stacking bins (worm factory) only because the "footprint" it takes up is less than large storage bins as I have to keep it inside.

Strangely enough, a couple days ago i took a couple of worms out for the "kiddos" and no one would eat one! A very strange thing as they dig up red worms all the time out in the wood chip piles and just can't get enough of them. I'll try them again sometime soon. My theory is that since they're in compost maybe there is something in the compost that is causing a strong flavor/smell that they were reacting to.

I looked around at several places and decided to get my first worms from Big Tex Worms http://www.wormbincomposting.com/bigtexworms.html She has a youtube channel with lots of videos regarding setting up bins, maintaining, etc. http://www.youtube.com/user/BigTexWorms/videos

 

[Leahs Mom]

The meal worms are just wrong looking to me. I once got dried mealworms, and they didn't like them all that much. I bought them crickets, and WOW. That was a fave. They loved catching them. The ones that escaped bred outside and sung me to sleep every night this summer.

Red worms.. are those like regular earth worms? My knowledge is nil when it comes to insects.

Funny you say that...I had a hard time touching the dried ones when I had them for my kiddos. Then one day a grandson came over and I handed him the mealworm jar so he could make friends with some chickens. He immediately asked me if he could eat one!

(Now this is a 13yo, not a little one.) Seems that his class at school taught about their nutritional value and different cultures that eat them, then had a "mealworm barbeque". He was one of the only kids that would try them...says they're good!

One oddity of this whole thing is that this kid was horribly afraid of ANY BUG when he was about 3 years old. he would run crying and screaming if he saw even an ant outside. Go figure

 

[maidenwolfx80]

I have mixes that I have brewed up in tea form for respiratory symptoms, lavender, astragalus, meadowsweet, and lemonbalm sometimes I add a touch of mint.
I have several others I use to. Some mixes I make into a strong tea and use as a compress for injuries or washes for cuts. I make tinctures for remedies that I need to speed into the system.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a huge compost bin my dh set up for me outside not far from the back door, I put all kitchen waste in it egg shells also then put clipping from plants and also some leaves in the fall, my goodness the earth worms in there, during the summer months if i bring out the shovel and head that way the ducks not so much the chickens all gather around because they know their going to get a treat, I have tossed a few worms towards the chickens and they just look at them and walk away, My ducks use to love working the compost piles and I didn't think anything about it till i came on BYC and read it was not healthy for the birds to get into compost because of mold, so we put screen over top. and my chickens have never been able to play in it, they do occasionally pull an egg shell out and eat it,. Only problem with using compost for growing worms outside is right now it's frozen solid, no digging for worms this time of year. I think maybe the chickens like finding their own meat sources where the ducks are just lazy and will take a hand out anytime.

 

[delisha]

Quote: You are so sweet..there are enough good bird people around who will be able to share information until Bee returns. You included.

 

[Ashdoes]

Red worms.. are those like regular earth worms? My knowledge is nil when it comes to insects. 

My knowledge of the red worms is solely from researching composting methods. My knowledge of earth worms is from a class project in fourth grade, lol. The red worms need food, like fruits and veggies, they won't do in just soil. The earth worms eat dirt *someone please correct me if I'm wrong. So they are two separate worms.
The red worms are a little smaller then the earth worms, but, and this is cool, you can bulk them up prior to fishing with chicken food. So, take out the twenty for fishing and put them in with chicken food for a week or so before. They fatten up good, and the fish love them.
Either way, you've got slimy worms with high protein for the chickens. I'd love it if someone could comment on actually farming them.

 

[Ashdoes]

Has anyone started a worm farm, with something other than meal worms? I bought hubby a red worm composting habitat, and am pretty excited to get that going. The worms are for two things, one buying fishing worms has gotten so expensive and two for the chickens. Just wondering if anyone else is worm farming.

I have started a redworm bin.  I was looking for some extra protein from "animal" source for the winter and decided to give it a try.  I ended up getting on of the stacking bins (worm factory) only because the "footprint" it takes up is less than large storage bins as I have to keep it inside.

Strangely enough, a couple days ago i took a couple of worms out for the "kiddos" and no one would eat one!  A very strange thing as they dig up red worms all the time out in the wood chip piles and just can't get enough of them.  I'll try them again sometime soon.  My theory is that since they're in compost maybe there is something in the compost that is causing a strong flavor/smell that they were reacting to.

I looked around at several places and decided to get my first worms from Big Tex Worms http://www.wormbincomposting.com/bigtexworms.html  She has a youtube channel with lots of videos regarding setting up bins, maintaining, etc.  http://www.youtube.com/user/BigTexWorms/videos

That's what i got hubby, the worm factory. I wonder why the chickens aren't eating them?

 

[delisha]

I know nothing about growing worms other than the compost pile. I keep worms in the fridge and feed them once in a while. I scored a huge pile of dirt and some brick that I am going to make(actually the DH is going to)a feed house. I might start some worms in there. I do not like the thought of meal worms. They attract mites. If anyone had any information about feeding worms I would like to hear it.

I grow most of my herbs and I have to fence them in with a little fence to keep the chickens out. They love love the herb patch.

 

[Bulldogma]

I have mixes that I have brewed up in tea form for respiratory symptoms, lavender, astragalus, meadowsweet, and lemonbalm sometimes I add a touch of mint.
I have several others I use to. Some mixes I make into a strong tea and use as a compress for injuries or washes for cuts. I make tinctures for remedies that I need to speed into the system.

That sounds really interesting! I'd love to hear your "recipes" for these as well as their uses!

(Just think of the "recipe" book we could have - LOL)