What about Earthworm farming?

[stone_family3]

I know many do meal worm farming, but I was wondering if any of you do earth warm farming? I have some 55 gallon food grade barrels that are cut in half long ways. I was looking for some stuff to grow in them to feed to the girls to cut feed costs.

 

[albert w]

Do your chickens pike earthworms? My kids and I caught a bunch today but the chickens wouldn't have anything to do with them. They're only a couple months old, so I'm hoping they warm up to worms because I have a friend with a worm farm lol!

 

[jecombs]

I did a worm farm with my kids last summer, for fun and to create compost for the garden (didn't have chickens at the time). Google "vermiculture" and you'll get all the instructions for making a worm farm. You want to make sure you use red wigglers for your worms because they do well in captivity and won't turn into cannibals. GL! It's a fun and easy project.

 

[galanie]

Many folks raise earthworms as a way to compost stuff. If you want them primarily as a chicken food, you'd be better off raising mealworms. Earthworms are nice chicken treats but they don't reproduce fast enough to be a good source of chicken food. They do provide a high quality compost though.

Course then the person will chime in that chickens can get worms and stuff from earthworm guts but I'll bet they're eating lots of things that could potentially do that while you're not watching.