Vermiculture?......worms are next.....

[savingdogs]

I'm glad to hear the downsides, lwheelr, I tend to forget about things that don't clamber for my attention and worms can't exactly shout so I'll have to keep them somewhere where I can't forget them. I'm thinking out on the front porch maybe where it could ooze and just drip to the plants below and they couldn't escape...... ............still laughing about escaping worms, but realize now that it would be possible. I guess the drain holes have to be smaller than worm size?

I have two teenagers and one of them LOVES touching gross things like worms. He enjoys holding the poultry while dad cuts off the head. Gross is cool. I'm hoping this will be his way of earning his lunch money for school while learning resourcefulness.

 

[lwheelr]

The drain holes HAVE to be big enough for worms. Because the whole beauty of the two bin system is that the worms can migrate from the bottom bin to the top bin when the bottom one is full.

Worms don't leave an environment they like - so keep them happy and they'll stay there. They don't like light either.

Outdoors may be a problem in the winter if they get too cold. Worms are pretty cold and heat sensitive - If it gets cold enough to freeze the bin clear through, they will freeze out, and you'll have worm-popsicles to feed your chickens and that is it!

In the summer, they don't do well in extreme heat either, so they may need to go under a porch in the shade, or somewhere else fairly cool.

I'm thinking probably in Texas, the combo of worms and BSF will be good, since BSF reproduces most in the summer heat, while worms will produce best through the mild winters if we keep them comfy, so we can have some kind of treats for the poultry year-round.

 

[savingdogs]

Actually our winters are fairly mild here in Washington, we do get freezes though, so perhaps for just the coldest months I can bring it inside to the utility room.

I thought the bin was supposed to have drainage holes? What do you mean by two bin system?

 

[lwheelr]

Well, if you have 1/4" holes in the bottom, they double as drain and migration holes.

When a bin is full, instead of having to sort the worms from the castings, you just fill a second bin with bedding and food, and set it on top of the first one, and put the lid on the top one. The worms will migrate from the bottom one to the top one as the food runs out in the bottom one. Takes 2-4 weeks (depending on how much was left in the bottom one), and usually that gives enough time for the eggs to hatch and the baby worms to migrate too.

Bottom bin is then filled with auto-sorted castings.

You can then make another bin and divide the first one if you need to.

I'm all for work saving...

 

[savingdogs]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

Thank you for explaining that to me!