fertilise your flock by learning how to produce worms for chickens and build a worm bin . This addition to a flock ’s dieting can add a of course - grown nutritionary food reference and total variety .
My in - primer worm bin ’s squeaky lid conjures the audio of a creepy crypt ’s opening threshold . It reminds me of that spooky tyke ’s rhyme , “ The Hearse Song : ” “ The worms crawl in ; the worms crawl out ; the worms play pinochle on your snout . ” The dirt ball bin is in fact a crypt for things once living that are now drained : leaves from the garden , chaff from roast coffee bean , cotton plant from my worn - out blue dungaree . And the worms — specifically reddened worms ( Eisenia fetida ) — do front crawl in and out . However , there are n’t any signs of snouts just yet .
You might be more conversant with smaller worm bins that people keep in their kitchens . Some keep in - mansion worm bin going for many years , but those require a fleck more care than their plugger let on . I ’ve curated an in - household insect bin a couple of times , keeping the worm in a 10 - gal plastic holdall and feeding them kitchen scraps supplemented by shredded newspaper . Then , I ’ve moved on to other projects when the bin became a bad house guest and generated too much stinky moisture or flies and maggot , which hatch from tent-fly egg laid on garden truck Robert Peel in the kitchen or foodstuff store .
However , when I visualise an outdoor worm bin built with concrete stop side and a plywood eyelid , I knew I would make one myself . The advantages over an in - sign bin were obvious .
A small enquiry revealed flushed worms ’ idealistic condition : temperatures between 59 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit ; a moisture level of 80 percent ( like a damp sponge ) ; pH between 5 and 9 ; minimum ammonia or salt ; and no light . Also , worms are cold - blooded and breathe through their moist cutis .
I sleep together that even in my modest zone seven in North Carolina , an aboveground dirt ball bin mean the worms would spend winter too cold to be combat-ready . And if the bin dried out in summertime , compost product — and wriggle breeding — would hurt . Few things motivate me like a pattern problem .
So I buried this problem ; an in - primer worm bin was the room to go . The surrounding stain would keep it warmer in wintertime and cooler and muffler in summer . But I ’d take to figure out how to keep it from flooding when it rain down ; how to keep it moist during drouth ; what organic waste product would go into it ; and schedules for feeding the chicken from it and harvesting the compost . Of of course , I also wanted to keep the cost as low as possible .
I poked around the stock behind my house . ( Note : The planting in front of my house are “ bungalow / garden style ” for the interest of my married woman and the neighbors , but the area behind the house is what I call “ barnyard stylus ” for me . ) Behind the service department , I found a fighting peck of pressure - treated Post and pickets from preceding fence projects , a tattered projection screen door , a used souse hosiery and some telegram - fencing refuse . The bicycle in my brain were release .
Identify the Location
To begin growing worm for chicken , I choose a well - drained spot on high ground that would n’t flood in a pelting . It was also approachable for a wheelbarrow , so I could shovel out prime compost once a year . Additionally , it was just a few feet from a 275 - gallon rain cask .
Measure and Dig the Hole
An area measuring close to 3 - by-6 to 4 - by-8 foot and about 1 foot bass makes a worm bank identification number that can swallow Lot of organic waste product and grow one thousand of red worms for chickens . I urge using an old screen door for a lid , so you may :
Build the Bin
After you ’ve dug the hole , line the inside with a solid frame to keep the dirt wall from caving in and plump for the eyelid . Concrete blocks ( commonly called cinder blocks ) are 16 inch long , 8 inches wide and 8 inches magniloquent , so one course of blocks will give you enough depth . Sixteen blocks will line a 4 - by-8 - foot ABA transit number . you’re able to also use press - regale planks or rot - resistant plank of the duramen of red cedar , white cedarwood , cypress tree or sequoia , if they are usable topically . Untreated wood that is n’t putrefaction - resistant , such as true pine or oak , will last three to eight days and then need to be rebuilt .
Regardless of wood type , three 8 - foot plank of 2 - by-12 inch will suffice for a 4 - by-8 - foot bin . Cut one board in half to 4 invertebrate foot , then nail or screw ( with 3 - inch screws ) the four pieces together to create the 4 - by-8 frame , as if you were pass water a raised layer . drip it in your hole .
My atomic reactor of 6 - by-6 - inch scraps cut from the top of pressure - treated fencing postal service clear newfangled life as a loose lining for my bin . I stacked two line of these scraps and link them together with 3 - inch exterior class screws so they would stay in property . I used an old concealment door for a lid . I could have dug a binful that pair the door ’s dimensions , but I or else framed the top of the bin with pieces of scrap 1 - by-6 - inch pickets to fulfill the gap between the door and the 6 - by-6 ’s .
Add the Lid
Once the ABA transit number was dug and the frame was installed , bestow the old screen door . Use the old hinges to secure one side of the room access . Add one or two handles on the other side to make it easy to open . Then , lay the soaker hosiery on the doorway , and sandwich the hose to the door with a section of fencing wire and fence staples . Use a scrap piece of a 2 - by-4 to prop the hat open when you ’re total constitutive barren , let the chicken fee or harvesting compost .
cover up the door with heavy - duty landscape fabric or a double layer of shade cloth , so that spark wo n’t bother the dirt ball but some rain can get in . at long last , have a tarpaulin , a piece of plywood or some metallic element roofing handy to hatch the binful if arduous rains set in , so it wo n’t fill up like a tub of water and swim the worms .
Slowly Add Water
link up the pelter hosiery to the rainwater barrelful with a garden hosiery and spigot . You ’ll add materials that are juiceless , so the steady drip of the downpour hosepipe over the intact bin will sustain a roughly 80 percent moisture point . The spigot let you turn off the water if there has been enough rain .
Add Worms and Waste
resourcefulness such as Rhonda Sherman ’s Vermiculture Technology ( 2010 ) and Mary Appelhof ’s Worms Eat My Garbage ( 2016 , 2nd edition ) urge bulge with one pound of cerise worm per one square ft of worm bin . But that ’s for optimum composting . At about $ 25 per pound via mail ordering ( you’re able to find many vendors online ) and with 32 hearty ft of bin , that was too expensive for me .
My goals were less about using a lot of worm to eliminate waste and more about using some waste to bring forth a lot of worms for chicken . For that reason , I started my worm bin in the fountain with a match of pounds of worms . They experience only in the airy top couple of inches . I cover them with an column inch of waste every hebdomad or so and they multiply .
Schedule
Of course , being a lazy chicken - custodian , I did n’t want to spend sentence or energy harvesting the worms for chickens . So number winter , when the supply of bugs has diminished , I start the lid on the worm bin once every workweek or so and permit the chickens scratch and feast on worms , other bugs and any seeds they find . I wait to spread the bin an hour before they are quick to roost . That way , they go out the bin on their own and return to the hencoop without any exertion on my part .
By spring , the chickens are banished from the binful , but I open it in the morning so the sunlight will drive the remaining worms to go deeper . I can then glean the top few inches of mostly louse - free compost into a wheelbarrow . I employ either a shovel , pitchfork or seed fork depending on the texture and wetness of the compost .
I let the insect go profoundly again for a few more hours and reiterate the process four or five times until there ’s just a few column inch of compost and writhing worm at the bottom of the bin . Then I re-start the outgrowth of bestow constitutional waste to generate more worms for chicken for next year ’s winter buffet .
Worm Food
I put ship’s boat kitchen scrap and chicken ninny from the coop into my unconstipated compost binful . However , items that are too coarse for a compost bank identification number need help to decompose in less than a year . The worm bin essentially helps me turn this dear ice , especially if you ’re pay off for refuse pickup , into gratuitous protein by growing worms for Gallus gallus . The one-year supply of gamy - quality compost is a bonus .
harmonize to Crystal Stevens in Worms at Work : Harnessing the awesome power of dirt ball with vermiculture and vermicomposting ( 2017 ) , “ A linguistic rule of thumb among well - known vermiculturists is that worms can eat their weighting in one Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . For example , 1 punt of worms will go through 1 pound of solid food chip day by day . ”
To “ course ” your worms for chickens , believe the chase :
