for thoughs of you with worm beds

[KSALguy]

have any of you with worms in your rabbit manuer or in any other form of compost actually have you used any poultry manuer in the mix? the reason i ask is my poultry coop which is where i keep the rabbits in a colony setting gets a build up of both rabbit and chicken/pigeon droppings inside the coop, it breaks down on its own with all the chicken scratching in there but i have wanted to start compost beds with this and worms, i have tried twice but the worms dont seem to make it

i have read though that its hard to get redwiglers to take hold right away? anyone have any pointers or ideas?

some friends of ours did take a big trashcan full of the already broken up manuer that had been worked throug for some time and put it directly on their garden after they had harvested this seasons produce and will let it set till spring i guess, so it must be good,

[SquashNut]

Maybe Your Chickens Ate The Worms.

[MaggieJ]

If the chickens can get at the worms, they will definitely eat them. Maybe you should tell us a bit more about the set up you used for the worm beds, KSALguy.

[Bearfootfarm]

I've always heard chicken manure is too high in nitrogen to use in worm beds without some composting first

[Kyah]

Yes, if the chickens are scratching around in there, chances are very good that they're eating up the worms.

I use a large wooden box to compost my hen manure, and it does take some time for the worms to move into it. I think it's the higher amounts of ammonia in the fresh poultry manure that the worms shy away from. But move in they will, later in the composting process, especially if you use wood chips or shavings as bedding.

Remember though, composting worms do not nessesarily process the manure itself, but rather all the tiny microorganisms that are breaking down the raw material. The manure needs to be past the heating stage, then the worms can move in.

I always leave the bottom 4-5 inches of the composted manure in the box when I harvest it in the spring. It contains literally thousands of tiny baby worms and capsules, enough to repopulate the box for the following year.

Kyah

[KSALguy]

wow i guess i should have clarified, i am not putting the worms IN the coop, rather takeing manuer OUT to set up a worm bed ELSE WHERE lol, i know chickens eat worms and anything else they can catch and over power,

i guess my question should have been more clear to the point of weather or not worms can live in a bed composed of a mix of rabbit droppings chicken manuer and decomposeing plant matter, ie hay, straw and pine needles,

by the time i took the old build up out of the coop for the friends that got a can full it was pretty broken up and crumbly this is the substance i want to put worms in and see what happens, OUT SIDE OF THE CHICKEN COOP<

[o&itw]

Your best bet is to find a rabbit breeder that has worms under his cages already, they seem to take hold much faster. I don't know why this is. I have tried both ways and it is difficult to get comercial red wiggles to take hold.

[SquashNut]

we put store bought fishing worms in our garden. i think they were red wigglers. they are every where now. Is this possible or they a different worn. We have 2 kinds living in the garden.
Can I move some of the ones I think are red wigglers into a compost bin under my cages?.

[byexample]

I expect that the chicken poo is too hot for the worms. Do you have a compost thermometer to measure the temperature of your worm beds?

[o&itw]

Originally Posted by SquashNut

we put store bought fishing worms in our garden. i think they were red wigglers. they are every where now. Is this possible or they a different worn. We have 2 kinds living in the garden.
Can I move some of the ones I think are red wigglers into a compost bin under my cages?.

Red wigglers are a small worm maybe 3 inches long at rest. In your garden they would live in the top layer of the soil amidst the the decaying vegetation. Regular earthworms and night crawlers are usually larger (sometimes much larger) and the live in burrows in the ground and come up at night to eat.

If you have beds under your cages that have been their at least 4 months and there are no chickens about to eat them they should establish. I am a bit confused whe you say "compost" as worm bed under a cage may not be able to support worms if you turn it. If you can collect a number of them, place them in groups in different spots on the beds. They will find their ideal place. It usually taakes them a couple of months more to really establish. After about a year, you should have a bed full of worms. When you clean out your beds, alternate part at two different times of year so the worms have a chance to move into the new areas. They will usually group in the manure piles more than the other areas with too much hay (if you feed hay) or to much urine (pee corner)