Starting to use ground up bird seed. Cheaper than worm chow. ~$6 for 20lbs. I'm adding corn meal to the mix - to bump up the corn content.
Also feeding mash from juicing, coffee grounds, & ground up egg shells.
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Starting to use ground up bird seed. Cheaper than worm chow. ~$6 for 20lbs. I'm adding corn meal to the mix - to bump up the corn content.
Also feeding mash from juicing, coffee grounds, & ground up egg shells.
Not a bad idea. I started using chicken egg layer crumbles- 50 pound bag bought at my local farmers co-op is only 12.99. It is loaded with corn and calcium, the chickens lay lots of eggs on this stuff and so do the worms.
My buddy that fishes Lake Havasu swears by the chicken feed and his European crawlers are massive. I'm doing sort of a vermi-composting for the worm castings. Really like the African crawlers - they seem to do everything the fastest.... Don't think I'll ever buy worm feed again.
I use what my feed store calls "Egg Laying Mash". Works a treat and is cheap.
Tom
Do you grind it up?
My wigglers/europeans are in a composting bin. They get any fruit/veggie scraps along with powdered eggshells (nuke the egg shells to kill the salmonella, then grind in a spice grinder) . They'll eat anything you put in there, but they REALLY love cantaloupe! lay it on top with the skin side up and they'll have it clean to the skin in one night. Pumpkins too. Hit up your grocery stores and ask the produce guy if he has any rotten melons in the back. They usually do, and he'll tell you to take all you want.
I feed my canadian nightcrawlers just regular worm food, usually frabill fat and sassy... they don't live long enough to reproduce or grow.. Just need to keep them plump until they go for a swim.
nl - I use an old dedicated coffee grinder to grind the stuff up - some of the rye seeds don't grind up well enough. I add eggshells and coffee grounds to in the grinder with the mix. If you're running more than a couple of flats - better of with the chicken mash - too much work with the grinder.
I must be doing something wrong had European night crawler for over a year now they not much bigger than the red wrigglers I did have
Are you sure you didn't get wigglers by mistake? Protein will grow them.Quote:
Originally Posted by no luck
Heres a recipe i have saved, but havent needed it yet because i have outdoor bins and they feed on a lot of natural stuff that grows them. If you have indoor bins or bins not open for other organisms to get in, you need to supplement them to get them to grow huge.
5 parts chicken layer pellets or chick starter 2 parts wheat or rice bran 2 parts alfalfa pellets 1 part whole wheat flour 1 part agricultural lime 1 part powdered milk
I ask the people I bought them from if I could have gotten wrigglers instead they told me they didn’t make mistakes
I have split them into 3 different containers and it hasn’t helped any. I feed laying mash oats and wheat brand plus a lot of vegetables scraps. I have them in top soil
Top soil would be the issue. They need to be in composting materials, they are not soil worms. Coconut coir, peat with lime to bring down the acidity, or just my favorite- mulched leaves.Quote:
Originally Posted by no luck
I had them in peat moss to start with but couldn’t keep it moist. My bins are outside . I have built a top over them now to keep the rain out and sun off them
Ckicken feed/lay mash/ rabbit feed make sure it aint (medicated)
Try mixing peat moss and black kow 50/50. Black kow helps the mix stay more damp, and also makes the worms grow bigger. That's a trick that most worm farmers use to get plump bait worms.
Definitely need to mix 50/50 with peat moss (no added fertilizers) and Black Kow. They live in the peat, but eat the Black Kow. I used Purina Worm Chow back when I grew them. I had very good success with this combination! Layer crumbles worked also.
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What about rabbit manure? For food
Comes highly recommended - especially if the rabbits are organic fed
Do you guy's use this stuff as the material to keep them in or sprinkle on top of dirt as food?
For red wigglers use 50% peat moss and 50% cow manure in the container. They will eat the manure. You use vegetable and fruit scraps also for the red wigglers. I recently bought 10# of chicken layer crumbles, non medicated, 16% protein and fortified with calcium. The worms will do well on this diet. Wigglers REALLY like cantalope and watermelon too
both - the organic material you can mix with shredded newspaper and cardboard. The mash and food you sprinkle on top and cover with wet newspaper. If you use a cover be careful of condensate in your bin. I use coconut coir also in the mix.
I have added a shop towel on top of my protein tub which I keep moist. In addition I put a black trash bag over the shop towel to retain the moisture. I have added a bunch of wet leaves under the towel too. I feed the chicken layer crumbles which are moistened. Within a day the chicken feed is a mass of writhing worms. The red wiggles are large and are exploding in the container.
The higher the protein the bigger the red wigglers. My laying crumbles are 16% protein.
Is this a post about bait?
Yes - there's a couple of posts about raising different types worms. I'm doing it for the worm castings and bait.