writes:
most worms I've seen for sale as compost worms are called "red worms".
Most people around here call native earthworms "nightcrawlers" which
are much larger and not as red, although there are small red worms
that you can find in manure piles and such. So am I concluding
corrected that red worms are typically considered compost worms and
nightcrawlers are the deep worms, but both will work adequately for
decomposing your compost?

Yup. You don't HAVE to buy worms. Eventually they will find your pile
of decomposing compost, but I have found this to take about 12 months.
It's very sandy, low fertility, with no gardening neighbours here. The
compost worms are short, thin, and orangey-red. Earthworms are fat,
longer, very dark in colour, and they live in soil. Both sorts will
find your pit of household scraps, but the compost worms will breed
in it, the earthworms will live around or under it.

I had a thriving in-ground worm farm and went away for 3 months.
When I returned it had dried out and all the worms were gone. It has
taken exactly a year of maintaining the pile for them to reappear.
They still haven't built up in any numbers, though.

To get your farm off to a fast start, I'd recommend getting a handful
of worms from a neighbour who has an established worm farm.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

terryc writes:
On Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:56:38 -0400, John McGaw wrote:

Not that I'd expect you to invest in cows for your egg production but it
would pay to keep in mind that chickens really love their protein in the
form of insects and it does wonders for their taste and egg production.

Lol, I could just imagine the neighbours rection to having a cow in out
backyard.

How about cockroaches? Easy to rear, breed well, and can be raised
in plastic rubbish bins filled with corrugated cardboard. They feed
on the paper and glue. Just make sure the bins are escape-proof.

That way, you can feed your kitchen scraps directly to the chooks,
and supplement their diet with crunchy cockroaches from time to
time.

Now, which species would be the best to breed .....?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

I haven't been paying attention to your conversation but I thought
that this may be of interest:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-...eveal-Healthie
r-Eggs.aspx

Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally
inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. That¹s the
conclusion we have reached following completion of the 2007 Mother Earth
News egg testing project. Our testing has found that, compared to
official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for
commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:

€ 1/3 less cholesterol
€ 1/4 less saturated fat
€ 2/3 more vitamin A
€ 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
€ 3 times more vitamin E
€ 7 times more beta carotene

These amazing results come from 14 flocks around the country that range
freely on pasture or are housed in moveable pens that are rotated
frequently to maximize access to fresh pasture and protect the birds
from predators. We had six eggs from each of the 14 pastured flocks
tested by an accredited laboratory in Portland, Ore. The chart at the
end of this article shows the average nutrient content of the samples,
compared with the official egg nutrient data from the USDA for
³conventional² (i.e. from confined hens) eggs. The chart lists the
individual results from each flock.
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1016232.html

I've got a good site for you to look at. http://www.henkeeping.co.uk
There is a real art to to feeding them. We've noticed that greens in their diet give the egg yolks a huge boost in colour and flavour. However too much greens and the chickens digestive system suffers, which contributes to reducing egg production.
Happy chickens make healthy, tasty eggs. Look after your hens, look after your breakfast.

We've tried ours with salad crops like purslane, which increases omega 3 in the egg

1. Don't let your compost pile become acidic, this will discourage the red worms (tiger worms). The perfect solution for this is to add crushed eggshells to the compost pile. The calcium in the eggshell neutralizes any acid, thus encourageing your compost worms.
2. The red worms will tend to live near the top of the pile.
3. Keep your compost pile to none cooked veg (for kitchen waste). Cooked foods and meat encourage rats and all sort of diseases.
Happy composting, and chicken keeping!

You will need a very large worm farm if you want to raise enough food to feed regular chook, if farms regular home cooking, I do not think will work ubnless you run about 4 or 5, or if one of them. then all the kitchen waste will go to yor worms instead of chook. unless you start to collect bits of your neighbors.