There's a Hole in My (Worm) Bucket, Dear Liza: Free Range Worm Farms
We have a rat problem. I think anyone who has a compost heap WILL have problems2 with mice and rats if they put foodscraps on the compost, but it drives us nuts, and the chickens are fussier than I'd like and don't eat all the foodscraps I'd like them too (useless dinosaurs that they are!). But I refused to put this kind of waste in the bin to go to landfill - that's just ridiculous. Nutritious waste needs to go back into the cycle - worms, soil, manure, food, worms, soil, manure, food.
Enter the worm bucket. Simply drill small holes in the bucket, dig it into the dirt, fill it with scraps and put a lid on it. These holes are too big really but it still works - they had holes from another project and I didn't want to throw them out. Leave it for a month or so and voila - those food scraps just disappear into the soil, the worms doing their wonderful wormy thing. Oh, I know I could have a worm farm, but I've never had any success with them. The extreme heat in the summer here tends to kill them off or they get stinky. This is a good solution for me.
By making the holes in the buckets tiny, just enough for worms, you can lift the bucket out of the soil and sprinkle the worm castings over the garden. I've just been digging new holes, lifting the bucket out of the soil and filliing it in with the soil from the new hole.
Ground eggshells are meant to be a good addition which help worms grind up their food. Sprinkle with a bit of soil and lime - that's meant to keep it nice and sweet.
Have you ever made a free range worm farm?
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Great idea! We're doing it. Great post. Upvoted and folowed.
Fantastic. Let me know how it goes.
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You guys do some amazing stuff. There is always something new that I learn from the @naturalmedicine community.
No, not like that. Mine measures 43' x 60' aka Big garden. LOL
But having rats move recently onto our property from our stupid neighbor to the south, we've had problems with them chewing thro our heavy plastic trash barrels and eating the diaphragm out of our foliar sprayer. Just wondering why they've not gone for the worm bins...
Nice worm farm! I have too many other projects going on so I'll hold off on the worm thing myself.
As for general composting and rats, we follow Salatin's example. He puts a large amount of carbon on the bottom and sides of the compost heap so rats won't smell whatever is in there.
Animal brains work by the concept of effort vs. reward meaning that if it's too easy to get to they will do anything to get there. Like raiding a chicken coop.
But if it is too much effort, like digging several feet down, they won't bother. Same goes with your average mobile animal setup, the predator has to go to a new place (since you move them) which is a danger on it's own but also has to expose himself to threats like birds of prey (if you keep the surrounding pasture short).
Developing a sense of the effort vs. reward concept can really help prevent trouble with these critters.
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Ok - I freakin' LOVE this. Worm farms literally cook here, and I have been considering how to proceed. AC for the worm farm not really an option. But a mostly submerged bucket is genius! I am ON IT.
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Awesome! Drill little holes though coz then when it fills with castings you can put it where you want it.
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neat idea!! I've wondered about it and how well it really works so this is cool to read. We've got massive compost heaps filled with weeds and garden debris but I have stopped putting food scraps in it because of mice. Sometimes I'll pop them in the freezer and make a mash for the chickens (because they'll eat it cooked but not raw - divas) and of course we've got two hard-working garbage disposals called Molly and Mischa who don't mind cleaning up the plates.
So creative! A friend of mine who's a permaculture farmer told me not to put protein in the compost pile, because it would attract rats. I like your method for getting all food stuffs returned to the cycles of the planet.
Also, glad to see you using the palnet tag. Trying to spread my pal upvote around. :)
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Ooh that's cool! I have a dual-bucket compost system, but since I am on a balcony, no worms (free range or otherwise). I mean, I suppose I could do vermicompost in a bin on the balcony, but then I'd have to bring it inside for the winter and I don't want to do that - if nothing else, because of the fungus gnats that I imagine would have a field day. Those little buggers are hard enough to get rid of if they are in houseplant soil, if they got into compost - eech! XD
But I harvested my first compost from the buckets just recently and started a new batch. Hooray! :D
I should tell my parents about your method. They're not very eco-conscious, but perhaps the "but it's safe from rodents" aspect might convince them...