Indoor Worm Composting: Lessons From the First Year

I have been exploring the wonderful world of vermicompost for the last year (see Indoor Worm Composting and Indoor Worm Composting: Update!)

Record Keeping
About half way through the year I started keeping detailed notes on my worm bins. I note the amount and type of food fed, vermicompost and worm harvest, and problems as they arise and resolve. This helped me see why my second bin developed a fruit fly infestation - I was basically overfeeding them which was apparent when reviewing the records. Accurate and detailed record keeping is a vital skill and habit to develop.   

Learning Curve
Any new skill set comes with challenges and the learning curve for composting worms was a bit steep for me - but I think I have a handle on it currently. Understanding that every practical, homestead, and livestock related skill will have a steep learning curve will allow me to set up future projects for success from the start by implementing changes slowly and scaling production at a reasonable rate. Recognising  that livestock projects have steep learning curves will also help me avoid disappointment when it's not all easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and hopefully help keep livestock safe during that initial learning phase.

Hive Mind
I have two favourite Facebook groups (Vermicomposting and Red Worm Composting) and I love pursuing the posts there for personal education (for example, someone was experimenting with an all cardboard worm bin) as well as adding my 0.02 cents when it comes to helping out newbies. There is always more to learn and my favourite Facebook groups encourage that type of open communication, learning and polite discourse. 

Hopefully these skills will allow me to scale up production in the near future. My system has to get larger to fully incorporate the food scrapes that we produce. Additionally I have some ideas to allow for a small stream of income to emerge. To that end I recently made a Beginner's Guide to Worm Composting zine.

Indoor Worm Composting: Update!

I've had my Indoor Worm Composting system since February (see first post here) and over the summer I switched from the 5 gallon bucket system to the more common rubbermaid tote system. I found that the materials became dense in the bucket system and I found it difficult to regulate feeding. The tote system seems to have a better surface area ratio which makes the upkeep simpler. 

Once I made the switch to totes, my worm population really took off so I started a second bin (which is currently stacked in my kitchen!) I find it difficult to remove finished vermicompost from an active bin as the uneaten food, bedding, and finished compost is mixed together so I plan on only feeding the new bin. This should allow the worms in the first bin to eat through all available food making harvesting vermicompost easier.   

I have also started a more detailed record keeping system. Each bin has a sheet that details the Bin #, date started, and the initial worm count/type. This sheet also has a place to record the date and amount of vermicompost removed as well as the date and amount of worms removed. A second sheet tracks the inputs for each bin by recording the date, bin #, type and amount of food, as well as type and amount of bedding. I hope this record keeping system will improve my worm wrangling abilities! 

Review: Raising the Home Duck Flock

(Photo from Thriftbooks) 

Next in the 'Modern Guide' saga, is 'Raising the Home Duck Flock' (1978). This book offers a good overview of raising ducks and presents ducks as an viable and easy alternative for the homestead. Ducks seem to have an easy place within a permaculture design as ducks can forage for insects while simultaneously controlling insects in the garden. Ducks require less infrastructure than chickens and can even be raised without a permanent shelter (given the correct conditions). 

This resource presents ducks as an easy and low-maintenance homestead animal and because of this, it feels like this resource is lacking details - especially in the area of problem solving. This could be a deficit in the resource or perhaps - ducks really are a unproblematic homestead resource!

Raising Poultry the Modern Way

Raising Rabbits the Modern Way

Review: Raising Rabbits the Modern Way

Next on our series of 'Modern Way' resources, is the Raising Rabbits the Modern Way which was published in 1975.

(Photo from Thriftbooks)

Overall, this book is a decent resource that I am glad to have on my shelf but it is far from a comprehensive guide to raising rabbits. Some information is down right outdated and the author leads (although less so than in Raising Poultry the Modern Way) towards the adoption of industrial agriculture's mindsets and motivations. Additionally, information regarding pedigree/registered and specific breeds is entirely the author's personal opinion with very little neutral information presented. 

The information regarding choosing your first rabbits is helpful as well as the basic information presented regarding genetics. I also enjoyed the author's ideas regarding a side business making and selling rabbit cages and growing food in your garden for your rabbits. I also like the addition of rabbit recipes. 

   

Review: Raising Poultry the Modern Way

The modern series released by Storey has a good reputation. I grew up with several of the series in our house as well as our neighbour's house and many seem to be classic tomes of agricultural knowledge. With that in mind I ordered a few on thriftbooks.

(Photo from Thriftbooks.)

Sadly this publication from 1983 does not hold up to the reputation of the series. It is a product of its time with the focus on 'bigger is better' through the imitation and replication of industrial agricultural's methods, motivations, and practices. 

The following are some bits of advice that I would never follow: 

Broody behaviour in poultry is uniformly viewed as negative and should be 'broken'.  

To avoid feather picking and cannibalism, chicken combs are cut off with manicure scissors. 

Washing eggs before incubation is advised as a blanket procedure.   

All poultry houses are to have indoor lighting. 

Some of the scientific information on capons, egg hatching, and butchering was acceptable and basic enough to withstand the change in agricultural management. 

The chapter on water fowl was a tiny bit interesting to me as this was the first time I have done any research on water fowl - but I suspect that after a few more resources I will feel the same way about the water fowl chapter as I did the rest of the book. 

Indoor Worm Composting

Indoor worm composting has long been on my to-do list as I think it is a wonderful way to compost in small indoor spaces. Worries about escaping worms and smells kept me from starting a indoor worm composting system for many years but I found a DIY system using 5 gallon buckets and a local place giving out free starter worms so I decided that with low financial inputs I could give it a try! I was also excited to have my first 'livestock'!

Benefits of the bucket worm composting method: 

• Stacking five gallon buckets took up a lot less floor space than the traditional plastic tote. 
• Holes drilled in the bottom of the buckets allow for easy worm migration which means no messy separation of worm casting and worms. 
• Affordable system that can be reused if worm composting doesn't wind up working out. 

Worm Care:

Feed worms vegetable scraps but avoid meat, oil, and breads. 

Bucket should contain 'browns' which include newspaper, cardboard, and/or egg cartons.

Troubleshooting:

The food is mouldy! I sometimes over-fed my worms and some of the food gets a bit mouldy. When this happens I simply add more newspaper or cardboard and reduce food for a while. This seems to quickly resolve the problem. 

What should it smell like? I love the smell of my worm bucket! It smells like warm, damp, earth!