How to make an earthworm chicken buffet

Earthworms are excellent food for poultry. They are very tasty (for chickens), rich in protein, fats and minerals and two amino acids - methionine and lysine, which are more important for poultry HEALTH than fishmeal.

If you are just starting to breed chickens, take advantage of the experience of experienced poultry farmers. They have a large barrel on the property, which is half-filled with compost from leaves and vegetable leftovers from the kitchen, and then populated with earthworms.

This is an easy way to diversify the chicken diet, getting top dressing almost for free.

The two varieties of earthworm that are easiest to grow are:

it seems that there is no such food that chickens love like earthworms. Your pets will eat them as much as they find. This is especially useful when growing young animals: the amino acid composition of earthworms is well suited to the amino acid needs of the body of chickens.

Ideally, for complete happiness, an adult chicken, if it ate only worms, would need 50 pieces. But since you are feeding the bird a balanced diet, 10 worms a day is sufficient.

The advantage of the "chicken worm buffet" is that in the compost bin, its inhabitants are available on demand, while in the garden and kitchen garden, worms approach the surface of the earth at night, and chickens roam during the day.

In winter, “free” worms completely hibernate, go to the depths, because the soil at the surface is too cold. But in a working composter it is always warm for them, and you have a supply of top dressing at hand at any time of the year.

So, all you need is a compost bin, worms, leftover food, and bedding. Bedding can be shredded newspaper, composted manure, leaf litter (except oak or pine needles), or any other organic compostable material.

To save money, you can set up a worm trap by laying logs and covering them with a pile of fallen leaves and compost. Then, on a damp and warm night, you need to go hunting with a flashlight, and you will definitely recruit the required number of inhabitants for a compost bin.

Drainage holes should be made at the bottom of the box, and in dry weather, spray the substrate with water to maintain a humid environment. But although worms love moisture, they easily drown when there is too much of it. Therefore, in rainy weather it is time to close the barrels.

By the way, not all chickens immediately eat earthworms, and the reason is quite simple. Hatchery-raised birds and young from commercial farms do not have the opportunity to understand that this top dressing is tasty and whether it is possible to eat worms in principle. So, if your pets have only been fed pellets, it will take time for them to get used to the new food.

Remember, eating earthworms can cause worms and intestinal parasites in chickens, so use preventive treatments.