Adventures in vermicomposting

I decided to set up our worm bin again, to compost all the things that chickens/dog/cats/etc. won't or shouldn't eat. Moldy bread or produce, etc. I kept a compost bin in the kitchen when we lived in the subdivision in Durham, NC with great success. No smell, no flies as long as I went behind the boys and covered the food with shredded paper. And more worms than we knew what to do with. I ended up putting two 30 gallon trash cans by the back fence and seeding them with worms and shredded paper and they took off as well. Lots and lots of lovely worm castings and worm tea for happy veggies and houseplants.

Unfortunately the worm bin was neglected over the past year here, and all the worms died. Just for the heck of it, I looked on amazon.com to see if I could order more worms. Well, not too surprisingly, I could. The seller had 50 or so 5 star reviews and only a couple of bad ones at the time I placed my order, on July 20th. July 22nd I was supposed to get 1000 live red wigglers, via FedEx. The 22nd came and went, and no worms. Finally, at 6:30pm on the 26th, the box showed up. I wasn't very optimistic about it, as 6 days in a box in this heat didn't bode well for the little wormies. Sadly, I was right. All were dead, the dirt was bone dry and so were all the worms.

Amazon offered to re-ship them, if I sent back the "damaged product." Really? You want to make the poor UPS guys pick up a putrid box of dead worms and bring them back to you? Okay, if that's how it is, I'll do it. So, the re-ship was supposed to arrive on the 28th, this time with 1-day shipping instead of 2-day shipping at no charge.

It's now noon on the 29th. Guess what. Yup, you guessed it. No worm sign yet. (Sorry, had to throw in the geek reference there.) If they show up dead this time, I just want a refund.

Someone on the local Craigslist has been offering worm tea. If this second shipment is dead, I'm going to email them and ask if they have any extra worms they can sell me as a starter culture. I know from experience that it only takes a small handful of worms to get you thousands of worms pretty quickly when managed right.

Maybe I'll find their ad and ask them to buy some now, even before the second shipment shows up. That way I'll have at least one starter, if not two....

Still hot.

Right now weather.com says we are at 93F, heat index of 99F. Which is better than 118F heat index, to be sure, but it's still hot.

Lost two more chicks to the heat, one was the sole Ameraucana hatched out here in spite of the week without electricity caused by tornadoes in April.

Still getting no eggs, now not even from the Ancona ducks. I started closing them in a stall in the barn again last night, and letting them out at noon. They have food and water in there, of course. No eggs this morning but I'll keep it up and keep hoping.

The cotton farmer next door has been spraying his fields again the last two days, so I'm not even keeping the milk from the goats. Luckily we have two gallons ahead in the fridge so we won't go without.

Not much else I can think to write about now.

What's up, chicken butt?

Did you know you shouldn't eat brown eggs, because they come out of a chicken's butt?

Yes, there are people that think that. And apparently, when you ask them where white eggs come from, they will tell you, "White eggs come from the store."

I only wish I could find someone that believes this, because I want to know where they think blue and green and pink eggs come from. Our Ameraucana chicks will lay blue, green and pink eggs once they're old enough! For that matter, our Ancona ducks lay eggs that are green and purple as well as white. Where to the purple ones come from, do they think?

I've also heard of people thinking brown eggs shouldn't be eaten because they are infected with bacteria that turn the shells brown. I hate to break it to them but, the entire time we were in China we didn't see a single white egg, only brown eggs. Billions of Chinese eat brown eggs and they're still alive and healthy.

All that is just a segueway to saying, I'm really liking our Ameraucana chicks. Some of them are growing as fast as the red cornish cross broiler chicks and they're much better foragers. With the heat, we're not getting any eggs from our Rhode Island Red hens we got as chicks last spring. Maybe once the South American-origin Ameraucanas mature the heat won't bother them as much...

HOT hot hot

Heat index is 96f right now. I just came in from making sure all the livestock have full water and feel like I've run a marathon. Dripping with sweat like I did, too.

Have someone interested in buying Missy, the TWH mare. She's just going to waste here with nobody the right size to ride her, so, hopefully it will work out.

The one Ancona duckling is so far, so good. Four days old now, eating and drinking and lively. The six adults have taken over the front yard, and decided one waterer is theirs. They've also claimed the shade under the utility trailer as theirs, and woe to any chicken that tries to sneak under there with them.

One very expensive duckling.

The 22 Ancona duck eggs in the incubator only netted me one live duckling. That's a $50 duckling right there, as the eggs cost me $25/dozen. *sigh*

Good thing I also bought 6 ducks from that person later, or I'd be even more unhappy. At least I have some chance of having a full flock of ducks that way.

Duck eggs = super rise bread!

Everyone that says that duck eggs are great for baking... is totally right! Wow! I made bread with one of the chocolate duck's eggs last night, and when I got up this morning I couldn't believe it. It rose so high that there is bread on the inside of the bread machine's lid. It's so light and fluffy it puts store bought white bread to shame. And it is whole wheat (the only kind of bread we eat here).

Come on duckies, lay me another egg so I can make more bread tonight!

Definitely more ducks.

So, the funny farm just went quackers! :) We've had Muscovy ducks for a year or so, but they don't quack. They hiss when upset but don't quack at all. But now we are the proud owners of two trios of Ancona ducks. And they definitely quack.

Mature trio is: a black and white drake with a heart-shaped patch on the back of his head, named Romeo. A lovely chocolate and white duck that lays green eggs. And a lavender and white duck. Juvenile trio is: a blue and white drake, and two black and white ducks with iridescent green wings.

They're residing in the Chicken McMansion for a few days, so they learn that this is home now, and where food will always appear. And I'm planning on baking my bread with duck eggs in the morning! :)