Your knowledge of management of ducks, worms and compost is very exciting. It is so important that you are sharing your experience, gained over many years, with others. Your use of guinea pigs is a phenomenal new idea, also. I am so glad you haven't given up on this work. It is just wonderful and I hope you will be blessed and will reap many, many benefits from it.
One of the complaints people have regarding wood chips is that the first year it absorbs the nitrogen the growing plants need to grow. These small wood chips would not have the problem of absorbing available nitrogen as they are already full of nitrogen. Instead the small chips will soak up water to release as needed by microbes and plants. It will also provide a place for microbial life to live.
I use straw as bedding for my ducks. The worms have lived there for at least 10 years. They live inside our house in our "Worm Bin" which is a 600 gallon horse trough next to windows where we grow plants. The worms live in our "Humanure" piles. When I muck the duck pen, I just pile it nearby and it composts very quickly. They ducks can be seen foraging within their pen for the worms. The worms and sprouts from waste seed from our Gouldian finch operation, are retrieved from the "worm bin" and fed to the ducks in Winter. We also rear Mealworms for our fish, wildlife and ducks. The grandchildren like when they can hand feed the ducks. Sometimes we also hand feed frogs and fish the mealworms and compost worms. Compost worms and mealworms also come in handy as fish bait.
This is correlating with what I notice in my worm bins. I checked one this morning and had castings piled up in the corners that wasn’t there two days ago. So I’d guess the worms are moving up castings by default of moving around and sorting for food. Just my observation and definitely feel when the worm population is big enough they essentially turn the compost for you!!! I love this friend!! 🤙
This was awesome to watch. After a 5 year hiatus from ducks, I'm picking up a flock tomorrow. They are going into a pen we used to house a pygmy buck for awhile. We are in AZ, so everything is pretty much rock and sand. Animals are so crucial to building soil. I already have a well established red wiggler supply. I'm going to take the time to seed the area under their water tub with worms. The ducks will provide the moisture and the worms will live happily mixing and munching on manure and old straw and hay. Eventually, I'll probably turn that pen into a small pumpkin or watermelon patch. We have two acres and over 100 trees to play with, so this will be a fun experiment.
Suggestion: the worms under the tarp... you could put a pile of food on one side on the tarp. And wait a week for all the worms to move to that side. The other side mostly worm free can be harvested.
Yes we could something like that. In practise though we just wait until most of the worms have migrated themselves. They will start moving over to the other side of the house on their own.
I love your duck house setup. The movable gates and the large area, just really cool. I will be building a duck house over the winter. Unfortunately I live in a wind tunnel so i will need to spend money on lumber for a sturdy roof. I will be copying your methods for composting. That compost looks amazing! You couldn't buy it that nice and if you could it would be 10 bucks for a small bag.
Instead of you raking daily when ducks are away during the day, could you use a small flock of chickens rotated in, to perform the light tillage instead, daily?
Very interesting video thanks . Can I recommend you should wear a mask any time you dig or turn compost( or any soil really ). We had a family friend get lung cancer and the doctors found a sample of compost in the biopsy … also had another person I know get Legionnaires' disease from potting mix . I never thought of this before these things happened but now I always wear a mask when doing anything with soil .
You figured it out...ain't nothin' easier than putting the worms to work 24/7 in an ideal environment for them to thrive!! Now make ya some brutaly powerful extract now for yer plants.
this is great knowledge you share and still evolving, thanks ! I'm asking myself how you could adapt all this for hotter climates like Africa or southern Spain. I saw a video were they sprouted barley first to feed to the animals this could be the be starting point when there are no pastures all year round like you have them in Wales...
@@parccarreg I have been making bokashi out of my kitchen waste. After that i mix it with browns ("soil factory") and my worm population is just exploding. Its insane. Since you already have a great composting system working, bokashi is maybe more interesting as a high quality food for your ducks. Maybe look into that. For Kitchen waste the expensive buckets are not necessary. A simple 5-gallon bucket works fine. Also i have had better success with making bokashi bran first vs just spraying the waste with EM. Have you considered biochar in your system? It would boost the quality of your compost further and could help you getting "carbon-negative". It also helps in marketing compost as "terra preta" or "black soil".
KNF IMO are quite different. These are indigenous fungies that you collect from the woods. They could speed up the breakdown before the worms come in. "Leaf Mold IMO. Soil builder. OG Recipe" Most straight forward method to culture IMOs. "Baby Pigs! Building a No Smell Pig Pen" This is the traditional korean method to use these IMOs for a compost bedding. It does not require daily raking and uses little bedding but ducks are quite different in that regard.
Interesting. I wonder how well it would work for a small flock over a flow through worm bin. geese are the same with water, but I suspect their manure is a little cooler than duck. It should work in this system too.
Over a flow through bin would work nice if you can get some good quality plastic mesh panels that allows the poop to wash through and is comfortable for the ducks to stand on
@@parccarreg hi, years ago I raised turkeys and in their house I used greenhouse bench panels, UV protected thick black snap together mesh panels. I figured they were stiff enough to hold trays of plants they would work as flooring. I still use them today as flooring in my greenhouse. Great video, thankyou
Very cool process. There are some similarities to it compared to what I do with my cow manure and bedding. I think I'll experiment with leaving the bedding in place instead of putting it unto the Johnson-Su Bioreactor but I don't see myself going out and turning it. I suppose that would be the one advantage to putting it into the Johnson-Su Bioreactor is that I don't need to ever turn or rake mine. Have you built a Johnson-Su Bioreactor before?
Using a tilther would make prepping the worm bed and managing the duck bedding much quicker and less effort, not sure if its worth it but its a consideration.
What about the heat benefits of killing pathogens in the duck poop? It also doubles the space needed. It looks like a good fit for you and much better than a cold compost.
Worms and microbes in the ground eliminate pathogens. This could be helped to by adding beneficial bacteria drenches. But as it is, if he looked at that finished compost under a microscope it’s probably full of good bacteria.
This is probably only necessary with ducks because they don't scratch down like chickens do, however I was thinking about using worms for my deep litter chickens
How do you add fresh wood chip as eventually it breaks down and the compost ends up on your garden. Also were are you as I would like to visit if at all possible I'm near cross hands
Good question - yes eventually the compost will need to be replaced with fresh woodchips. This method allows us to go much longer before we but in more woodchips. We essentially use the bedding 3 times before if goes out RE visit, we do take visitors but probably not until the spring next year now. Sign up to our newsletter as we'll let folks know by email
Both! The compost bedding saves us buying as much woodchips or straw. Eventually we will need to empty the house of the compost and replace with fresh wood chip bedding again. We'll then use the compost to grow food in
@@parccarreg good stuff. Good to finally see someone using lateral thinking. I also call this 'trimming the fat', Removing a link in the chain, cutting to the chase, work smarter, not harder, etc
Hi Josh, we're currently testing a range of composts for their ability to store carbon over relatively long periods of time (centuries). Can you spare 10-15kgs of your stuff to compare with others? Regards
Ducks? China does everything with ducks, but any animal will mess a compost. In spain they use fighting bulls which play in it like pepa pig likes a muddy puddle.
00:08 Composting without turning piles with the help of worms 01:22 Innovative method for composting eliminates manual turning piles. 02:31 Ducks move to new compost area 03:49 Composting with no turning required 05:17 Using duck manure to speed up composting process 07:15 Importance of cocoons in composting 09:10 No turning piles composting method with ducks 12:45 Making compost with minimal maintenance Crafted by Merlin AI.
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
This is similar to my system in my chicken coops but I use mealworms. Great video!
Wow, you took a con (the wet mess ducks make) and turned it into an asset for your farm, that is awesome!
Your knowledge of management of ducks, worms and compost is very exciting. It is so important that you are sharing your experience, gained over many years, with others. Your use of guinea pigs is a phenomenal new idea, also. I am so glad you haven't given up on this work. It is just wonderful and I hope you will be blessed and will reap many, many benefits from it.
Thank you! Appreciate it
Just found your channel learnt so much… thanks
One of the complaints people have regarding wood chips is that the first year it absorbs the nitrogen the growing plants need to grow. These small wood chips would not have the problem of absorbing available nitrogen as they are already full of nitrogen. Instead the small chips will soak up water to release as needed by microbes and plants. It will also provide a place for microbial life to live.
I use straw as bedding for my ducks. The worms have lived there for at least 10 years. They live inside our house in our "Worm Bin" which is a 600 gallon horse trough next to windows where we grow plants. The worms live in our "Humanure" piles. When I muck the duck pen, I just pile it nearby and it composts very quickly. They ducks can be seen foraging within their pen for the worms. The worms and sprouts from waste seed from our Gouldian finch operation, are retrieved from the "worm bin" and fed to the ducks in Winter. We also rear Mealworms for our fish, wildlife and ducks. The grandchildren like when they can hand feed the ducks. Sometimes we also hand feed frogs and fish the mealworms and compost worms. Compost worms and mealworms also come in handy as fish bait.
So funny to see the ducks confused! Definitely creatures of habit! I love what you are doing for the earth
This is correlating with what I notice in my worm bins. I checked one this morning and had castings piled up in the corners that wasn’t there two days ago. So I’d guess the worms are moving up castings by default of moving around and sorting for food. Just my observation and definitely feel when the worm population is big enough they essentially turn the compost for you!!! I love this friend!! 🤙
This happens in our yard. We find worm “poo’s” sitting on top of the ground right next to their holes.
Those Harlequins were so excited with their new, fresh space! 🌻🌻🌻
This was awesome to watch. After a 5 year hiatus from ducks, I'm picking up a flock tomorrow. They are going into a pen we used to house a pygmy buck for awhile. We are in AZ, so everything is pretty much rock and sand. Animals are so crucial to building soil. I already have a well established red wiggler supply. I'm going to take the time to seed the area under their water tub with worms. The ducks will provide the moisture and the worms will live happily mixing and munching on manure and old straw and hay.
Eventually, I'll probably turn that pen into a small pumpkin or watermelon patch. We have two acres and over 100 trees to play with, so this will be a fun experiment.
Nice!
incredible i love this idea just to figure out how to implement this myself for my farm
Great to hear, good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing your content, it's really appreciated
Suggestion: the worms under the tarp... you could put a pile of food on one side on the tarp. And wait a week for all the worms to move to that side. The other side mostly worm free can be harvested.
Yes we could something like that. In practise though we just wait until most of the worms have migrated themselves. They will start moving over to the other side of the house on their own.
I love your duck house setup. The movable gates and the large area, just really cool. I will be building a duck house over the winter. Unfortunately I live in a wind tunnel so i will need to spend money on lumber for a sturdy roof. I will be copying your methods for composting. That compost looks amazing! You couldn't buy it that nice and if you could it would be 10 bucks for a small bag.
Hey Josh! Love what you’re doing man! Sending love from sunny South Africa! Well done guys
Im leaning a lot of sh... with your videos. I love you combine all your resources before you even think on spending money 9/10.
🤙
How to utilise this information in a garden without ducks? Still fascinating to watch you work things out. Thanks for sharing😊
Instead of you raking daily when ducks are away during the day, could you use a small flock of chickens rotated in, to perform the light tillage instead, daily?
Sounds like a good improvement and labor decrease
That is an excellent idea. I think we might try that!
Do the ducks eat the worms? Surely the chickens there to scratch would? Interesting ideas all around.
simple but genius
Looks at that delicious soil goodness
Adding used coffee from local shops will enriche even more
Very interesting video thanks . Can I recommend you should wear a mask any time you dig or turn compost( or any soil really ). We had a family friend get lung cancer and the doctors found a sample of compost in the biopsy … also had another person I know get Legionnaires' disease from potting mix . I never thought of this before these things happened but now I always wear a mask when doing anything with soil .
My ducks would love this ❤
You figured it out...ain't nothin' easier than putting the worms to work 24/7 in an ideal environment for them to thrive!! Now make ya some brutaly powerful extract now for yer plants.
this is great knowledge you share and still evolving, thanks ! I'm asking myself how you could adapt all this for hotter climates like Africa or southern Spain. I saw a video were they sprouted barley first to feed to the animals this could be the be starting point when there are no pastures all year round like you have them in Wales...
In hot climates ground cover is even more important, so yes - anything that covers the soil + animal impact in the right doses!
Take a look at KNF IMO bedding. Its a simmilar concept, but for chickens and pigs. It works great in hawaii.
@@Nils31199 I'm hoping to do some bokashi experiments soon!
@@parccarreg I have been making bokashi out of my kitchen waste. After that i mix it with browns ("soil factory") and my worm population is just exploding. Its insane. Since you already have a great composting system working, bokashi is maybe more interesting as a high quality food for your ducks. Maybe look into that.
For Kitchen waste the expensive buckets are not necessary. A simple 5-gallon bucket works fine. Also i have had better success with making bokashi bran first vs just spraying the waste with EM.
Have you considered biochar in your system? It would boost the quality of your compost further and could help you getting "carbon-negative". It also helps in marketing compost as "terra preta" or "black soil".
KNF IMO are quite different. These are indigenous fungies that you collect from the woods. They could speed up the breakdown before the worms come in.
"Leaf Mold IMO. Soil builder. OG Recipe" Most straight forward method to culture IMOs.
"Baby Pigs! Building a No Smell Pig Pen" This is the traditional korean method to use these IMOs for a compost bedding. It does not require daily raking and uses little bedding but ducks are quite different in that regard.
Interesting. I wonder how well it would work for a small flock over a flow through worm bin.
geese are the same with water, but I suspect their manure is a little cooler than duck. It should work in this system too.
Over a flow through bin would work nice if you can get some good quality plastic mesh panels that allows the poop to wash through and is comfortable for the ducks to stand on
@@parccarreg hi, years ago I raised turkeys and in their house I used greenhouse bench panels, UV protected thick black snap together mesh panels. I figured they were stiff enough to hold trays of plants they would work as flooring. I still use them today as flooring in my greenhouse.
Great video, thankyou
I've seen several operations that use poultry (usually chickens) to turn compost piles instead of people turning them.
Very cool process. There are some similarities to it compared to what I do with my cow manure and bedding. I think I'll experiment with leaving the bedding in place instead of putting it unto the Johnson-Su Bioreactor but I don't see myself going out and turning it. I suppose that would be the one advantage to putting it into the Johnson-Su Bioreactor is that I don't need to ever turn or rake mine. Have you built a Johnson-Su Bioreactor before?
This is a great idea to get rid of the duck manure by recycling it with worms. Is there some disadvantages to perform this composting method?
Using a tilther would make prepping the worm bed and managing the duck bedding much quicker and less effort, not sure if its worth it but its a consideration.
Thank you
Have you got plastic on the bottom to stop worms going deep. Great video sir.
What about the heat benefits of killing pathogens in the duck poop?
It also doubles the space needed.
It looks like a good fit for you and much better than a cold compost.
Worms and microbes in the ground eliminate pathogens. This could be helped to by adding beneficial bacteria drenches. But as it is, if he looked at that finished compost under a microscope it’s probably full of good bacteria.
You answered the question for me! We have actually tested our compost for pathogens and it came out with excellent results
This is probably only necessary with ducks because they don't scratch down like chickens do, however I was thinking about using worms for my deep litter chickens
Would letting chickens or quail pass over it too to pick out a majority of the worms for free feed help be nice too?
subbed
How do you add fresh wood chip as eventually it breaks down and the compost ends up on your garden. Also were are you as I would like to visit if at all possible I'm near cross hands
Good question - yes eventually the compost will need to be replaced with fresh woodchips. This method allows us to go much longer before we but in more woodchips. We essentially use the bedding 3 times before if goes out
RE visit, we do take visitors but probably not until the spring next year now. Sign up to our newsletter as we'll let folks know by email
I feel like this would work with chickens too.
chickens are too dry, so water must be added to the process
Have you heard of cold lacto-fermented composting (inspired by Walter Witte)? It's far superior to hot composting.
hej, nie wyjadały ci dzdzownic??
This is called deep bedding. They do it with pigs, and I've seen it done with cows by accident
The compost you take out to storage still hás worms on it, right? You must take some for inoculation. Ir do you use it straight on the garden?
Yes, all of our compost has worms and cocoons in it to some degree.
Could you rotate animals and put ducks in where you had your Guinea pigs?
Absolutely, in fact we will probably have both ducks and guinea pigs in the blueberry patch at the same time for some parts of the year.
@@parccarreg How about for the purpose of compost making?
Ducks work so well as they are so gross and wet
is that the African red wriggler? or a native species of worm to your area?
Is your solution for cheap bedding or will you eventually harvest the bedding for other purposes?
Both! The compost bedding saves us buying as much woodchips or straw. Eventually we will need to empty the house of the compost and replace with fresh wood chip bedding again. We'll then use the compost to grow food in
When do you add the wood chips? Thanks
They got added over time using the deep litter method. Something I should make another video about. You need to start off with a good base of carbon
How many times did he walk on the worms
We aren't far from you, and breed muscovys. You have given me some very good ideas, thanks. How do you deal with rats?
Great to know! RE rats - we have 3 feral cats that live on the yard. Before we had cats it was always a struggle
@@parccarregI have built carts on wheels from 8ft pig arcs for their houses, and have a Patterdale terrier now to train......
Take it one step further, sow some triticale into it, when at doe stage, flatten it, then throw the plastic down
For sure, cover cropping is something we'd like to experiment with in this system
@@parccarreg good stuff. Good to finally see someone using lateral thinking. I also call this 'trimming the fat', Removing a link in the chain, cutting to the chase, work smarter, not harder, etc
100% yes always looking for a better way!
Is anyone else thinking about Stardew Valley ducks?
Will ducks eat the worms?
They get a snack yes, but cannot get far down enough to eat the whole population
It makes sense. Unlike the chicken, they do not have sharp nails and beak to scratch and dig deep for their treats.
Do the ducks eat the worms?
Yes, they do :)
Hi Josh, we're currently testing a range of composts for their ability to store carbon over relatively long periods of time (centuries). Can you spare 10-15kgs of your stuff to compare with others? Regards
Hi Richard, good to hear from you. Drop me an email and we can arrange
Don’t ducks eat worms?
Who let the duck out ! quack quack quack quack quack !
Ducks? China does everything with ducks, but any animal will mess a compost. In spain they use fighting bulls which play in it like pepa pig likes a muddy puddle.
Worms are a great way to break down most manure and also good recyclers .u have great duck set up also 🇦🇺🪱
00:08 Composting without turning piles with the help of worms
01:22 Innovative method for composting eliminates manual turning piles.
02:31 Ducks move to new compost area
03:49 Composting with no turning required
05:17 Using duck manure to speed up composting process
07:15 Importance of cocoons in composting
09:10 No turning piles composting method with ducks
12:45 Making compost with minimal maintenance
Crafted by Merlin AI.
great method thanks