Hungry Bin and Can O Worms sort out

@hungrybin @omlet @wiggled

I posted a couple of days ago about the HotBin sort out and I have now sorted out the various wormeries which live by the polytunnel as well. One of the reasons I got my hands so dirty yesterday :)

I first emptied out the Can o Worms wormery, bought from Wiggly Wigglers many years ago now and still going strong! I harvested three bucket fulls of lovely worm compost

.

I then emptied out the Hungry Bin tray and got another bucketful from that.

I don't need the compost just yet so I used  a spare CoW I got from Freecycle to store the compost in, five trays full of worm compost - that will allow it to dry out a little and I can use the worm juice in the polytunnel.  I added a top tray with the contents of the kitchen caddy so any remaining worms will move up into the top tray out of the finished compost.

Looking into the Hungry Bin this shows that worms do not eat compostable caddy bags - these obviously need to go into a compost bin for other compost creatures to munch at them. I have added a caddy at the foot of the Hungry bin so we all remember to put the bags in there.

Job done. You can see the orange rubbish bits bucket on the  far left hand side then moving to the right, the "compost storage" Can o Worms, next to it is the "working" Can o Worms wormery, next to that is the Hungry Bin wormery, then the caddy I have put down for the compost caddy bags collection, then the HotBin and the plant hardening off bench with some brassicas waiting to be planted out in the ( newly dug) veg patch. Finally the wooden bench with cold frame on top, containing various perennial plants waiting to be planted out into the new Bee attracting bed by the House.

I got a lot of work done in an afternoon. This area tends to be a bit of a dumping ground ( the outdoor equivalent of the Study of Doom!) and so it was good to sort it all out. Now this area is nice and tidy again.

Hungry Bin trial after 4 weeks - harvesting the vermicompost for the first time!

 The Hungry Bin has been quietly eating our kitchen waste for a number of weeks, now.
So I decided it was time to risk taking off the bottom tray to look at the vermicompost.

I undid the catches on each side, and carefully lowered the bottom tray - half expecting the entire contents to fall out of the bottom - but no! it all worked exactly as the Hungry Bin web site said it would!

The compost you can see on the ground fell out of the bottom tray when I removed it - none has fallen out from the Hungry Bin itself.

Most of the compost in the bottom tray is from the original material I added when I set up the Hungry Bin more than four weeks ago, but there are some worm casts in there as well.The bottom tray fits neatly into the liquid collection tray, normally seen on the ground under the Hungry Bin

I could only find one worm, who was returned to the Hungry Bin to join the rest of the many thousands in there, busily munching away at our waste.

I added the compost to some pots of veg in the polytunnel, as well as giving the plants a feed of diluted worm tea from the Hungry Bin collection tray. I then put the collection tray back underneath the Hungry Bin - two catches which did up really easily.

My Hungry Bin is now absorbing my daily kitchen waste -about a kilo of it every day, plus whatever else I find to throw in to the worms.

I am SO impressed with this wormery!

Hungry Bin update after 3 weeks

Here at Compost Mansion we generate a kitchen caddy full of waste every couple of days from our kitchen - tea bags, coffee filters and grounds, veg peelings and assorted bits of cardboard all go in there. The caddy lives in the corner by the sink, next to the sink. Typically, we empty about 5 kg of compostables out of it every few days.

I have been re filling the Hungry Bin with assorted kitchen and garden waste every day, a little and often is the best way and I have been adding a couple of inches of food stuff for the worms everyday, as suggested by the  Hungry Bin parent company in New Zealand

This was the view inside the lid of the Hungry Bin on Day 20 of the trial.I added some more assorted  kitchen and garden waste from the kitchen caddy and some of the packaging hay I recieved in my order from Rocket Gardens.

I have now owned a Hungry Bin for 3 weeks and am still delighted with it, despite the warmer weather recently it does not smell and it can handle a lot of kitchen waste.  I have also been using the "worm tea" from the tray at the bottom - diluted 10:1 with water  ( until it is the colour of weak tea, no milk, no sugar) the plants in the polytunnel love it

Next time I will hopefully be reporting on opening up the tray at the bottom to harvest some vermicompost ;-)

Hungry Bin update - Day 9 and the worms are thriving :-)

I have been re filling the Hungry Bin with assorted kitchen and garden waste every day, a little and often is the best way and I have been adding about an inch of food stuff for the worms everyday, as suggested by the  Hungry Bin parent company in New Zealand

This was the view inside the lid of the Hungry Bin on Day 6 of the trial.

And this is the same bin two days later,  - I did not feed the worms on Day 7 as I wanted to get an idea how much the level would drop over a couple of days.

It has dropped by several inches, and the worms have eaten a lot of the material.

 Scraping aside the surface, uneaten layer we see a lot of rich, dark vermicompost. Lovely!

I added some more assorted  kitchen and garden waste -  or as I prefer to think of it - valuable organic worm feed for my wonderful worms;-) 

And shut the lid.

I have now owned a Hungry Bin for 8 days and I must say I am delighted with it, it does not smell, it can handle a lot of kitchen waste, it reduces the waste rapidly and the worms are certainly working hard. I am also very pleased with the "worm tea" I am getting from the tray at the bottom - diluted 10:1 with water  ( until it is the colour of weak tea, no milk, no sugar) it is a fabulous feed for my plants.

Will report back in another few days.

Hungry Bin update Day 3 (07/07/12) and Day 4 (08/07/12)

I was quite worried on Day 3 - the deluge continued here and the worms were obviously convinced that they would be drowned if they stayed in the Hungry Bin so followed their instincts and tried to move up and away from danger- but the lid contained them.

I was concerned that the deluge would fill up the collection tray with rainwater and I would lose all my lovely worm tea, but NO! the design obviously keeps rain from falling into the collection tray - which is good.

Despite having had a lot of rain overnight! This wheelbarrow was next to the Hungry Bin.

I added some more material, about 800 g of mixed kitchen caddy waste, a small amount of cooked food and some roll roll tubes with compost inside which had held some bean plants, but they had been eaten off to soil level by slugs.

When I went back later the same day the tubes were full of worms all munching away.

Day 4, I added a about a kg of assorted waste, paper scraps, chicken droppings, weeds and tomato leaves from the plants in the polytunnel (I had been removing some of the lower leaves to let in air to the plants)which had been sitting in a bucket for a few days

I had a look at the waste and saw lots of worms busily working away with none in the lid so I think they must be happy with their environment.

See how quickly those cardboard tubes have disintegrated!

I laid some cardboard on the top surface so the worms had somewhere to hide under, and closed the lid for another day.

Hungry Bin review (1) - putting it together and setting it up.

When I was at the Masters Conference at Garden Organic I was very interested to see a new ( to me) design of wormery.  Johannes Paul of Omlet was showing a new addition to their product range - the Hungry Bin. Omlet are selling these wormeries in the UK, they originate from New Zealand and are an interesting design,

According to the makers, Low Impact Ltd

The Hungry Bin is a unique design. It creates an ideal living environment for compost worms. The worms convert organic waste into worm castings and a nutrient-rich liquid, which are both high-quality fertilisers. The liquid drains freely from the bin and into a tray placed below it. The tapered shape of the bin compresses the castings, encouraging the worms to move to the surface layer to access fresh food. Compressed castings are easier to handle and largely free of worms. It is a simple process to collect both the castings and liquid produced by the hungry bin.

I must admit I was very impressed by the design when looking at it on display and when Johannes offered me a Hungry Bin to try out, of course I said yes ( I never pass up the chance to experience something new involving composting and worms)

So when the box arrived yesterday, along with two large lidded buckets of worms and bedding, I was really excited (I'm funny like that!) and couldn't wait to get the system set up. Fortunately we had a dry and sunny day yesterday so I was able to take lots of photos as well

 Packaged in a cardboard box, what looks like proper sellotape to seal it (therefore compostable!) and the instructions are in a paper bag. Full marks for packaging!

All the parts nested together, like a Russian Doll

Very easy to understand instructions

Compostman stands next to the completed wormery - it took less than 10 mins to build.

In situ, behind the Barn, facing the Polytunnel - so I can feed it easily "little and often". There is a comprehensive "owners manual" to tell you how to set up the wormery once you have put it together, as well as lots of advice on the Omlet website.

Adding the bedding for the worms - when you first set it up you need to fill it half full with compost, coir, growing medium, soil or a mixture of all of them, to give the worms something to live in. I used spent home made compost from the potato planters I have just harvested.

As soon as I opened one of the worm buckets Babs was there! She must be able to smell worms at 100 paces!

 Worms!
 

A video of the worms, after I added them to the Hungry Bin

Compostgirl adding some growing medium to the Wormery

Titch was bored, so went to sleep as there were no more worms on offer.

The    Hungry Bin  web site says about the design

The hungry bin is the result of several years of design development by inventor Ben Bell, of New Zealand. Ben is a keen gardener, composter and worm farmer. He felt that the existing worm farms on the market could do with some improvement, and in true Kiwi spirit he decided to do it himself.  The original idea for hungry bin evolved from earlier models Ben created using broken kerbside rubbish bins.

I must admit it DOES look a bit like a rubbish bin on wheels!

The unique shape of the bin creates a large surface area allowing all the worms living in the hungry bin to easily access the food scraps at the top – exploiting the fact they’re surface feeders, and increasing their processing capacity. The tapered sides also encourage the worms to stay on the surface, while compressing their castings below.

I was particularly impressed by the large surface area and when I went out tonight to check on the Hungry Bin the worms were busily working in the material I had added on top of the bedding. A lot were on the inside of the lid, though. That tells me it IS going to rain, later on!

Once the compost process is complete, the hungry bin is designed to allow the simple and easy harvest of both finished castings and liquid fertiliser. Harvesting castings does not involve any heavy, messy lifting. The floor of the bin is easily removed, allowing approximately 4 litres (3/4 gallons) of castings to break away at the bottom of the taper. This allows the easy removal of finished castings from the bin. Removing the castings is a relatively clean process. Finished castings are largely free of worms.

I saw this demonstrated at Ryton - the tray really does come out full of worm casts and the material really did stay put! The only fault I can find so far is the liquid tray is easily accessable to the chickens - who will drink the worm "juice".

The lid is at a comfortable operating height, and convenient to open and close. Tight fitting, it prevents pests from entering but has sufficient venting to create healthy airflow. The hungry bin even has wheels, making moving the bin light work.

I found it easy to put material into the bin, so did both Compostman and Compostgirl.

If you are interested in buying one of these bins, you can order one from   the  Omlet Hungry Bin pages

I will write more in a few days, but so far I am very impressed with my Hungry Bin.

Sad news about Ginger

This is a hard post for me to write.

When Compostman went to let out the chickens this morning he found Ginger dead inside the Broody Ark, where she had been recouperating in isolation since the fox attack.

Yesterday she spent her second day outside with all the other chickens, running around, scratching around in the soil and generally being a normal hen. She still hadn't laid an egg since the fox attack, but she didn't look egg bound and shock can often stop a hen laying for some time. Also the hot weather has put a couple of the other girls off lay, so we were not worried about Ginger not laying. She looked absolutely fine when I shut her in at 9pm and at midnight Compostman checked on her and she crooned at him from her nest box.

Ginger wasn't injured in any way when he found her this morning, she looked as if she might have had a brief struggle (the bedding was churned up) but apart from that she had ..just...died. So we assume that perhaps she died of heart failure, possibly bought on by another egg in the process of developing, getting stuck overnight. Or, maybe, she just, died.

Ginger and Henny were the first 2 hens I got when I started keeping chickens again two and a half years ago, Compostman bought me an Eglu and Henny and Ginger as a birthday present.



We were all always very fond of Ginger, she was very clever and always keen to come and join in with what we were doing. She also seemed very bright for a chicken and would lead us over to gates she wanted opened...and she had a trick where she would jump up to get food from your hand.



Ginger the amazing jumping chicken! Her feet are around 2 foot off the ground in this photo.

Ginger spent yesterday re asserting her "top hen" status by getting first dibs at any tasty morsel of food and by re-enacting a "coldiz" style raid on the veg garden. She dug a tunnel under the wire and got inside the veg garden then encouraged some of the others through, to wreak a bit of havoc in there....





I tried to take a few pictures of her during the afternoon to show you all she was back in action, but she was too busy to pose for me.



SO, all very sad here and we buried Ginger on the edge of the wood today, near one of her favourite scratching spots.

RIP Ginger Hen, you will be much missed by all of us here at Compost Mansions.

Omlet newletter

oooo I am a feature in the latest Omlet newsletter

:-)

busy bee today

Guess who has been a busy bee today ?

I have been applying for an Environmental Education post which is supply work, as and when required, which is great as it fits in with all the other stuff I do...... and I have been getting insurance quotes for public liability so people who come on my land for chicken keeping or gardening courses, Forest School or play sessions will be covered.

I can't wait to start to run courses and hold play sessions in the wood :-)

more than anything else, THAT is what I am so happy about!

and I must just say how very touched I was by all your lovely responses to my news that I had passed my Forest Schools course!

I WILL do a post on exactly what Forest Schools is all about and just why it is so wonderful for children ( and grown ups!)

but for now, I just want to say THANK YOU ALL for the good wishes.....

I have also been up to the Garden Organic wonderful gardens at Ryton twice in the last 4 days...attending courses on various stuff....

I LOVE Ryton and if you can, I urge you to go and visit....

I have done a lot of gardening today at home AND have had a gardening Eco Club session as well at school..so am off to bed now but I will also write about Garden Organic and Ryton Gardens very soon..as it is a wonderful place ( and I got to actually do some of the gardening there, yesterday.....! wow I felt SO honoured....)

I will also update you all on Cathy the ex batty hen, and share some interesting news about one of the Dorking girls.....lets just say she is proving rather precocious, shull we?

No email and I really needed it for work, today!

If anyone was needing to email me ( either on my compostbin email OR any personal emails you have for me)...you can't, as my ISP is down and has been all day....both client and web mail!

so I have had no emails at all, and I can't send any out either, which has been a bit of a business blow as I had all sorts of stuff scheduled to do today...and I have only just realised I have comments awaiting moderation, too! ( oops sorry folks)

I am off to meet a batch of new in-training Master Composters tomorrow at their training course, to chat to them about being an MC and working with children etc...

So I have been sorting through my expenses claim today as I have been a bit remiss in putting them in and I suddenly realised I am owed a fair bit of money...which I could do with :-) and can drop off the claim tomorrow :-)so that will be a nice payment soon.

Some eggciting news, I am going to be offering chicken keeping courses via Omlet soon:-)))

I have been working out slots in my diary, sorting out course dates and writing up my profile and course details etc. I have also talked to the chickens concerned and explained they all need to be really really nice to the two legs who will be coming to see them...and not do anything too wacky...

So, all in all a good day here, and the weather has been lovely and sunny, the crocus are all out and the snowdrops are amazing now, I must take some photos for you all to see the ones in the wood.

I may well lose my broadband connection, next...so if I disappear for a bit, don't fret!

Catch up!

Well, sorry I have not posted for SUCH a long time, but it is a VERY busy period of the year, and a lot has been happening in our lives, as well. The first exciting news is that we now have HENS! Mr CW gave me a magnificent birthday present of an Eglu and 2 beautiful hens,


a Gingernut Ranger called Ginger (!)










and a Mrs Pepperpot called Henny-Penny.









They are beautiful and getting very friendly (especially when I appear calling "chook, chook, chook" and giving them mixed grains......

We await our first eggs with eager anticipation - Miss CW goes and checks EVERY MORNING to see if the girls have "obliged" yet...but I guess they are a little too young just now.....but...SOON!

I must say that Omlet were absolutely briliant in every respect, the ordering, the delivery ( 6 days early!) the instructions and everything - I cannot fault them at all.......

and the delight in having hens again...hearing them croon at me, and seeing them run around, flapping in excitement at my feet, is delightful.....I DO like HENS!