“I am looking for specific information concerning worm bins under a rabbit hutch. Lid/no lid. Screen for ventilation? Let the poo drop right in or dump a tray into the bin? There’s not much of a consensus, it seems, on the best way to set it up for an outside system. Thanks!” ~ Roman Shapla
Hi Roman,
There definitely is no one way to create a wormery system!
Many people constantly come up with new ideas and ways to start raising worms and process organic waste using worms.
A wormery system under a rabbit hutch is a great idea and I have seen quite a few of these made. It definitely helps with cage cleaning since all you need to do is open a hatch and let everything drop through to the worm bin. The paper lining also provides a great carbon source, removing the hassle of adding more carbon to balance the C:N ratio.
Picture examples can be found here.
Another way to do this is to have the bottom of the rabbit cage made out of 1/2inch wired mesh. The poop will drop right through to worm bin underneath directly. However you will have problems with urine which I will explain later.
Rabbit poop is a great source of food for worms.
First of all, rabbit poop is considered ‘cold manure’ which means it can be directly thrown into the plants without the fear of the plants burning. It contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and also contains many trace elements such as calcium, magnesium, boron, zinc, manganese, sulfur, copper and cobalt. By adding it to earthworm systems you can create great fertilizer and can solve the problems of odor and regular cage cleaning.
If you are not adding any other feed source for the worms then please be aware of some of the problems which may arise from this type of system.
There will not be a lot of moisture in this food source, and when the rabbit pellets starts drying, it will become hard which makes it impossible for the worms to consume. You will need to wet the system once in a while to keep the system damp and the worms happy. The system will be fine if you pick up the contents and 1-2 drops of water can be squeezed out of it. You will also need to be aware that the worm bin will not heat up.
The biggest problem you’ll have to worry about is urine.
Worms cannot tolerate high salt levels and urine contains a lot of salt as well as ammonia, so urine spots will need to be removed Learn More Here. If your rabbit is potty trained and urinates in one spot of the newspaper, then this can easily be removed as you empty all the contents into the bin.
If the mesh system is used for the rabbit cage, you may need to remove the area where the rabbit/s regularly urinate into. A neat option will be to add some newspaper or good soaking material underneath the urinating area which can be collected and removed.
Happy worm and rabbit farming!
