Harvesting worms

[Spotte]

Gidday folks
I've got a pile of cow **** , currently about a metre cube , full of worms. At present I harvest a couple of hundred by hosing a bucket full of "****e" through some coarse filter mesh...its messy but quick .....anybody got a more sensible approach......thanks a bundle
PS anybody have any idea of the FCR for worms fed to Silver Perch ??

[sillyoldfart]

Aren't worms about 80% water?

[Murray]

Hi Spottie,
It sounds like a great way to harvest worms.....very practical.
Silver Perch love garden worms and I imagine they are very good ...high protien content.
I get very few worms from my little worm farm, but when I throw a couple in to the Silvers, there is no doubt that they think they are top fare.
I suppose they (worms) are very high in water content SOF but they would still have loads of protien.
The human body is 80% water (or there abouts) and I am sure the human body would be an excellent source of protien down at the local Lion enclosure.:)

[GaryD]

Hi Spotte,

Worms are generally harvested in one of two ways:

Light - worms are light sensitive....so you tip a bucketful of castings onto a bench and, a bit at a time, brush away the top layer of casting. The worms constantly bury themselves further into the heap of castings to avoid the light....to the point where you have this writhing mass of pure worms on the bench and a bucketful of wormless castings. This is worm harvesting at the small end.
Mechanical - where the casting containing the worms is loaded into one end of a purpose-built harvester. See http://www.impactworm.com.au/harvest.htm This is what is used at the larger, commercial end of worm production.What your method lacks in technical elegance, it makes up for in sheer practicality......except that all of the very small worms would wash through the mesh......and you'd have cow poop everywhere.

I don't know what the feed value of worms is, but mixed with duckweed I'd think they'd be close to an ideal diet for omnivores like Silver perch.

Gary

[Spotte]

Gidday Gary , Murray and SOF

Gary , thanks for the info ...bloomin good stuff. Got any ideas how to combine the worms with the duckweed ...or do SP simply eat the duckweed off the surface , no dramas ??



Murray and SOF, You are probably right about the water content of worms .....does that mean an FCR off the scale ??? Has any work ever been done on it.... must have, I would have thought.

The spot

[sillyoldfart]

Yep I'm sure the remaining 20% of the worm is probably all protein Murray.

Establishing the percentage of water content was important in order to try and work out the FCR, n'est pas?

[Spotte]

I noticed the commercial fish food I'm currently using is 45% protein.......so if you go on say 20% in worms , maybe the FCR , with the help of a bit of duck weed thrown in for the essential fatty acids , might not be so bad after all ?? Has Grafton done any studies on this with regards to Silvers ???

[GaryD]

Hi,

According to the following site, dried worms are 76% protein and earthworms are 28% protein. See http://www.lionsgrip.com/protein.html

Gary

[Spotte]

Thanks Gary ...great web site

Spot

[Murray]

There are other alternatives to worms that are possibly easier to raise than worms.
There is a whole chapter in Gary's new book on "Growing Your Own Fish Food" (http://www.urbanaquaponics.com.au/)
and some very interesting info on "Soldier Fly Lave".
The next issue of "Practical Aquaponics for Everyone" (http://www.aquaponics.net.au) will have a short article on "Soldier Fly Lave"

[Spotte]

I appreciate that info Murray and look forward to the article.
Gone for worms mainly because I have an abundance of cow manure..so , in fact , got millions of the little wrigglers! Just need to develop a quick way to harvest them , otherwise its easier to throw them pellets ...but thats defeating the object.

The Spot

[Murray]

I have a small worm farm but not enough to be useful. I have reverted to feeding my fish on pellets. They actually eat very little, especially if you compare them to chooks and the like.

[pfatz]

From Mena, Arkansas, USA; I once owned a sand & gravel quarry where we washed & separated sand and the gravel by size. The sand was washed out in a rotating drum & the gravel went onto shaker screens. The smaller gravel fell thru progressively smaller screens (which were removed to piles) until only the fines were left.

The point is, I wonder if a shaker screen would quickly & efficently seperate the worms from the bedding. Construction of such a device would be very simple using a simple offset drive apparatus.

EdH

[GaryD]

Hi EdH,

Is this the sort of thing you're talking about?.......here. (http://www.impactworm.com.au/harvest.htm)

GaryD

[pfatz]

Hello GaryD
The only thing I saw remotely like I have in mind is the frame around the Sq ft garden.

The frame surrounding it might be like lumber stood on edge. Metal would be more durable. The screen could be one of two types; one is woven wire
( unlike window screen, it is heavy....perhaps 2.5 to 3mm for each wire ) or a punched plate product, which has a multitude of hole spaced all over the plate. These are used for sorting many kinds of products. The screen would be mounted on the bottom of the frame. The frame mounted perhaps on springs and shaken by a offset drive device.

I will look for a picture of a standard shaker screen and post it when I find it. If you have a sand & gravel processing plant nearby, try to get a tour and look at the shakers. The concept is simple.

[pfatz]

GaryD
Sorry, I looked at the wrong link. The drum separator is similar to my washer/separator. It is simply more complicated. The shaker screens are flat with a surrounding frame or inclined whereby the off fall drops thru the screen and the desired product scoots down the incline and drops into a pile or container in the case of something like worms.

You might search sand & gravel processing for pictures or info. I will do the same a try to find a suitable picture to post.

EdH

[pfatz]

Hi GaryD

I'll try this to see if the pic comes up;

http://gator_incline_screen_1-thumb.jpg

This is a 3 stage shaker screen intended to separate and size rock.

It is a good pic but I don't know if you will get it this way. A simpler single stage shaker might work for worms.

EdH

[GaryD]

Hi EdH,

I understood what you were saying about a shaker tray arrangement....and I agree that, if it worked, it would be a simpler solution (than the worm separator link that I posted) to the problem of sorting worms from their bedding.

I guess the answer would be to build a small test unit. We look forward to your progress reports.


GaryD