I know, lots of people think superworms are gross (my husband included!) but my chickens and quails love them! I used to breed the mealworms for them because they're easier to get to pupate than the superworms but then I got lucky and my container of superworms decided to start the process all on their own!
The main reason I go through phases of breeding them is when they get a grain mite infestation in their bran - it is impossible to get rid of and grosses me out. I tried freezing and microwaving the bran before the eggs hatch, but it seems inevitable that they survive and take over. I've researched these guys a lot trying to find a different bedding solution but all I kept finding was bran or oats, so I started experimenting.
First up I tried no bedding but it ends up with a lot of moisture on the bottom and the worms started dying off. Then I tried sand but it also ended up holding a lot of moisture on the bottom of the container. I had tried them on fresh mulberry leaves, which they liked so I dehydrated and crushed so many leaves which worked well, but was a lot of work!
Now occasionally when I garden where I used to compost all the quail bedding I kept finding what looked like elongated mealworms so I thought what about plain dirt? Obviously I didn't want to bring garden dirt in to hatch who knows what to contaminate my worm colonies (or my house!) - so what about those coir blocks that you add water to and they expand?
Yep it works great - they eat it just like they do with the bran and it doesn't hold a lot of moisture in the bottom as the worms help move it around, which in turn helps it dry out faster. And I've found it doesn't get as smelly as the bran either, I tried with a lid and without a lid - without a lid they stay even drier of course, but even with a lid I don't have moisture issues.
It wouldn't be as easy to sift out mealworms as the coir isn't as consistently fine as bran, but it's great for the superworms.
I guess I shouldn't just call it puppy proofing when fencing off the gardens started because of the chickens. Luckily a short fence that I can easily step over and move works to keep both Archie and the chickens out!
And even better, flimsy, wobbly fences seem to work best! If it's nice and solid under his paws, Archie will happily jump and lean on it, but if it flexes or moves he won't touch it in case it falls and makes a scary noise (yep typical big dog, big sook)! For the chickens if it looks like it has a nice sturdy top they will happily land on it and jump in the garden. Like this fence we put around the mango tree - they liked to sit up there and watch the world go by!
These chicken wire and fence paling fence panels were my original chicken fences to keep them off the concrete and out of my pot plants. They have seen better days, and I'm surprised how well they've held up to Archie. A couple of panels have a new use as a rather rustic plant trellis for my snow peas. In front of those are puppy play pen panels which work great to keep the chickens out - and Archie. It's nice as they are cheap, easy to install and easy to see the garden (and mess) they're protecting. I do use garden stakes and zip ties for a little extra support.
Similar to the puppy pen panels I have an assortment of old panels off rat cages and compost cage panels which also work well with garden stakes and zip ties. They normally get used to cover Archie's excavation attempts so the grass gets a chance to grow back!
Since I can't trust Archie with the chickens I did want something a bit stronger between them. So I made some simple fence panels using only fence palings. I then either use screws or zip ties to attach to garden stakes, the chicken cage or the verandah posts. They look so much nicer, unfortunately they do block a lot of the view into my gardens - I think I'll save this type of fence for hiding messy areas! They are nice though as I can make sturdy gates for them with proper latches.
Once I've settled on a layout for our backyard we will do a permanent fence for the gardens, until then I'll stick with my current mix of panels. Who knows, by that time Archie might be too lazy to destroy my gardens and I won't need the fences anymore...
Last year I finally planted two birdhouse gourd seeds to grow over the chicken coop - along with loofahs and snake beans. They did grow over the chicken coop, but they also travelled up our huge dracena, over the quail shed and along the shade cloth we hang over the bees.
With all the research I did, I was only expecting a few gourds from each plant. But only one plant survived to do all that travelling, and I now have so many gourds! Surprisingly the plant is only dying now wheras the loofah died off when the cold hit over a month ago.
Gourds can take months to dry, as they've dropped from the vine I starting making macrame hangers from twine so they have really good air circulation to prevent rotting. Then I just grabbed an old piece of wood from the yard, screwed in a whole heap of cup hooks and put it between the sheds. I read that they go mouldy and smell pretty bad as they dry out so I figure the junk pile won't mind!
It's working well, I have a few that seem to be fully dry and I haven't noticed any mould or any bad smells - not that I'm going to breath deeply or intentionally smell them when I get close.
Since that old piece of wood doesn't seem to be coping too well with the weight of the fresh gourds the rest will hang out on the mulch until I have room on the hanger. Gourd farmers do just leave them in the field over winter until they dry out so this shouldn't be a problem. Although I do wonder if contact with the ground might cause mould or rot issues.
The first thing I'm going to do is put a couple of small ones in with my finches to see if they like them. The main reason I wanted to grow them is to do pyrography on them. I've seen them used for bowls, spoons, yarn bowls, ornaments, planters, lanterns and of course they used to be used for water hence their other name of bottle gourd.
For my birthday last year we ordered a Flow Hive so we could finally get our very own honey bees! We could of course get honey off our native bees but it is a lot of work for little reward and I prefer the taste of the European bee honey.
Our long awaited hive arrived right when life threw us lots of lemons. So as is my way of coping with grief, I stop creating. I had plans of a beautiful wood burnt hive but instead it sat in its box unassembled because it's so much easier to do the pyrography before assembly.
I tried making myself get it done so we could get bees sooner but I just could not focus on doing the design. And when that was finally done I just didn't feel like even starting to burn.
Gardening became my distraction except it was way too hot in summer so I retreated to the air con and slowly worked on the hive in the middle of the day. And it was finally burnt, assembled and oiled. We bought bee suits and all the gear we needed. I fenced off a spot to keep the chickens and Archie away from the bees. Then covid restrictions started happening and we weren't sure when we could get bees. Thankfully we were able to buy a nucleus and we have now been the proud owners of European bees for 3 months!
We won't be able to add the honey super until Spring, but in the meantime we get to observe, learn and get to know our bees until we can do our first harvest.
