When I die and go to heaven I want to be you.

I bet many here do too.

You seem to be missing the dwarf goats, mushrooms, bees and Black Solider Fly Larve. But I suppose these things take time.

The 2500 worms are very precious. I'm glad you said bins because you don't want one bin to go bad and loose all your stock. I would concentrait on multiplying the worms and maybe tossing a few into some rabbit droppings. Let your harvested vermicastings sit a few months kept damp so you can reharvest the now hatched baby worms. You are going to need all you can get. Can you tease some more red wigglers out of your outdoor compost heaps with maybe some mellon?

This is not exactly what you described you were looking for. It may be better. Or you may have a better idea. If so please share it. This guy has a hoop house, chickens, rabbits and worms. http://themodernhomestead.us/article/Boxwood+Vermicomposting.html

I have some questions. Does the rabbit pee build up and make amonia? How do you handle that? Do you store anything above your rabbits like hay?

Post more. We/I want to hear more about your worms, chickens and rabbits and how they system of the three all work together.

Anthony that is a great idea! I have heard of rabbit bins with hardware cloth bottoms placed above worm bins. Add straw for the rabbits to tear up and it is self feeding. I understand worms love rabbit pellets and can handle it fresh. Harvesting may be challenging if you plan to move the goods and separate the worms. Good luck!

equinoxequinox

Just to let you know this started as raising a dozen hens with my girls last year. That led to 50 hens, 100 meat chickens, 40 turkeys, 8 rabbits in which 1 is a buck and then quail this year. So it has been interesting. And I am only on an acre. So I am all about compact moveabel tractors for the animal. Bees are a thought for next year. Girls want honey.

I do not put hay on the cages. I find it is very messy and to much hay and they don't eat their pellets. So my rabbits during the winter get a handfull of hay and 1 cup of pellets per day for feed. I had an issue early on and found out I didn't have good enough ventilation the straw beneath was not getting tossed enough. So I pulled out the chickens and borrow a local farmers small pig and small pen and it tilled up everything in a few hours. Sent the pig home and moved the chickens back in fixed the ventilation and all seemed better for the winter. I pick up the whole concept from a farm called Polyface Farms when I read a book called Pastured Poutlry by Joel Salatin. Now I am trying to figure it out. Seeing as I have unlimited access to waste materials I am trying to figure out how to get the to move laterally instead of vertically. I suppose I could build moveble trays but that seems to much work. I like simplicity.
And for other animals, well I am working on it. I work at a family farm(petting zoo) and they have a 20 acre field that they don't use so I am looking to raise more meat chickens, possibly 2 beef cows and couple of pigs or sheep in the next year or two. We will see how orders progress. I already have everything sold and demand for more this year.
Hopefully someone one will have more input and I will read through that boxwood vermicomposting Not sure what the difference is.

Sounds like you are already a Joel Salatin chicken tractor fan.

I just started vermicomposting in a 5 gallon bucket more than a year ago with worms captured form my compost. About half an egg shells worth. So I'm not an expert but boy do I have opinions worthy or not.

For bees my research has shown think top bar natural cell and extrude not by machine but by crushing for how much we might harvest. I have no bees either.

I am massively interested in the height of the cages. Like how tall are the rabbit cages? Do the chickens have cages or wonder about under? What level is the bottom of the rabbits. I know the males have nails and strong hind legs and for children it might not be save to remove males from cages.

Have you read at all about keeping rabbits not in seperate cages but all together? My guess is they have very few adult males.

where do you store your hay and what do you do with the space above the rabbit cages?

I hear rabbits do fine with cold but need shelter from wind.

I hear chickens do fine with cold but need clean air to breath.

Rent a Pig? Ok I see now you have "met" Joe Salatin.

"someone one will have more input" that is why we pay the big bucks to post and reply here.

I do not think there is any difference between "boxwood vermicomposting" and what a method you might thinking of is.

Your present worms are in solid bottom bins or like sieve bottom can of worms or worm factory?

I presently use buckets but want to move to a flow through. I started with a pitiful small amount of worms and am growing them with the kitchen waste of one household.

Your girls are very lucky to have you.

Anthony you are livin' the dream! Sounds like you will have plenty of manure for feedstock. For lateral worm movement I would keep the rabbits in a tight group at one end of the hoop-house, and slowly and gradually move them down the length with the worms in tow. Add other feedstocks, such as cardboard, and heat will occur, which would be good in your cold winters.

This was my set up this winter with my chickens running under my rabbits. The rabbits are 36 inches above the straw. The straw is about 12 inches deep so the chickens keep their feet warm and as they scratch they keep airating and helping with the heat of composting in there.

http://gallery.me.com/anthonyjames420#100306&bgcolor=black&view=grid

You will see in the photos that this is my original chicken run that was built. But it is all coming down for the Hoop House.

Both chickens and rabbits do really well with the cold. They both just need to have block from the wind while sleeping. My chickens have been out in some nasty weather this winter and prefered to stay out until the sun went down no matter how bad the weather.
The rabbits were pretty well insulated by straw bales around them.

As for how much room they will have above them that I won't know until I finish the hoop house. But I will house their water in the warm months and maybe some shelving units towards winter so I can store feed and other things above them.

We shred all our mail, papers, you name it. Beer cases whatever can compost we put it in, that is if the chickens or rabbits won't eat it. They get first dibs