As a post-script to the above post: This is about what I was expecting to generate from the goat litter/goat manure. A 'slurry' with some elevated (above "none") nitrogen, some 'fiber' with the straw, and some "food" from the manure.

Paul

Your worms should love this stuff. Let us know how they react to it.

Very nice way to prepare supper for the squirm!

One seemingly common characteristic about manure is it becomes hydrophobic after it dries out. It can be VERY hard to re-wet and make worm-ready food. Throw sun-dried manure in a 5 gallon bucket of water and it floats like cork for a long time. Your method seems excellent at rehydrating manure quickly. It would also be a great way to mix any batch of worm food. You could try different recipes out.

Worms will love that paste. I am sure it is alive with great critters for the new worm bin. Dump it in your cage over some bedding to get it going quickly. I make a slurry with horse manure in a wheelbarrow sometimes. I dump immediately and directly on bottomless outdoor bins. Worms love supper served that way.

I wanted to use goat litter as the 'bedding', but I may put shredded corrugated cardboard down as the initial bedding for this stuff.

1) Shredded corrugated cardboard (I'm thinking at least 6" and maybe 8" of DRY), then
2) moose poop slurry (3"), then
3) the contents of one of my current indoor bins, (approximately 500 worms + food and shredded paper), then
4) "something" on top. At the moment, I'm thinking either shredded leaves or water-saturated wood shavings, or a mixture of them. A layer just thick enough to provide 'cover' and a moisture 'cap'. I'm thinking 1/2" at most.

Suggestions or cautionary notes???

Paul

That looks perfectly "yummy!" Your guys will go nuts over it Paul!

Your idea of how you want to finish/layer the bin sounds good to me, too. I don't get anal, I just dump everything in a hodge-podge and they still love it.

Suggestion; Use some goat litter as, or mixed with, the bedding. It should be a complete and balanced diet, while adding important air trapping "structure" to the bin.
The ingredients sound a little high in carbon. Aged goat litter should add nitrogen. Also, it is 'pre-mixed' and should be 'worm-ready ' when you rehydrate it. It may add some heat for you also.

Once a bin is established, you can add just about anything. That being said, your plan sounds good and should work good as you proposed. Good luck Paul. I am sure all will be fine. Worms are resilient!

By the way... For those considering this method for mixing or rehydrating, I would suggest a different 'stir stick'. You can see the one I used in pictures 4 through 6. It is designed for liquids like paint and dry-wall plaster not semi-solids. There are others 'out there', and I will be looking for something a bit more aggressive and larger in diameter. This one tends to load almost immediately which renders the blades almost useless.

You might be asking "Why bother when you only have one more bucket of moose marbles?" Well...
1) I have found a source of horse manure that is willing to give it to me in 5-gal buckets. I will be 'slurrying' that.
2) I plan on 'slurrying' the "pure" goat manure (no bedding included).
3) I MAY throw some shredded leaves into the mixture. (As 'you' may be beginning to see, I REALLY want to use those leaves! :) )

I continue to be amazed at how odorless this stuff is. It has been sitting/aging over the course of the winter, but still... Even after rehydrating, I could smell NOTHING when I poked my face right down in the bucket.

Upon some consideration, this "makes sense". Almost all herbivores are "food" for some carnivore. Moose are no different. If they left smelly poop around wherever they traveled, carnivores - with their excellent olfactory capabilities - would have a much easier time of finding their 'food'. Nonetheless, I remain surprised. Horse, cow and poultry manure is certainly not "odorless". Goat manure is almost odorless. Mix urine in, and it gets quite odoriferous, but not unpleasant to those of us that like goats. :)

"Worms are resilient!" - and it's a good thing too!

Paul

By the way... For those considering this method for mixing or rehydrating, I would suggest a different 'stir stick'. You can see the one I used in pictures 4 through 6. It is designed for liquids like paint and dry-wall plaster not semi-solids. There are others 'out there', and I will be looking for something a bit more aggressive and larger in diameter. This one tends to load almost immediately which renders the blades almost useless.

You might be asking "Why bother when you only have one more bucket of moose marbles?" Well...
1) I have found a source of horse manure that is willing to give it to me in 5-gal buckets. I will be 'slurrying' that.
2) I plan on 'slurrying' the "pure" goat manure (no bedding included).
3) I MAY throw some shredded leaves into the mixture. (As 'you' may be beginning to see, I REALLY want to use those leaves! :) )

I continue to be amazed at how odorless this stuff is. It has been sitting/aging over the course of the winter, but still... Even after rehydrating, I could smell NOTHING when I poked my face right down in the bucket.

Upon some consideration, this "makes sense". Almost all herbivores are "food" for some carnivore. Moose are no different. If they left smelly poop around wherever they traveled, carnivores - with their excellent olfactory capabilities - would have a much easier time of finding their 'food'. Nonetheless, I remain surprised. Horse, cow and poultry manure is certainly not "odorless". Goat manure is almost odorless. Mix urine in, and it gets quite odoriferous, but not unpleasant to those of us that like goats. :)

"Worms are resilient!" - and it's a good thing too!

Paul