ANIMALS

Worms

• - Worms are excellent for the environment! They transform waste products and turn them into an incredibly beneficial product. This also has the side benefit of reducing landfill.
• - Given the right conditions, worms can eat up to their own weight every day.
• - Worms eat any dead organic matter and produce as an exudate (excrement) ‘castings’ – incredibly rich in beneficial micro-organisms.
• - The material worms have been living in (and excreting in) is called vermi-compost. Vermi-compost contains some castings, but is not 100% castings.
• - Castings are pH neutral and cannot burn your plants.
• - Worms don’t have teeth – and they need moisture to eat. They cannot chomp anything dry (eg paper and cardboard). Soak these in water first, or place watery vegetables/fruits on top – like watermelon – which they LOVE!) Worms don’t eat anything that is alive.
• - Worms are ‘hermaphrodites’ - both male and female within themselves.
• - Worms reproduce by laying eggs called ‘capsules’ (each capsule contains 1 – 28 baby worms). Worms can start laying eggs at 3 months old. Eggs take 21- 28 days to hatch.
• - Worms can lay eggs every 10 days - sufficient to double their own population about every 6 – 8 weeks.
• - Worms generally live for about 3 years.
• - Worms used for composting include Reds (Lumbricus Rebellus), Tigers (Eisenia Foetida) and Indian Blues (Perionyx Excavatus).
• - A minimum of 2000 worms is recommended for backyard composting in a worm farm for a family of 4.
• - Commercial worm farmers have upwards of 10,000,000 worms.

Chooks

• 1. Chickens have prehistoric roots and are the closest living relative of the trex.
• 2. Chicken’s bodies contain 15% more water than humans.
• 3. Chickens are omnivores, and a hen will eat their own raw eggs if they are not satisfied with their diet.
• 4. If chickens listen to classical music, they can lay bigger and heavier eggs.
• 5. Chickens can run up to 9 miles per hour!
• 6. A chicken’s heart beats from 220 to 360 times per minute.
• 7. Chickens have excellent memories and can remember and recognize over 100 other chickens.
• 8. Chickens have been trained to play video games and complete simple tasks.
• 9 Chickens can see and dream in full color.
• 10. When chickens feel stressed, they start to lose their feathers.
• 11 Chickens have their own unique language with over 30 different sounds used to communicate
• 12 In order to clean themselves, chickens take dust baths. They dig a small pit in the ground and use the dirt to help with the oil in their feathers.
• 13. It only takes about 26 hours for a hen to produce an egg, and 21 days for the egg to incubate and hatch.
• 14. When a chicken gets its head cut off, it can run the length of a football field before dropping dead.