Sifting Frass - $1.25 Sifter vs $25 Sifter.
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- čas přidán 25. 02. 2023
- How to sift frass from wheat bran bedding. Separating the frass out saves you money by being able to reuse wheat bran in your mealworm bins until it’s all eaten up. A specialty sifter of 1/30” mesh can cost over $25. Instead consider using a grease splatter screen available at the local dollar store! I show you how.
Thanks for the idea. I bought the splatter screen, cut the bottom out of a small bucket and cut the screen with scissors to fit. Used a glue gun to attach it. I works great. I attempted to mark 1" on the screen, took a picture with my phone, and was able to count about 20 to 22 holes per inch. So, I don't think it is 1/30th, but could be. It works good enough for me, though.
Hello! That’s great! I love you making it the bottom of a small bucket - that’s genius! The only drawback to the splatter screen is the lack of sides and you solved that. My husband bought me the 1/30th mesh sifter as a gift ❤️. It is a tiny bit finer than the splatter screen but really really close. Both save money by not needlessly wasting wheat bran 👍.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Another video so soon! Great job 🎉
Can you use your driver's license or debit card to move it around
Hi Jayne, from Windermere, Florida 9b 🇺🇸
This is excellent information 👌
Thanks for sharing
❤Peggy❤
Hi Peggy! Thanks! I wasn’t prepared at the time to spend the money on the micro screened sifter for the frass and needed a cost effective alternative. I will admit however that my husband bought me the stackable green micro sifter as a gift several weeks after this video was made ❤️. It is a lot faster for sifting than my homemade version but the end result is the same.
People need cheaper options so they can give worming - composting or mealies! - a try without sinking a bunch of money into it!
Are you thinking of giving mealies a try??
@@RockinWorms I think I'm happy with my Red Wigglers...for now 👍
Great channel you have encourage me to start a small shoe box worm bin. I have a small home so not much room but always looking for ways to send less to landfill. I’m in Kent, England ❤
Hi Linda! Awesome! I’m so happy I’ve given you the push to start a bin! A small colony is a great way to begin ❤️👍.
Please post on how it goes!!
Thanks for watching 😊
@@RockinWorms I’ve learnt so much from you. 👍👍👍👍
@@lindaware3082 thanks!! That’s the best compliment you could ever give me!
To be clear, you’re starting compost worms? This comment is on one of the few mealworm videos I’ve made (not enough time in the day 🥲).
@@RockinWorms o yes sorry for the confusion. I’m working my way through your videos so may have commented on the wrong one 😜
@@lindaware3082 no worries! Comment on any video you want 😆. I’m the one that confused it all by having both compost and mealworms on same channel. What I thought would work in the very beginning has not held up 🙃.
just curious if your ever compared a wire mesh strainer to your green sifters? I was curious what size screen was on a typical dollar store wire mesh.
Hi Nancy! First off, my apologies for taking so long to answer your question. It’s a good question too!
Comparing the 1/30 mesh sifter screen with the $1 or $1.25 grease splatter screen from the dollar store, I’d say they are the same or very very close in mesh size. The 1/20 mesh foster I have has clearly bigger holes.
The benefit of the sifter is its sides - I can add in more material in one go to sift out faster. Another commenter, I believe in this thread, solved this problem by cutting out the bottom of a bucket and gluing the grease splatter screen to it. Great idea!
Either way, having the 1/30 screen saves me money by keeping out more of the partially processed bedding so it can be reused.
Thanks for your question and patience in me taking forever to get back to you ❤️🪱
Thanks!
Hi Amy! Are you interested in mealworms? I’ve only made a few videos on them 🙁.
However my mealies are doing great!
@@RockinWorms considering doing it for myself first and maybe selling locally later if I decide to. Thought it might give income relatively easily in my older years.
@@joyevefarmandforge I am thinking the same way. I have chickens so mealworms are a good supplemental feed for them. The ones at the feed stores are mostly imported and reportedly not fed healthy foods but offal and toxic substances. Yuck.
Once I get the hang of raising mealies I’ll be sharing more videos of what I’ve learned.
Farther down the road they may be a nice side income during retirement 🤞
Very interesting, a lot of my worm bins when I clean them out, I find one or two, I am always fascinated by them. So, I always put them back in with the worms. Occasionally I have a darkling beetle flying around. I have often thought they would make good chicken feed. Then I think composting worms are enough (it takes space to do things). I also wonder where they come from, the only thing I can come up with is that the eggs are in the worm chow? Do you have more videos about mealworms?
Have a great Day!
Hi. Mealworms are used a lot as chicken treats. They’re expensive and often imported, which can lead to problems unfortunately (they’re given contaminated feed which is then passed to the animal that eats them. Really bad). Growing your own mealies allows control over the health of the mealies and therefore the health of the chickens AND the eggs. The bad stuff goes into the eggs as well :(.
I’m a new CZcamsr and am making videos as fast as I can lol! More on mealworms will be coming in the next few days. Stay tuned!
Wanted to answer your question regarding where the mealies come from. Yes it’s probably from the worm chow. The darkling beetle eggs are very small, and the fact of the matter is they’re in our flours, oatmeal’s, etc right at the mills.
@@RockinWorms That's what I was thinking. Thanks for the confirmation!
@@RockinWorms Cool, I will be looking forward to an education about mealworms and watching your channel grow!
@@wormsforlife7352 People don’t often know that flour is raw. It’s not cooked. So insect eggs, bacteria, fungus, etc are not killed during the flour making process. It’s the real reason you shouldn’t eat raw cookie dough, not because of the raw eggs. Thought you might find that interesting lol.
I have black soldier fly frass, and my frass seems to be much darker. I can't just pour it on my plants... I poured 1/2 cup on my potted bamboo plant and it totally burned it to death. Is there a way to measure how potent the frass is to know how much to dilute it with soil or water to make it safe to use on plants? When people talk about fresh fertilizer being "hot" are they referring specifically to Ph? (How acidic or basic it is?) Also, how certain are you that your end result is 100% frass and doesn't have any small pieces of wheat bran? I use a metal noodle strainer to sift my frass, but I don't go that small. I just don't feed my larva that often and let them consume all of the food I've already given them... Then I feed them again in a few days. I think that's why my frass gets so dark and why it's so strong.
Hi Douglas! First off I’m sorry about the bamboo plant. That sucks 😢😡.
I don’t have black soldier flies so can’t address any specifics to them but the general principles are the same.
The ‘hot’ part is the unbroken down nitrogen in the frass - or any manure except for rabbit poop. The high raw nitrogen, which is not yet in a stage/form where plants can use it, is too strong and can burn the plant roots, leaves, etc, causing severe damage as you experienced. That’s what composting does - it allows for the nitrogen to be processed into a form that plants can use safely. Since I’m using, as most people will, frass that has not been composted we need to be careful in our usage.
What I do with all my plants,trees, shrubs, including my veggie plants, is to make a ring (a flat ring aka not a berm) at the drip line of the plant. Enough frass to mostly cover the soil making the ring. Generous but not heaping. In the case of potted plants where there may not be room to make a ring, I’d do a light sprinkle onto the soil and repeat every couple of weeks or a month, paying attention to how the plant reacts. Frass in general is around a 2-2-2 or 2-3-2 NPK ratio. Low, balanced, and most importantly to my mind, helps plants fight off disease and pests.
Haha! This is probably more than you wanted for an answer 😳🙄. Hope it helps you though. Ask more if you have more questions ❤️🪱
Can you use your driver's license or debit or credit card to move it around
Hi! I don’t see why not. I’d probably opt for something larger like a spatula though 👍🤩
Feed it to the red wigglers as worm chow.
Wow! I didn’t think of frass as a potential red worm food. I do feed the red wigglers the dried out or getting moldy foods from the mealies. The dried out carrots rehydrate in the moist substrate in the worm bins. I’ve also moved over mango seeds after the mealies picked them clean as the worms will eat the seed eventually.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@RockinWorms I have a coffee jar that I have drilled 4mm holes in the lid. I load it with ground chicken layers pellets, coffee grinds, ground eggshells ground dried rice, flour. Its like a giant pepper pot topped up with allsorts. Very quick to apply a dusting on my bins when needed. The splash mesh is a good money saver. Im after an alternative for a 3mm sieve to pan out my cacoons. £20 for a sieve is too much for my blood.
@@b12n23 I use a variety of containers that are repurposed ‘garbage’ for storing and sprinkling worm related items. I’ll do a video on that soon! I’m all about using what I already have or super inexpensive alternatives that work.
When you say cacoons, do you mean the eggs? Or the pupae?
@@RockinWorms Eggs but the young worms too would be good. Ive seen someone on youtube washing the vericompost thru 3mm sieve and collecting cacoons in no time.
Are you talking about mealworms or compost worms like red wigglers? The word ‘cacoons’ is confusing me a bit. Mealies don’t have ‘cacoons’, compost worms do. They both do have very very small eggs and hatchlings.