Worms eat dead birds

by Stephan
(Cape Town)

Dead bird in worm bin

Dead bird in worm bin

Worms eat dead birds in no time! We do have a lot of birds in our garden and I love to wake up to their beautiful songs. We are living in Cape Town and in our suburb there are unfortunately lot's of people that prefer to have their backyards just paved with bricks or concrete, which might probably need less maintenance than a garden with lots of fruit, vegetables and trees but for us enjoying our own produce and having lots of birds and other wildlife around is worth the extra effort.

Unfortunately from time to time the reality of life strikes and we find a dead bird often the young ones somewhere in our garden. in the olden days for the lack of options we placed them in our rubbish bin and they ended up on a landfill site. This changed many years ago when I became serious about worm composting. Once I had a lot of established worm bins and had gained confidence in the ability of the worms to deal with all kinds of decomposing organic materials I began to add virtually anything that ever was alive and now dead to my worm farms. My worms
took just 2 weeks to completely devour a dead koi fish that weight 500 gram / 1.1 lbs.

Some time ago I found the young dead singing bird that is in the above picture in the garden and added it to my experimental worm bin feathers and all. I just placed it on the surface of the worm bedding. It took the worms, the bacteria and other creatures in the worm bin less than 5 weeks to convert the entire bird into worm castings.

I have been farming with earthworms for more than 20 years now but I am still amazed at the capabilities of the compost worms. So far I found less than a handful of natural materials that worms are struggling to recycle. Birds are certainly not one of them.

So next time you find a dead bird in your garden, rather recycle it in your worm bin then send it to a landfill site. This way it can stay in the cycle of life.

Kind regards and happy worming

Stephan Kloppert
Editor of www.worm-composting-help.com

Author of "How to start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget"

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"Want to turn your worm bin into a real income? "How to Start a Profitable Worm Business on a Shoestring Budget" — the complete step-by-step guide from 25 years of real worm farming experience. Get it on Amazon:

From a 25-year worm farmer
Turn your worms into a profitable business
How to Start a Profitable Worm Business on a Shoestring Budget by Stephan Kloppert
On Special
“How to Start a Profitable Worm Business on a Shoestring Budget”
by Stephan Kloppert
Paperback$12.99
Kindle$4.99
Order on Amazon Get Kindle Edition →
★ Special prices valid till 31.07.2026
Verified Amazon Customer Reviews
★★★★★
“Everything about building a worm farm is described step by step. Highly recommended!”
— Hubertus, Germany ✓ Verified Purchase
★★★★★
“Well written, informative and oftentimes humorous. A very cost efficient and simple business.”
— Adam J. McKee, United States ✓ Verified Purchase
★★★★★
“No crazy tricks — just straight forward, useable information.”
— Kimberly, United States ✓ Verified Purchase


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