Holly,

I have put bread and rice in my bin. What tends to happen is that it grows quite mouldy before it starts to compost. But eventually the worms do eat it. The only reason I can see that you should not do it is because it takes longer than normal veggie waste and it can compact, go anaerobic and your bin might smell a bit for a while.

I don't put bread in any more, but the only reason for that is that the dog gets it ;)

Alex

Hi Holly,
I would put rice in very small amounts in the bin. With my very first bin, I put some rice we weren't eating, mixed in with their regular veggies. I didn't check on the lads for 2 days. When I did, the bin was steaming, half my herd cooked and the rice was in clumps.

I mentioned this at the time, and someone else mentioned having the same experience. So you could, but in very small amounts and watch it closely.

Oh ok, thanks. I was just curious.

Hi Holly,

I really don't have anything about bread and rice in the bins to add to what has already been said. But, I do have a suggestion about the bread. Rather than taking a chance on a stinky bin with bread in it, why not feed it to the birds that are outside? They can most always use some "extra" feed from us humans... especially in the winter when their food sources are limited! Just a thought!

If you decide to feed the birdies, don't feed the rice to them. If the rice were to lay in the sun, dry out, and become hard again, it can cause digestion problems for them. That's part of the reason why you very seldom see folks throwing rice on the bride and groom after their wedding.

Robert

Sorry but bread is not good for the doggie either.

Robert, (completely off vermi-topic)

You are right, the bread actually is for the birds, but the dog usually gets to it before the birds do. And (@wiggleme) who am I to forbid an animal that eats it's own poop, cat poop and stinky bones that have been underground for who knows how long, to eat some reasonably fresh bread.

I don't understand why rice should pose a problem for birds. They have evolved to eat seeds and their digestive system should be able to handle some rice? I'm sure it depends on which birds we are talking about. Here at least the doves will eat (almost) everything before any other bird gets there.

The worms for their part will (eventually) eat almost any organic material that you throw at them. Some stuff will take a little longer and some you have to watch carefully that is doesn't turn your bin anaerobic, but get to it they will.

Alex

pyropunk, rice expands in their stomachs and makes the birdies explode, so please don't give them rice! : )

sort of like the bird Fiona kills in Shrek? ;-)

Bread does the same thing to birds. Both rice and bread swell in their stomachs, and they think they are full, when they're not. They don't get enough nutrition.

Yes, feed the birds, but feed them what they naturally eat in the wild. They will get the nutrition they need. Feeding some birds bread can "spoil" them and they could get dependent on humans to feed them. They will eat the natural food you feed them and store some for winter.

Crush up some stale or even moldy bread (no more than a slice) and sprinkle it on top of an area of your worm bedding. If your bedding is wet or moist, you don't have to wet the bread, but if it is dry, moisten it just a little bit. It will encourage microbes to grow, thus supplying food for the worms. If you rotate where you do this, the worms will be moving around more and aerating the bedding allowing more oxygen in, thus the microbe population will grow, thus more food for your worms.

Please excuse the thus'es. lol

Rice does not make birds explode:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/birdrice.asp

I found a picture of a bird exploding.

Totally off topic.

I thought people didn't like to feed grain to worms because it made the bins over heat. Or cause "protein poisoning" (which looks amazingly like the frozen worms I had in my bin.)

Here is a link that might be useful:

How much rice or bread is used to cause a problem?

I occasionally add some cooked rice along with the rest of the scraps and haven't noticed any problems.

I don't think that cooked rice will cause exploding because most of the expanding has already happened.

Randomz, I think it depends on your bin and the bedding and the setup and all that. I add grain products pretty often, and they do get warm, but my bin is larger, and the worms can leave the area until it cools. If the bin were smaller and there was no place to get away, that could cause problems. Then smaller amounts of grain at one time would be better.

Antonia, how much grain product does it take to get warm?

A cupfull? More? I am curious as I am approaching my first vermi-winter and am investigating ways to help keep the bins warm.

"I thought people didn't like to feed grain to worms because it made the bins over heat. Or cause "protein poisoning" (which looks amazingly like the frozen worms I had in my bin.)" This and your previous post describing this phenomenon in scientific detail has been on my mind. I expected a bunch of posts saying "Gesh, I should of had a V-8." Because it all looks so clear. PE's get cold and everyone asks... What did you feed? A culprit, rice, wheat, corn is found and blamed and the cold PE's that survived skate away. There are two mysteries here. One why are PE's dieing of cold blamed on protein. Two why is it not questioned despite no scientific papers to support it and anecdotal evidence to dispute it.

randomz, I have noticed heating with globs of rice that are about a cup and a half, and with corn bread even less. The funny thing with the corn bread was that I put it dead center in my bin, thinking that the worms would have plenty of room at the side to get away and cool. It was so warm from the grain that steam puffed out on a 55 degree morning when I pulled back the newspaper from the center, and I never have seen that before, and the area was very warm to the touch, but all around there were dozens of worms braving the heat to get at the corn bread. I can't believe they weren't crispy from the heat, but they seemed to survive it fine.

It would be interesting to see if you could heat the bin with the ambient heat of degrading grains. Quite a boon too, for us small outdoor vermi-folk!