Ok, someone talk to me, please, about worm farming?

[Dace]

Oooooooh I didn't realize it was for the worms to compost for you..hmm just learned something...hmmm

I was honestly thinking it would be fun (did I just say that?) to raise earthworms for the sole purpose of having snacks for my chooks...is that not something that is commonly done?

When I first got my worms I had the intention of dividing up the mass of the once a year and add half of them to my garden....but further reading kind of suggested that they would die. Since they readily multiply I am sure harvesting a handful here and there would not hurt, you just don't want to take too many!


Free...I think your worms could be fed on goat poo and paper. Do a little research, but if they can live on bunny poo, then I would think goat poo would be fine too. By the way...they do not need a large volume of food, just a few scraps a week, you could feed them a small fraction of what is going to your goats.

 

[keljonma]

QA - we just let the flock at the compost pile.... but we also lift rocks and off season, The Ladies till the garden.

 

[TanksHill]

A lady who sells at my farmers market sells castings from her worm farms that only eat her horse manure. I rarely have table scraps for my worms but this is why I am trying to do the rabbit hutch bin.

One thing is they say eggs shells are necessary once in a while. Some nutrient the worms need.

I have bought core, coconut husk, on line and used that as worm bedding. I am not having much luck with it. I think shredded paper and newspaper works great. They say that they like cardboard, something about the glue.

Basic start up-- bin, worms, scoop of garden soil and shredded paper(soaked and squeezed). Moist newspaper over the top.

I think separating the worms from the castings is the biggest pain. I usually end up with my dd picking the worms out one by one.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

OK, what are castings? Would you explain that? is this their offspring?

 

[freemotion]

Castings are their poo. Casting calls are for actors....

Think about all those little tiny poo-shaped mounds of fine dirt you see in your yard and garden....worm castings from when the worms come up and poo!

Well, manure is their food? Problem solved!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Hey Tanks, try putting a bright light near the top of your bin the day before you want to harvest your castings. The worms will move away from the light, down into the bottom and you can harvest more easily from the top layers. This is especially helpful if you have a 2 or more tiered bin.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Ok, next question, for those of you who have worm bins, would you post pictures????????

 

[big brown horse]

They sell "red wigglers" around here for composting..pretty cheap. They mulitply like crazy, so you wouldn't have to start out with too many.

For my "chooks" I have a bin of meal worms cohabitating with us in the living room! Aren't we all crazy?! Well they are contained and it is the best room for the right sunlight. Don't smell and almost no work! Chickens go APE for them! If you feed them eggshells (crushed) they will also be full of calcium.

 

[keljonma]

This is from Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living

Red Worms. These "red wrigglers" (also known as the "manure worm" or "red hybrid") are the best for doing the job in your household compost bin. Two of the most commonly used red worms are Lumbricus rubellusand Eisenia joetida. Rubellus is the most likely of the two to be found living in your dirt, but the soil must contain lots of organic material for it to live there. This is a popular worm for growing in a worm bed because it is capable of consuming large quantities of garbage, reproduces quickly, and thrives in a worm bin. The red worm has alternating red and buff stripes. Adults are 1 1/2 to 3 inches long. The red worm produces young every 7 days. The worm reaches full maturity in 9 months, but it is capable of mating at 2 to 3 months. It lives up to 15 years. This worm is good for fishing because it stays active (doesn't drown) and remains red in the water.

Worms Produce Fertilizer. Worms can be used to make fertilizer for your garden out of your household garbage or other organic material. Aristotle referred to the earthworm as the "intestines of the world." These lowly creatures eat dirt and organic matter. They combine this food with their digestive juices and excrete a mixture of organic and inorganic material called "castings." The castings improve both soil structure and its ability to hold moisture. Worm castings are practically neutral in pH; they're a water-soluble humus, a perfect fertilizer for plants. Both country and city gardeners can improve their soil by raising worms and using their castings in the garden.

WORM BIN: This is about the container your worms will live in.

Materials. Your worm bin can be made of wood, metal, or plastic. All are equally good, but if you use wood it should be exterior-grade and not aromatic, because aromatic woods (redwood, cedar, etc.) are hard on the worms. Wooden worm boxes wear out. If you let the box dry out once in a while, it will keep longer; building 2 boxes and alternating them allows for that. Painting the wood with something like polyurethane varnish or epoxy also helps protect the wood. Otherwise a wood box will last only 2 or 3 years. If using a ready-made container, be sure it was not used to hold pesticides. Thoroughly scrub any plastic container you use. You can build or place your bin outdoors if you live in a mild climate.

Size. The container should be no deeper than 12 inches; 8-12 inches is a good size. The worms tend to stay on the surface, so a deep container is unnecessary and will only encourage the growth of smelly microorganisms, which live where there is little or no oxygen. The width of your bin depends on how much organic garbage your household produces, if you're using the worms to recycle garbage. Your bin should have 1 square foot of surface for each pound of garbage you'll be adding per week. (An average person produces about 2 lb. of garbage per week.) So for a family of 2, a 2 x 2 x 8-foot bin is generally good.

Building Your Own Wooden Worm Bin. See Raising Earthworms for Profit by Earl B. Shields for more instructions for building outdoor bins. To build a box for worms that will be composting household garbage, see the instructions in Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof.

WORM BEDDINGS: Worm beddings not only provide moisture to the bin but also give you a place to bury the garbage. If left a long time, the bedding would be entirely converted into castings by the worms. (You won't leave the worms in the bin that long, though.) The lighter the bedding, the easier it is for the worms to make their way around the box.

Worms in nature enjoy living in organic material suchas decaying leaves and rotten logs. Soil is not a necessary bedding ingredient, although you might want to add a handful to the bedding to help the worms' gizzards break down the food. But soil is heavy, and too much makes your bin difficult to move around. Powdered limestone is also a good addition: It adds grit, reduces acidity, and provides calcium for worm reproduction. Or you can use pulverized egg shells for calcium.

NOTE:Do not use slake or hydrated lime. It will kill your worms.

Here are some other common beddings:

Shredded Cardboard. Corrugated cardboard works well. It's light and fluffy and moistens easily. Before wetting, however, this cardboard gives off a fine dust that may be harmful to breathe.

Shredded Paper. Paper is easy to come by. It dries out more quickly than cardboard, but it doesn't give off the problem dust. You can use printed paper; the ink in newsprint doesn't hurt worms. Newspapers, in fact, are the cheapest and easiest worm bedding to get. To prepare the newspaper, just tear it lengthwise into strips 1 to 3 inches wide. Narrow strips are better because the wider the strip, the more quickly it dries out.

Manure. Manure makes good bedding for worms. The odor decreases after the worms are introduced. Adding peat moss makes the manure lighter.

Leaves. Decaying leaves are also good bedding. Avoid using leaves that have been exposed to the lead-laden exhaust from cars. The only problem with leaves is that they can make it harder for the worms to move around.

Peat Moss. Commercial worm growers use peat moss as bedding because it stays damp longer than the others, but it has no food value and is highly acidic. Before adding peat moss to the bed, soak it in water a few hours; that removes some of the acidity. Peat moss is best when combined with other bedding materials: Make peat moss one-third to one-half of the mix. In that role, it improves water retention and makes material like manure less dense.

NOTE: Keep cats out of the worm bin. Cat manure can spread toxoplasmosis, an infection caused by a nasty parasite which, if breathed in by a pregnant woman, can cause brain damage to the unborn child. Also, the ammonia in urine can kill worms.

WORM FOOD
Amount. Too much food will "sour" your worm bed; the worms won't be able to keep up, and it'll smell bad. If you give them too little food, your worms will start getting smaller, and some will die. This happens if your worms have reproduced more worms than your garbage or other feeding schedule can handle. Their population will stabilize at the amount your food for them will support. Over time you'll get a feel for how much to feed.

Frequency. Growing bait worms and harvesting them regularly calls for regular feedings. Worms for vermicomposting can get fed as much kitchen garbage as you have. You can let it build for a few days and give it to them once or twice a week.

How to Feed. As you dump the food out on top of the bin, don't always put it in the same place. In fact, try to put it in a different place each time on about a nine-day feeding cycle. Dig a shallow hole, put the garbage in it, and cover with 1 inch of bedding. Covering the bin with a plastic sheet holds in moisture.

Feeding Kitchen Scraps. Worms can eat any vegetable or fruit leavings and waste. They eat uneaten pasta and potatoes. Unlike most garbage-eating animals, they can eat rotten leftovers! Send the coffee grounds, tea leaves, and coffee filters to your worm bin too. You can also send them meat, although rotting meat smells worse than most garbage. If the meat is chopped, they can process it faster. And if you mix the chopped meat with something organic like sawdust, it won't smell as bad. Meat is rich in nitrogen, and that's something your worms need. Worms can't eat plastic or metal.

Feeding Manure. One of the foods worms thrive on is manure, especially rabbit or horse manure. NOTE: The manure from recently wormed animals kills worms. Before getting manure someplace, learn the seller's worming schedule. Rabbits make lots of manure, so put a tray under your rabbit cages and collect this valuable stuff for your worm bin. Rabbit manure should be soaked with limestone flour for 24 hours to neutralize the acid in the urine before giving it to worms.

How to Feed Bait Worms. The idea is to fatten up these worms. Once you've figured out the number of beds you want, feed the worms 2 weeks for propagation and 2 more weeks for fattening. Then pick out the fat worms for fishing or for sale. Keep their beds moist by watering. You may not have to water every day, but water enough so that when you squeeze a handful of bedding, it drips. If the beds drip on their own, you've watered too much. After watering, sprinkle chicken mash on the top for worm feed. You'll soon get a feel for how much will be eaten before the next scheduled feeding. If you overfeed, the bed will sour. There's a supplement called SW60 that decreases breeding age by 3 weeks; if you're in a hurry, buy some from a feed store and add to
the manure and mash you're feeding the worms.

WORM FOOD Mix I part screened topsoil and I part vegetable matter (grass dippings, kitchen waste, etc.). Peat moss is more water-absorbent than food scraps. If the manure is fresh, add more topsoil to prevent heating. Heating forces the worms to the bottom of the bin, where they won't eat or breed. The topsoil also absorbs odors and adds body to the mixture. Add chicken mash or cornmeal to provide the carbohydrates, protein, and fats the worms need for nutrition and to help in the formation of egg capsules. Mix very well.

BASIC WORM CARE: The less you mess with the worms, the better. Feeding them once or twice a week is sufficient. While feeding, note whether their bedding is staying moist and any other changes. As the worms eat the food and bedding, you'll see more castings. This higher proportion of castings to bedding is not the best thing for worms. If your worms are for bait, get them out of there before they start shrinking instead of growing. On the other hand, if your goal is to grow rich humus for your garden and house plants rather than fishing worms, you can let the worms stay in the bin longer.

Harvest. You will be harvesting either big worms for bait or the old bedding and accumulated castings for your garden.

Method I. Move the old bedding to one side of the bin and fill the empty side with new bedding. Put the worms' food on the side with the new bedding, and they'll move over there. Then you can just carry off the old vermicompost.

Method 2. Move all the bedding and its worms to a big piece of plastic. Divide the big pile into several smaller piles. Prepare fresh bedding for your worms in their bin. Now shine a bright (100-watt) light on the outside of the piles. The light causes the worms to dig deeper inside. Every 10 minutes, take away the outside layer of vermicompost. Keep doing that every 10 minutes until you get to the worms. Move them into their new bedding.

USING WORM CASTINGS: Put the castings on your house plants about 1/4 inch deep. Repeat every 2 months. Use plenty of water periodically to rinse off some salt, which castings contain in abundance. Vermicompost contains some bedding material and is not as decomposed as castings, which contain less salt. High salt content can cause slowed plant growth. You might want to experiment with different kinds of potting mixes, using worm castings, peat moss, perlite for aeration, and/or sand or garden soil for body.

To feed potted plants or transplants, try making a tea from the castings by soaking them in water. Then use the tea to water your plants. Or place the castings in holes where you're going to transplant vegetables or fruit trees; this will give them an added boost.

One less conventional method of using worms is to dig holes for them throughout your garden. "Bury" the worms in the holes, covering them with manure, weeds, and soil. Be sure to keep these holes watered (and covered). The worms will turn the burial materials into castings and then move out to other parts of the garden. Periodically add weeds and other vegetation to the holes to keep the worms fed.


typo

 

[big brown horse]

WOW!!!