Worm Poop Day video!!

Enjoy this short video of us getting our hands real dirty and let me know if you have any questions. I'm no vermi-culture expert but we have lots of castings all the same and the worms seem to like their home. However, I did let the bottom get a little too soggy. I left the bin out in the rain one day by mistake. I'm sure I can dry them a little. There were a ton of egg cocoons also which I added to the new bin.



There's been a few worm threads recently and was going to tag onto one but I guess its okay to post it alone. Basically this is just a simple worm bin design with plastic totes. The worms have produced a lot of great castings and the second bin is now well underway.

Another great video from you staf! Looks like you have a great helper there too, just dying to play in the poo. Nicely done.

Is it Spring yet?

Hey - that's great! I obviously missed something when reading through all the worm bin threads... How is it that all the castings got into the bottom bin? And would you be willing to share a picture of the egg cocoons?

Hi Gwen,

You start off the project in just the one tote with all your scraps, bedding etc ready to go and add the worms. As the worms break this down into mostly castings you then add the second bin on top with fresh bedding / food. The bins have about ten 3/8 inch holes drilled in the bottom to allow the worms to migrate between the two bins. When all the food in the bottom bin has been turned into castings, the worms naturally migrate up to the second bin in search of new food. At that point you take off the top bin and harvest the castings below and add back the few remaining worms you might come across. Voila!!! you're back to the one bin set-up again. The cycle repeats.

Hope this helps

Almost forgot..worm cocoons /eggs. This link shows a pic and describes them

http://wormcompostingblog.com/raising-worms/what-a-worm-egg-looks-like-%E2%80%93-worm-cocoon/

The eggs prefer slightly warmer temps to hatch than what the bin requires and you can take them inside in a plastic bowl or something in a handful mud and sit them at room temp (70 ideal) for a couple of weeks and most will hatch. Then you can add the baby worms back into the bin.

Nice one Staf,
Especially the self operated worm elevator to bring the worms up into the new container.

I noticed the carrot pulp ... Now that's interesting .
Back in the days when we had a rabbit farm and loads of muck we researched the idea of a dozen 10 mtr long 3 mtr wide outside worm beds to add value to the enterprise.

I joined several major worm producers groups in the UK & as a result .... according to most of the growers ,found out that a three or four inch layer of pulped carrots on top of the base bed of rabbit muck was supposed to be one of the best worm growth products you could get.

Great job. lots of great stuff in the bottom tub.

Very good video. Don't you just love that compost!

Note to newbies: Some companies suggest a heater to hatch your coccoons. Its not necessary. The eggs will hatch very well without any. Mother Nature takes care of her own very sufficiently. Dig into any worm bin and you'll find scores of young half-inch-long babies among the parents that made it without extra heat.

of a dozen 10 mtr long 3 mtr wide outside worm beds

Holy worm poop Plantoid! That would have been a serious amount of the good stuff.

That's a really neat tip also Plantoid on the carrot pulp. I add my almost daily juicing pulp to the bins and its gone really fast so yes, they must really like it

I do have a rabbit farm close by where I scored some free muck for the compost pile. I might go larger on the worm bin now myself to satisfy an ingredient for the SFG and have a larger worm farm going . You've really got the wheels turning and yet another thing on my long list of things to build..... my bucket list must differ sooo much from the average persons.....

They - a week in a Fijian paradise for themselves.
I - a week building paradise for worms.

QB - I agree (on babying cocoons w/heat mats etc). I had the bin outside until very recently and even at colder temps than recommended I still saw many tiny worms when I harvested in that video so they are more resilient than perhaps given credit for.

Does any one reading these worm posts & threads ( notice I didn't say thread worms ) , know the smallest diameter twist drill you can use to make a series of holes to drain off juices into a lower bin /box that still tends to keep the worms up in the upper levels of stack inside each other wormery containers that we may be likely to use .

I've got several 18 inch by 18 inch by 15 inch high stacking boxes that go inside each other.
It's around 50 o F warm in my glasshouse , at present and hasn't dropped much below it so far during this end of year weather despite three decent frosts of down to 26 o f or so outside air temps.
( I got the builders to mix two cartons of black concrete dye powder into the glasshouse's concreted base , so to have a six inch thick black concrete heat sink .

I'd like to try working a worm stack out in the green house whilst it's cool and nothing much is going on in the green house for a couple of months.

I'd be using the bottom bin as a juice/tea collector , knowing the smallest hole size is needed to stop escapees working their way down into the teapot area. Failing that perhaps I can use the mesh off a small damaged plastic food sieve that I have out in the garage & use external grage silicone sealing adhesive to stick a bit of it over a 3/4 inch hole in the first true worm bin.

Think panty hose for seiving worms.

I use a piece to cover the hole where the spigot drains the worm tea into a container outside the condo. Keeps the worms from falling thru onto the bathroom floor.

Now theres a thought to boggle the mind .

I suppose my lycra fishnets are too big a denier mesh ??
I'll just have to ask Alison if I can have some her old ones instead.

When you've stopped laughing ...... Thanks for the tip/idea .. that would work very well .

Just wanted to say for your attention to my question. Worm cocoons don't look at all like I thought they would based on the word cocoon. They remind me of those little moisture balls in bagged potting soil.

I'm very tempted to try worm composting. But I keep thinking it would so easy to neglect and I'd feel terrible if I starved all my wormies. Plus, ugh, fruit flies. I really hate those things, and have such a problem with them every year, even without saving my food scraps. Are you keeping your bin indoors?

Gwennifer ,
Think Quiltbea !

She suggested to me using panti hose to filter the worms out .. why not use a pair with the legd knotted and cut off to make a pullover cover for the wormery if they stretch that much to keep any flies away . Just don't place the wormery too close to an open window or your door.

staf74 wrote:Hi Gwen,

You start off the project in just the one tote with all your scraps, bedding etc ready to go and add the worms. As the worms break this down into mostly castings you then add the second bin on top with fresh bedding / food. The bins have about ten 3/8 inch holes drilled in the bottom to allow the worms to migrate between the two bins. When all the food in the bottom bin has been turned into castings, the worms naturally migrate up to the second bin in search of new food. At that point you take off the top bin and harvest the castings below and add back the few remaining worms you might come across. Voila!!! you're back to the one bin set-up again. The cycle repeats.

Hope this helps

Almost forgot..worm cocoons /eggs. This link shows a pic and describes them

http://wormcompostingblog.com/raising-worms/what-a-worm-egg-looks-like-%E2%80%93-worm-cocoon/

The eggs prefer slightly warmer temps to hatch than what the bin requires and you can take them inside in a plastic bowl or something in a handful mud and sit them at room temp (70 ideal) for a couple of weeks and most will hatch. Then you can add the baby worms back into the bin.

im bumping this thread to say thank you for posting this video! and the link of worm coons/eggs

ive been doing some searching here about worms and found this thread im so glad someone asked about what the worm eggs/coons looked like.....these little yellow balls are what we have been wondering what they were the last couple of years when we would come across some in the garden soil....never new they were worm eggs

im thinking about maybe building a tote worm bin like you have in the video....i have a couple of questions

1. does both the top and the bottom bin have holes in them?....i dont under stand how you switch them....

2. how often do you change out the soil/with the food in it?..to switch them around

3. how many worms should i start with in a tote like yours?

4. i have only a couple so far that the kids picked out from the garden....we are building some towers for the garden....but the weather is awful so we havent finished them....so for now the worms are living indoors with us....i put some compost, news paper, card board and a few scraps of food (blue berries and old bread) well....yesterday the food stuff had mold on it and it smelled very strong amonia (sp?)...i changed out the food scraps and put in new paper and card board and the smell seems to be gone for now....any thoughts?

hugs

rose