1,000 new charges
Posted: Tuesday 3 February, 2004
Today we became responsible for another 1,000 or so lives. Yes, our worms arrived from Worms Direct, in a big white bucket with 'Live Worms' pasted on the side. The bucket contains worms and some established bedding - mostly made up of worm casings - which should ensure a quick and stress-free move into their new home. I checked over our home-made worm bins, and made a few preparations for tomorrow's relocation - drilled some ventilation holes in the side of what will be the started bin; made a carpet cover for the top bin; soaked some newspapers to act as a barrier over the mesh on the bottom of the starter bin.
The worms won't be moved until morning. If moved at night there is a chance they will become disoriented and rather than making new beds in the bottom of the bin they might go upwards and escape the bin altogether almost certainly resulting in death. So the morning light will let them know which way is up, and hopefully they will settle quickly.
Once established we can expect them to eat nearly double their weight in scraps every day, so the compost bins may suffer. I have a plan though...
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Comments
Dan
I guess I am! Thanks for the heads-up on the amount of food they will eat - the 'double their weight' thing is clearly fantasy, and we'll be more circumspect about how much we feed now. I'm looking forward to Amazon delivering my copy of 'The Earth Moved' and learning much more about our dependents.
Amy Stewart
Yes, overfeeding probably causes more problems than underfeeding. If food starts to mold or mildew or smell bad, pull it out and toss it in the regular compost bin (or feed it to the hogs!). You want to feed them just as much as they can eat but not so much that it's getting gross before they get to it. Especially in the beginning, it helps to cut food up a bit so that there are more exposed edges for them to nibble. For instance, instead of dropping in a whole head of cabbage that's past its prime, you might chop it into 4 or 5 pieces.
David Brotherton
I have just come across your web site, a great inspiration!
I have been worming for some time and use single bin types but it is difficult to extract the compost without disturbing / removing some of the livestock. Your system looks more user friendly as you only need to take off the bottom container to use the compost.
Could you post some instructions about how it was made?
What are your views now that you have been using worms for over a year?
Comments are now closed for this post.
Amy Stewart
Thursday 5 February, 2004 at 7:07pm
Hey, looks like a good setup! Can't wait to hear how it goes. It'll be a while before they start eating that much (many people say they'll eat half to equal their body weight, and that's under ideal conditions) but either way, you're a worm farmer now!
Amy