HI again, I am fed up with my bedding and want to start over. I am raising African Nightcrawlers and will soon buy ENC's. My current bedding gets wet on the bottom and too dry on the top. It is also packed. I have a bad habit of and turning my worms over every day to air it out. Is this bad for the worms? Does this daily play cause worms to get upset? What are the consequences? ALSO, Coconut Choir is very expensive. Does Peat Moss work well to aireate the beds.? Should I mix equally Peat/cow manure with the Peat Moss? What about topsoil instead of stinky cow manure? My Family hates my Hobby due to the cow manure smell? Need advice on 1)bedding and 2)playing with worms too much? Thanks so much!

Do you have good drainage in the bottom of your bin? I wouldn't stir it up so often. The worms don't like it. I usually turn my beds about once a month. Peat moss is what I use for the original bedding, then shredded newspaper and cow manure is my main food. Smell isn't a problem for my beds since they are in a barn. I am considering switching from peat to composted horse manure since it would be free and I have 200 square feet of beds. On a small scale, I would definitely stick with peat and shredded newspaper. I have a sheet of black plastic over the surface of my beds and it doesn't seem to dry out on top; plus they will feed more on the surface in the dark. Deeper,it is wetter, but if there's too much,it will drain out.


Larry C

My ANC's never liked it when I turned the bedding but I still done it once a week. The only consequence other than them wanting to leave would be that if you have a nitrogen rich food mixing it with carbon based food could potentially heat up the bed.

For bedding peat moss, shredded newspaper, cardboard and some brown leaves.

Hi Karma,or anyone that can help,My name is Gary Kimball,Sikeston Mo.,im raising European Night Crawlers,just started by the way,i think im doing ok so far,i have 2000 total, 500 in each bin,my problem is feeding,how much and how often??? could you help me here? Thanks Gary.

kimball2 wrote:

QUOTE:
...im raising European Night Crawlers,just started by the way,i think im doing ok so far,i have 2000 total, 500 in each bin,my problem is feeding,how much and how often???

Gary, I've just ordered some Euros, so don't have any direct experience with them yet. I do have experience raising EFs and I have been doing a lot of research on EHs. There is some conflicting info about the EHs, but I'm going to start my bin with 7-8" of very damp bedding made from egg cartons, cardboard and old leaves. I will soak these things in dilute vermicompost tea (a simple tea, not aerated) for 24 hrs. I will not give them any food scraps for the first week. They can eat the bedding if they want.

Afterwards, I will very slowly ramp up feeding them food scraps that have been frozen & defrosted. I'll have ~5 lbs. of EHs, so I'll start with 2.5 lbs. once a week. If they seem to process that quickly enough, I'll cut the time between feedings to 6 days, then 5,4,etc.

My guess is that in a month or two the bin will be well established with microbes and will be able to process 2-3 lbs. of food scraps every 3-4 days. But in the beginning, feed very little once a week. The bedding you've given them is also food, so they're not going to starve.

Andrew

Welcome to the Forum Gary!

What types of bedding materials are you using?
It's better to feed small portions then gradually increasing feeding if they are eating at a fast rate. There are just to many factors to give you a set in stone answer.