Hello:

My name is Lisa and I live in central Connecticut. My daughter has rabbits as part of her 4-H project and I use worms to compost the manure.

I have 2 above ground wooden worm beds that are thriving. They are 4’ wide x 8’ long and 15” high.

The worms are healthy and turn the manure into black gold in lightning fast time  well, as fast as worms can anyway.

My question is – with winter approaching, what do I do???

The ground is going to freeze and we have a 44” frost line. Digging to get the beds below ground is not possible as the ground beneath the bed consists of large rocks and tree roots of massive trees 100+ years old. A digger’s nightmare!

I live in the suburbs and zoning is strict, so I can’t add a pile of horse manure or anything “stinky” to keep a hot spot in the pile.

Someone suggested that I bury a bird bath heater in each of the beds which I thought was a great idea, but from what I’ve read, the bird bath heaters must be in water and contact with anything but water can result in fire. It would be very hard to explain to the insurance company that my house burnt down because rabbit poop caught on fire!

I’ve put a lot of labor and $$$ into getting these beds in tip top shape and really don’t want to lose all that to the freezing temps.

Do you have any suggestions on how to over-winter them since I’m not able to get them below ground?

Is there a way to bring them in and keep them?

Last question – how on earth do I harvest the little buggers…? I have too many in one bed and not enough in the other, but picking them out by hand is just too much work. Is there a way to mass collect some?

Thank you for your help.

Lisa