Sign up for a free account to take advantage of all the new features and to be able to post in the forums. There have been over 33,000 logged entries in the forums since 1998. Check out the Fun and Magazine Stores.
Well I am just about to get started in this whole worm thang. Admittedly with all of the reading I have done in different places I still feel like I don't know a lot. I keep worrying that I will do something wrong and kill the worms, hence the reason I have not ordered my worms yet.
I have spoken with Bob Ingram on the phone and he can attest that I am a woman of many questions ha ha ha (Bob to refresh your memory, I am the woman from Lebanon, MO)
I guess I just need to jump in and ask the questions I have now so maybe I will feel a bit more at ease.
I have purchased a couple of plastic totes to keep the first batch of worms in. This is probabaly how I will continue to raise them. The totes are 18 gallon and will be drilled with many 1/8 inch holes, top bottom and sides for ventalation. They will be kept in a stall in our olde barn. When winter hits again we plan on lining the stall walls with the blue styrofoam insulation to keep the temps above freezing.
Now on with the questions:
I had read that you need one square foot of space per pound of worms. In that ratio one tote could hold five pounds of worms, but when you think of how many worms will be there (Lord willing and the creeks don't rise) will there be too many worms in the totes in 3 or 4 months when it is time to harvest and divide the worms? Should I divide the 5 pounds of worms between the 2 totes when I first get them?
For bedding I have an end roll of news print paper I am going to tear in strips, I have plenty of horse manure , and I have some leaves that have been through a shedder. Is it okay to use the shredded leaves?
I have read on here you can use paper that has been through a shredder, but do you have to worry if there has been any colored ink used on this paper? One of my daughters said she could provide me with all of the shredded paper from her office (they are strip shredders)but I am worried about the ink.
Bob had told me if I had good bedding when my worms arrived I should not have to worry about fedding them for a couple of weeks after I get them. This is where my concern starts;
I worry I won't feed them enough or that I will overfeed them. With just my husband and I, there are not a lot of food scraps on a daily basis. Since we have the horses, I have lots of manure I can feed, but do they need more. Bob said I could supplement that with cornmeal, but how much? How do you decide how much food to put in a bin?
With summer on the way I will do mostly top feeding so heat will not be created. Is that the right thing to do?
When do I add more paper for bedding?
If I sound like I am confused, there is a reason for that; I AM!
GlendaGlenda
I always wanted to be somebody; I guess I should have been more specific.
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
Joe Tex
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 44
Re:Just getting started - 2006/04/03 11:525 lbs of worms per bin would be pretty good. I use 2 lbs psf. If you split it up into 2.5 each tub it will just take a little longer before you have to split the bin. Feeding on top is a good idea to controll heat or just feed in one coner rotating every feeding. Yes shredded leaves are great. I add more shredded paper as it dissapears in the bin. I keep a 3 inch layer over the food I give them. If you need more food you can always use a little bit of chicken mash its cheap. Thats is what I feed my worms mixed with decomposed cow manure and fresh news paper.
JoeHappy Farmin
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
glowery
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 127
Re:Just getting started - 2006/04/03 12:06Hi Joe,
Thanks for your reply.
I will put the 5 lbs. in one bind then split them in about 3 or 4 months.
When I feed them the first time, I am concerned about how much to feed them. Do you weigh how much you are feeding, or do you guess?
I will be raising the ENC and if they eat half their weight a day, does that mean the bins need at least 2 1/2 pounds of food a day? Or do you just bury a handful of whatever and keep checking.
I know a lot of this is trial and error on the part of the worm grower, but I would like to have a little bit of a handle on this for the sake of the poor worms.
GlendaGlenda
I always wanted to be somebody; I guess I should have been more specific.
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
glowery
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 127
Re:Just getting started - 2006/04/03 12:10Oh and one other thing. When I make my bedding with the leaves and torn paper, I know you need to add a little top soil to start the decomposing. Well where I live top soil is almot none existant. Too much clay and too many spacers (rocks).
Should I buy a bag of top soil to use for this, or I do have a pile of fully composted manure, (this pile is at least 10 years old) can I add that in place of top soil?
GlendaGlenda
I always wanted to be somebody; I guess I should have been more specific.
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
redhen
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 684
Re:Just getting started - 2006/04/03 12:30Hi Glenda..You are very wise to ask lots of questions before you get your worms When thinking of how many worms per bin, think surface area. So, 1 pound of worms per square foot of surface area,(since they are surface feeders). I use shredded (strip cut,not cross-cut)newspaper and junk mail for bedding in my indoor bins, but outside I use leaves, because I have lots of them. I used to get the shredded confidential office papers from my daughters elementary school. That was nice because it was already shredded. (And I do believe worms are the ultimate "identity theft protectors" ) Since we have the horses, I have lots of manure I can feed, but do they need more They will live quite happily on that horse manure. If your are feeding some different feedstock, you can observe the bin yourself and see how quickly the worms move into the food and it starts to disappear. When you see the worms working in it, put some food in another area and see how long before they move into it. The system will work well for you, if you take some time and observe what is going on in there. Your bin will be different than my bin. I have bins that sit right next to each other and they are different. (Go figure.) The bedding will be consumed also and you can add to it as you see it go. I think I would put 2 pounds in an 18 gallon bin. The worm population will grow to the size of the space and the food availbale to them. If your worms are coming from Bob, you will probably get a lot of babies and cocoons with your adult worms, and they will have more space to eat and grow.Susan Quinby-Honer redhen@nc.rr.com Starve the Landfill...Feed the Earth.
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
glowery
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 127
Re:Just getting started - 2006/04/03 14:04Okay I have had my lunch so back to my education!
On the shredded paper from offices and or junk mail;
There can be documents shredded that have color ink on them. Where my daughter works most of the printers are ink jet and they have a color copier. So if this is mixed in with the shredded paper, how will it effect the worms?
Is the color ink used in mewsprint different? I had read not to use newspaper pages that had colored ink.
GlendaGlenda
I always wanted to be somebody; I guess I should have been more specific.
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
wellsworms
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 514
Re:Just getting started - 2006/08/02 13:50Glenda:how did you get your photo to fit into the space alowed? jerry walker[ cubby149@vermontel.net ]FEED IT TO THE WORMS WELLS,vermont jerry walker 2008
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
glowery
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 127
Re:Just getting started - 2006/08/02 19:12I used another program on my computer to resize the picture to the pixel size stated on here you can use. My picture looks kind of distorted because the pixel size is square like 90 x 90 or whatever, and my picture was not square originally.
If you don't have a way to resize your picture let me know and you can send it to me in an email and I will do it for you.Glenda
I always wanted to be somebody; I guess I should have been more specific.
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
mikel
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 42
Re:Just getting started - 2006/08/03 20:23I would not use any enamel paper (glossy paper)takes a long time to breakdown. I would not use the paper that has been run through the copier, if you have smelled the toner or the cleaning fluids, they will make you leave the building. On the newsprint the colored ink or the black ink may be petroleum based (oil) look for soy based ink or another non-hazardous ink. You could always opt out for some cardboard boxes. I work for a printing company.
Post edited by: mikel, at: 2006/08/03 20:26
| | The administrator has disabled public write access.
New Forum Topics 
)