Larry C
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A Mature Breeder Earthworm
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Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/21 23:27
What methods of harvesting redworms are most common? I know about the method of piling the bedding & worms in piles under light and then brushing away the dirt until you're just down to worms.
I don't plan on investing in a commercial drum style harvester right away (unless I can build a barrel sized one my self to begin with), but I expect to harvest around 25lbs a week come early spring.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Larry
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jlance
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/22 08:29
hey larry
my castings are generally to wet for a harvester you maybe better at it tho.i use mesh bag method and then let castings set piled in my barn till cocoons hatch and use same method again.harvester may come in handy for emptying bins sooner for reuse but don't see any other
advantage on a small scale
i mix a little food (corm meal,soaked rabbit pellets etc.) with soaked torn cardboard put in mesh bag and spread flat takes about three times per tote.
Post edited by: jlance, at: 2008/12/27 08:32
heal the earth with worm farming.
John Lance Indain Valley,virginia |
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jasdip
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/22 09:13
Hi Larry,
I lay a single ply garbage bag which has been punched full of holes with a kitchen fork, over the fresh bedding and food in my new bin.
I scoop out worms and vermicompost and spread it out on the plastic bag in a thin layer...1". Shine a bright light over top and they will naturally migrate through the holes and into the new bin. You can then scoop us the remaining castings and look through it for worms and eggs to put in your pail or whatever you are storing your castings in. I've done this the last 3 times and it works great for me!
Southwestern Ont.
Canada |
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AK Red Neck
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A Mature Breeder Earthworm
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/22 19:34
I use a 5 gallon bucket. First I used a hole saw to cut out 5 inch circles (cut out as many as you can)from the buckets sides then use rivets to fasten 1/4 inch hardware cloth to the bucket, last drill a 1/2 or 3/4 inch hole in the center of the lid and bottom of the bucket.
Just add your VC to the bucket worms and all put the lid on, stick a dowel through the hole in lid/bottom hang it over a bin and give it a few spins.
Presto, your own small scale drum harvester. I can separate out 2 full 5 gallon buckets of castings from my bins in just a few hours. Let sit for a few weeks then sift through again for the babies (or not).
Jeremy
Sterling, Alaska |
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wellsworms
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/24 13:15
Hi Larry:
I have heard that if you place an mesh type bag filled with food that your worms really like. place it on top of the present bedding. cover it. the worms will come in the end there is a lot less seperating to do
FEED IT TO THE WORMS
WELLS,vermont
jerry walker 2008 |
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timnbama
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/26 06:38
Larry, what are you planning to harvest 25 lbs of each week: worms or castings?
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jasdip
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/26 13:07
Wellsworms,
I've read about the method using an onion bag, tried it, and the food just sat there and got anearobic on me. Yuck. It was smelly and then the potworms came in. I dumped it, and went back to my garbage bag method.
Southwestern Ont.
Canada |
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Larry C
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/27 15:53
Thanks everyone for all your ideas 
Tim: This is for harvesting 25lbs of redworms per week. castings will be further in the future.
Larry
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timnbama
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/27 21:42
That's a pretty hefty harvest that you're shooting for there. I want to sit down and dezisn a harvester. From the pictures of all the ones that I've seen for sale they don't look that complicated. Hopefully either tomorrow or Monday I'll have 42 bins set up. I've pretty much settled on 2'x 8' bins in my small barn with a center divider splitting it into 2 section 2'x 4' for stability more than any thing. I cut out and put together 6 of those today and only have to attach the legs and set them into position in the barn. When I get them all set in I'll get a pic and post it. There will be 48 2' x 4' bins in there soon.
I got several bins split this weekend and still need to split a lot more. When I pull the rugs back the worms are just laying on top. Getting sick with infected sinuses like I do every fall and winter sat be back a little. I've been to the doctor and been to the doctor and had to have a ct scan run friday. Back to the dr. monday for another test. Maybe soon they'll know if I've got a chance of living but another scan & I might not. I had to take a lot of medicine to try to prevent another allergic reaction and still had a pretty rough time with the dye. It felt like someone twisted my heart up and had a tightness in my chest for hours. I guess that's what they mean when they say, "Danged if you do, danged if you don't".
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Larry C
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/28 02:01
Tim,
Looks like your square footage is double what I am expecting to have by early spring. 8 3x8 beds = 192. Your 48 2x4 beds = 384. I am going on the basis of being able to harvest 25% of my stock per month.
Wow that's too bad with the sinus problems. My wife use to get those every year also. Fortunately, she's lucked out the past couple years. Hopefully you'll get over that fairly soon.
Larry
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timnbama
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/28 17:34
Hopefully I'll be able to get out there and finish the other beds soon that I'm working on, 3'x7' with 2" thick sides and ends with galvanized tin bottoms. There's enough tin for about 22 of those without having to buy any more soon. Part of them are already completed but just like today, the rain has me messed up. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to uncover a stack of 2xs and make the legs for those that I got made yesterday. Then the drain holes will have to be drilled and cover with screening and then the insides waxed with paraffin wax. Man does that hot wax hurt when it splatters on your hands and fingers!
How deep are the beds that you're making Larry? A lot of mine are only 6" deep for the Africans as they don't require as deep a bed as do most other worms. Thank goodness for that with as many as I'm starting to get now. A 21 yr. old guy has been helping me a little the past week with building bins, cleaning up, and feeding the worms. He's not the brightest kid around but he will work his butt off and he can sure ask the questions about worms and why and how, etc. Hopefully he'll be able to help me tomorrow afternoon for a few hours. Some things just work better with 2 sets of hands involved, like setting bins in position.
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Larry C
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/28 21:48
My beds are framed with tongue & groove car decking - 3 2x6's high with a 3/4 plywood floor supported with 3 2x6 floor joists. the whole bed is elevated on 4 legs to 38" high. Interior is primed and painted with a latex enamel gloss paint after caulking all the seams. The 3/4" strips on the exterior is to make an airspace for the insulation like you had suggested sometime back. Fortunately my father-in-law has a portable saw mill and I can get some of my lumber for free!
Larry
Post edited by: Larry C, at: 2008/12/28 21:50
Post edited by: Larry C, at: 2008/12/28 21:52
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Larry C
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/28 21:53
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wormwrangler
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/29 00:51
Wow bro!
Those are some nice lookin bins! Good Job!!
Luckily we have an abundance of old fruit bins around here. They are real cheap if not free most of the time.
For the harvest problem, we use old bread trays that the bread companies use. Put a layer of fresh food on the tray, place on the bedding, and come back in a few days. Most of the worms will be in the tray.
You can do this a couple times to get almost all of the worms before harvesting the castings.
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timnbama
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2008/12/29 06:10
Nice job Larry. For sure the insulation will pay for itself in the long haul. I know it's the neatest stuff that I've worked with and with an air space like you've got there it might explain why you had to put a timer on the heating cables. Those beds look like pieces of furniture so you did a very professional job. I think that the little extra that it costs me to run a small heater in the barn on real cold nights should pay for itself down the road with increased worm production.
After I get back from the doctor this afternoon I hope to get a bale of peat moss in the barrel to soak overnight. I'm sure with it being a Monday and all the dr. will be swamped so that'll delay me for no telling how long. There are about 8 more beds that need to be split yesterday.
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wellsworms
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2009/01/06 08:13
Hi Larry I have not had to harvest worms but in the interest of all I am trying an idea I have had for a while using an onion bag filled with a proven food stock such as pumpkin pie filling.
FEED IT TO THE WORMS
WELLS,vermont
jerry walker 2008 |
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farmer9989
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2009/01/06 19:22
have you told your dr that you are working with peat I do'nt remenber what it was called but there is something you can get from peat by breathing the dust that is pretty bad lung wise
jimmy
We don't necessarily need to save the world , it will survive in spite of us .WE is what we need to save !!! |
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timnbama
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2009/01/06 21:57
If you were to deal with it in the right conditions for prolonged periods then you would want to wear a respirator approved to remove dust particles. When I work with it dry I always wear a mask. I've had fiberglass induced pneumonia before and a CT scan showed scar tissue in my lungs the other day so I take no chances with it. I also only work with it in the dry state outside and if there's no prevailing wind that day I set a fan up to blow it away from me.
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WormE
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2009/01/07 00:30
The one thing I didn't like when I last had worms (15 yrs ago) was the time-consuming separation of compost and worms.
How deep do earthworms usually live in bedding? Is there a depth limit? For instance, if you had a plastic garbage can and started the worms in the bottom eight inches, and buried the food in holes until you had covered the whole layer, then added another 8" of bedding and started adding more food, and kept repeating it, would the worms keep moving upward?
I am wondering if I modified plastic storage tubs by cutting out the bottoms (leaving a 1" rim all around the bottom) and riveted 1/4" mesh hardware cloth to the rim, and gradually stacked these up as I added more bedding and food, if I could just remove the bottom one every couple of months and have it worm-free?
Does this sound viable, or am I overlooking some crucial fact of worms-icology?
Sue
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wellsworms
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2009/01/07 09:39
i just found out that the worms gather under the bag and don't really enter the mass of food stick jyst eat the outer layer  not what i had in mind
FEED IT TO THE WORMS
WELLS,vermont
jerry walker 2008 |
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wellsworms
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great job - 2009/01/07 09:42
I second that those are some very nice looking bins
FEED IT TO THE WORMS
WELLS,vermont
jerry walker 2008 |
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jasdip
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2009/01/07 13:05
i just found out that the worms gather under the bag and don't really enter the mass of food stick jyst eat the outer layer not what i had in mind
That's what I found too, Jerry. My bag of food went smelly and anearobic in a hurry. I ditched the whole mess. Got a nice batch of potworms out of the deal, too.
Southwestern Ont.
Canada |
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AK Red Neck
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Re:Harvesting Methods - 2009/01/07 14:37
I found this method by accident the other day.
I took a couple of my 14 gallon rubbermade bins outside at -20 to fan some fruit flies off the top. I left the bins outside for 15-20 minutes. When I brought them back in My EF's were nicely balled up in the center of the bins.
I know some folks use heating cables, so how about burring tubing or a garden hose you could pump ice water through to rapidly cool a bin and make them ball up?
Jeremy
Sterling, Alaska |
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