Worm Digest - Re:African nightcrawlers

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Kyle
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 121

African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/18 13:19 Is there anyone out there that has experience with this type of worm?

I have experience with encs.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

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mikel
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 74

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/18 19:21 I would like to know also. Bump

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/19 18:46 I've got 18 beds of Africans now. They are much more prolific than Euros or anything else as far as that goes. You can get by with shallower bed depths than with anything else, 3-4" is good. For max worm size thin into a fattening bed with about 150 per sq. ft.
If they get overcrowded they will die back to control their population then they'll increase again.

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mikel
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 74

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/19 21:24 What kind of temperature tolerances can they handle? Do you know of any reputable sellers for them?

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/20 06:53 45-95 is about what the books say. I believe that they can take down to 40 if they are accustomed to it gradually. That's soil temp not air temp. I ordered mine from FL and was satisfied with the company and their worms. Best Buy Worms. I've sold a few pounds since I've got my start and it doesn't take long for them to fill the bed back up.
I'll get a couple of pics today of a couple of my beds and you'll see how they reproduce. The worms are literally globbed up in balls. It is a challenge to keep them with enough bed space. I put in some more beds this weekend and I need more than this now. I've got 435 sq. ft. of beds of now and need more set up now to relieve some of the beds. ANC's will eat anything but I only feed a grain based feed and rabbit manure so I can control the protein content.

Post edited by: timnbama, at: 2009/04/20 07:10

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mikel
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 74

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/20 18:57 Great info Tim. Pics would be nice.

Tim are you located in Alabama?

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/20 21:22 The pics are of African beds about 3 hours after I fed them this afternoon. I'll make a couple tomorrow before I refeed and you'll see the difference in the tops of the bed surfaces.

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/20 21:30 This is another bed. Tomorrow I'll retake these 2 beds and try to get one of some of the bigger worms before they go under the bed surface. Africans don't like the light at all so when you uncover a bed's surface it's a wiggling, squirming mass as they dip below. The feed in the pictures is a combo of the flour, corn flour, ground rabbit feed and finely ground cottonseed meal with a little ground limestone mixed in. In 3 hours quite a bit has already been consumed by the wroms as it was applied heavy on 1/2 of all beds.

Post edited by: timnbama, at: 2009/04/20 21:31

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gardenfanatic
User

A Hatchling Earthworm

Posts: 18

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/21 23:09 Tim,

How do you keep your Africans from wandering? I have a friend who has Africans and they have a tendency to escape the bin when there's a thunderstorm. I'm planning on getting some, and I'm concerned about this.

Deanna

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gardenfanatic
User

A Hatchling Earthworm

Posts: 18

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/21 23:11 Tim,

I also meant to ask about your bins. It looks like your worms are in large wooden boxes. How big are the boxes? Do they have lids? How do you harvest?

Deanna

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/22 19:19 Some of the beds have a band o screen wire around the top inner edges of the beds that is supposed to keep the worms in and I keep the lights on the barn 24/7. The bins are plywood that is waxed on the inside with melted paraffin wax almost to the boiling point and they range in size from 2'x4' to 2'x8'. The new ones in the other barn are 3'x7' with galvanized tin bottoms.
Her's a shot after one bed working on chicken feed for 1 day.

Post edited by: timnbama, at: 2009/04/22 19:55

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/22 19:57 This is a shot of some that I isolated to about 150 per sq. ft. last weekend, these are my private fishing reserve.

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Swimmus
User

A Mature Breeder Earthworm

Posts: 95

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/22 21:39 Does the screen wire appear to work for you? www.wormcrusader.com

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 167

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/22 21:43 I haven't lost any yet.

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mikel
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 74

Re:African nightcrawlers - 2009/04/22 22:33 Great Pics Tim

I placed an order for a pound from BBW, going to give them a try.

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