making a worm bed

I've got several compost piles at the back of my property. Leaves,old hay and horse manure. I keep it watered and get the grandkids to stir em with a garden spade fork. I have worms year around because the compost stays warm. My grandson gathers coffee cans full of worms when we go fishin and makes money sellin them to the other fishermen at the ramp.

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Originally Posted by Pegleg

I've got several compost piles at the back of my property. Leaves,old hay and horse manure. I keep it watered and get the grandkids to stir em with a garden spade fork. I have worms year around because the compost stays warm.

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I do the same thing. I have a compost "bin" that is about 6' X 4' X ? deep. Worms love it! Our redworms and earthworms get as big as crawlers in that stuff. We're never without worms, even in winter! Have to keep it covered in the winter so it'll stay warm.

sbc

Be careful to keep them warm in the winter. Inside a shed or building of some sort. If the worms get to cold they could freeze and die.

I raise red wigglers for my composting. It is also called vermicomposting. Look it up on the internet. Besides good fishing bait. The worm poop is great fertilizer.

I put a 60 watt lightbulb in my freezer during the winter to keep things warm.

Chest freezer is the only way to go. We have had ours for 20+ years.

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Originally Posted by sayre315

you can use pretty much anything. It's best to have something with a lid on it and some VERY small holes in it for air. Ship should chime in pretty quick, he makes some pretty nice beds out of old coolers.

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Get yourself a large plastic tub with a lid and some 1" pvc pipe. Drill lots of 1/ 4 " holes in the pipe. These will serve as air vents to aerate the soil. Now cut four pieces of pipe for the four corners of the tub. They should be about 1/2 inch from the top. Attach to the tub with silicone on the four sides. Drill some holes in the lid and cover with very fine screen wire (on the top side) mix your soil with peat, garden soil, sand, as well as some chopped brown leaves. (equal parts) Use red Wigger worms. Keep the soil moist but not drenched. Sprinkle yellow corn meal on top about three times a week depending on how many worms you start with.

I use worm in my raised bed garden. They're improving and fertilizing my soil all the time. All I have to do is go dig a few up.

My grandfather used a old bathtub ,that he buried and put roofing shingles on an old door to cover the tub. He would put yellow corn meal, corn cobs,brown leaves for cover and food inside the tub. This simple concoction worked well, we never had to buy works, all we had to do was catch some at night from time to time and put em in the tub.

I recall growing-up dad kept a bait 'fridge in the garage, and since we camped & fished nearly every weekend (during spring/summer/fall) and having 5 kids and 2 adults to keep in worms, we'd go out when it rained to collect nightcrawlers (and it didn't take long for 2-3 of us to collect a couple hundred in pretty short order). He made a styrofoam box that fit the bottom shelf of the 'fridge and filled it with worm bedding. They got transferred into the carry-along worm boxes when it was time to hit the water.