Could this work for raising worms??

[Tracker123]

Mine do fine during the summer here in South Louisiana in the shade outside.

[BULLFROG-1]

Another question,what yall feeding your worms?

[suwanneered]

Hi: Well I have had my worms for a bout 6 weeks and I feed them plain corn meal,I got at Wally world.Just don't get the corn meal mix,they have just corn meal with no additives.
I have also fed some potato peeling after cooking the to make them soft.They really like egg shells.I got some at my local coffee shop and boiled them and then put them in a blender and ground them up as fine as I could.
I am wondering what to do after about 6 months ?Should I make new bedding and remove the worms from the old and start anew?I am not sure what is next?????

[Tracker123]

Another question,what yall feeding your worms?

Believe or not, Purina Worm Chow. The feed store ordered it for me. It has the right stuff it, and a bag lasts a long time.

I am wondering what to do after about 6 months ?Should I make new bedding and remove the worms from the old and start anew?I am not sure what is next?????

Remove the worm castings. They will be very dark in color and in hard clumps. Excellent stuff for gardens and potted plants. You can also put some clumps in water to make a "worm tea" for watering plants as well.

After removing the castings, replace what you took out with fresh peat moss/manure. Your worms will be fine. Good luck.

[ctf58]

Bullfrog, I froze several cut up pumpkins and have been feeding them wedges about once a week. They destroy it! I also bought a 4 pound bag of Chicken crumbles and sprinkle it on top about every other week and then spray water on it . It goes fast as well. Egg shell pulverized it great. They eat it and it neutralizes the Ph level in the bin. They also are eating a lot of brown cardboard that I tore up into pieces. Old lettuce does good also but not cabbage so much. If it is a vegetable either freeze it of boil it to soften it up. I put potato peels in raw and they took forever and started to stink up the garage.

[shuorc]

read all the info i could find on worms, got about 250 and put them in a mixture of peat and potting soil, put worm food on top but didn't cover and i think most of them have abandoned ship. Hope to start over in a large igloo cooler will keep the present one to see if any eggs hatch. have a lot of questions and will ask as they come to mind. Thanks for all the info.--shu

[ctf58]

read all the info i could find on worms, got about 250 and put them in a mixture of peat and potting soil, put worm food on top but didn't cover and i think most of them have abandoned ship. Hope to start over in a large igloo cooler will keep the present one to see if any eggs hatch. have a lot of questions and will ask as they come to mind. Thanks for all the info.--shu

Had mine since October 2012. They are going great. Some advice for your next bin. No potting soil, no peat moss. Mine started as 90% shredded black and white newspaper, no color print. 9% torn up brown cardboard, they eat the glue in the cardboard. 1 scoop of garden dirt to get some microbes in the bin faster but is really not needed because the worms bring microbe with them.

Peat moss: the worms cannot eat it and it changes the Ph of the bin and can run your worms off.
Potting soil: just makes you bin heavier.
Soak you shredded newspaper and the squeeze it out until it does not drip. Then sort of fluff it back up and put it in your bin about 5 inches deep.
Tear up some cardboard and mix it in with the wet newspaper, it will soak water from the newspaper.
Put some food on one end of your bin in a strip about 3 inches wide and spray it with the bottle of distilled water to moisten it and cover the food and bedding with a piece of cardboard.
After about a week check to see if your newspaper still feels moist, spray if needed and add your worms to the top. They will work their way in and will start to eat in about another week. Got to keep a tight cover on the bin. I have 2 1/4" holes drilled in the top and 1/16" or smaller holes drilled all around the sides below the top about 2-3 inches apart and a row of the small holes all the way around the sides about 2" up from the bottom. I have 4 holes drilled in the bottom using the smallest drill bit I could find about 1/16" so any excess water can drip out.

I use a plant spray bottle to moisten down the bin when it needs it.Use rain or distilled water or
I bought some aquarium water treatment that de-chlorinates tap water and use that now instead of distilled water. Little bottle cost 2-3 bucks and will treat something like 100 gallons. A gallon will last a month for spraying so the little bottle will last forever.

I started with 60 and probably have 300+ now!

[shuorc]

ANTS so had to change boxes this afternoon. will change again later, not many worms left so will redo everything this week.--shu

[BoarBuster]

I really liked all of the great info on raising worms. I got an old ref last year for the purpose of building a worm bed. Hopefully this year I will be able to get it done.

[Bobo Greybeard]

My father had always wanted to own a bait shop. When he passed a couple of weeks ago I noticed that he had bought the stuff to do sinkers with and also had a little bit of information down on a worm farm. We had talked about doing one but never did. Well a few days after he passed my wife and I started a small one in a large Rubbermaid bin. I think the bin is about 25" long, 15" wide and 17 inches tall. We started out with a bunch of b&w IRS forms from last year, my wife works at a library, some soil we found at a local organic nursery and several pieces of soaked newspaper in the bottom of the bin. I drilled 3/32" holes about two inches down from the side in a couple of rows all the way around the bin spaced about 1 1/2" apart. I did the same on the top of the lid and the bottom to allow excel water to drain. We placed the wet newspapers on the bottom, then added about half a shredder full of shredded forms, then covered with the soil that we found at the nursery. The soil was some discard that they had from several plantings and I noticed worms in it. I paid two bucks for the soil then bought a large open bag of compost for another 8 dollars. We have not added the compost yet. I also started out with two boxes of the red worms from wally world. So far they seem to be doing well. Thanks for the tip about not covering the food up. I had been doing that but no more. I also liked the tip about wet cardboard. I will try and keep folks posted on how well they do or don't do. One last question, How many worms is that bin safe to use for? Thanks, Bobo