Hi Jayne, sorry to hear about the wisps, lesson learned. A favorite quote of mine is; There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in it's hands. Keep up the great work. Have fun, Mark : )
That’s a good saying! If we are wise we will take the mistake and learn from it. I have! There were a few lessons I took away from this: don’t skip racks/bins more than once, don’t take on more care responsibilities than I can manage, and also just because I can (make a gazillion cocoons/wisps) doesn’t mean I should! Although funny enough I am currently working on making a gazillion cocoons as I have a huge order to fill! Oh the irony 🤣. Thanks Mark for being a part of the Crew! 😍🪱
Thank you for giving us such great information on what really does happen on a real day to day basis and answering questions that we didn’t even know we were going to have yet.❤😊
@@meilanhee Hi Mei Lan! Welcome to the Castings Crew! 🤩. You’re very welcome to learn from my mistakes 😊. And hopefully from my successes as well 😝. Worm bins are loving systems and are not going to behave predictably every time. Bins right next to each other can develop in entirely different ways. And of course, sometimes we lose track of a bin or simply make what turns out to be a bad decision. 😩. Learning from our missteps is part of the process 😎. Thanks so much for watching and adding to the conversation 🪱🪱🪱
Hi Jayne. So I set up a 5 gallon bucket with coffee grounds, a few handfuls of worm castings, and damp cardboard shreds yesterday. I checked the temp this morning, and its up 7 degrees. Im pretty pleased with that. Im going to add more today since its only about 2/3 full and I have a little more to add.
Hi Bill! Thanks for the sympathy ❤️🩹. It was definitely a bummer to finally get into the bins and… nothing but beautiful castings. I think the bins didn’t smell because it was wisps. So small that they went back to the soil very quickly. I do hope my tragedy gives other worm wranglers a heads up! 🪱🪱
Hi Sandra! Yes it is. It’s important that we share when things crash. I’ve watched several worm wranglers where they’ve shared when they’ve had a really bad worm problem. I knew sooner or later it would be ‘my turn’ - life is like that! Thanks for watching. 😍🪱
I have been raising worms in bins for a couple of years. I am comfortable running my bins, and I have happy worms for the most part. I do have a bin of Indian blues that are difficult, but I’m thankfully moving to red wigglers only! My grandmother bought me an urban worm bag for Christmas. I was so excited. I took half of my 27 gallon established bin and placed them in the urban worm bag. I’m not sure if the bag doesn’t regulate the temperature as well as my bins, but I went down in the basement one morning before work. I had hundreds and hundreds of worms crawling out the bottom of the bag. I scooped the handful that were alive, but the majority of them didn’t make it. I was so sad. I emptied the bag into my bin, and I’m terrified to try using the bag again.
OMG Eric! That must have been a not fun sight to see! I don’t have a UWB and don’t want to disparage a product I have tried myself but… I’ve heard quite a few stories of the bag not exactly performing as desired 😩. Whether it’s temperature or moisture or compaction or worm coming out the bottom… I’ve heard all of that as issues. I’m glad you were able to save some of your worms 🥰. I do like the bin systems a lot. Even my big totes are doing a great job as long as I do my part 😆. Thank you so much for sharing your story 🥰❤️🪱
I Trotally understand your hesitation to try the UWB again. That’s a hard call. You need to add enough worms and bedding to make it work but then if it fails again….Yikes! Maybe try it with the Indian blues?? If not fails you’re not so attached to those worms 🤷♂️
Hi Michael! If I help just one worm wrangler avoid a similar issue that would be great! The worms are quite good at surviving adversity but at some point they do need food! 😳🙄. I’ve already adjusted my rotation to help me avoid making the same mistake again 👍😎. Thanks for watching 🪱🪱
Hi Jayne, Are you getting a little cooler weather yesterday and today? 70°yesterday and today. Just beautiful for gardening. It sounds like you learned your lesson without a total loss. I'm sorry you had any loss, but it could have been worse. Your operation is really looking good 👍 One foot in front of the other 👍💪👍 Great lesson...be responsible 🪱❤️❤️🪱
Hi Peggy! Yes the weather was beautiful this morning in particular. We even have the house open today 👍😍. We got a little rain Sunday too which was nice. We’ve had a few hot days as well so this little cool spell is especially nice. Oh I’m sure I have more lessons to learn! 😆. And I’m not above making the same mistake twice but I’m doing better so far with circling back and catching the skipped bins quicker. 👍🪱😎
Hello! Yeah it sucked. I lost a few months, several breeder bin cycles worth, of cocoons/hatchlings. In a silver lining kind of thinking it did help bring my population back in line with what I can more reasonably handle BUT I would have preferred to simply release the worms into the pasture vs what happened in the bins. Anyway, I can’t change the past but I can the future! And hopefully the future of a worm wrangler or two that will now avoid making the mistake I did 😊🤞🪱. Thanks for watching 🤗
I find all this so amazing. I grew up in South Alabama where there was a major worm farm operation. I would “dig worms” for them as a summer job. (I’m 60yo now, btw). Farming worms was tilling up a plot of land, throwing in some worms, cover with peanut hulls(the other major crop of that farm), set a sprinkler and wait. Digging worms was sitting on the ground with a pan and a small pitchfork. Turn the earth, rake your hand through and grab a worm between each finger, throw them in the pan until you had 1000. I got very good at counting by 3’s 😂
Hello! Welcome to the Castings Crew! It does sometimes seem funny to work at farming something that naturally occurs. Kind of like buying bottled water 🤣. Which I absolutely do 🙄. I worked the neighboring produce farms as a kid. Strawberries, green onions, green beans, even potatoes once. I know what it’s like to do hot dirty work for no money 😩. Do you have worms yourself now?? 🪱🪱😊
@@RockinWorms not yet. I’m doing my research and hoping to start in the next few months. I have 7 acres that was strip mined 80years ago and underwent reclamation. Below 6”, I have pure rock and slate so all my gardening is in containers right now. I want to be amending my soil and stop buying soil. Thank you so much for your wonderful and thorough information.
@@chitza3270 That’s so cool that you’re reclaiming the land and getting it producing again, even if it is all clear gainer gardening. I contain garden mostly too. Our water table is very high so it’s hard to deal with that. We’ve been amending the land for 20 years and it’s wonderful stuff now. But it’s still too close to the water table. And the weeds! OMG They are a nightmare. So containers it is. I admire that you’re researching. I jumped in with a few handfuls of worms from a friend. Didn’t know a thing 🤣. I’m eager to hear your journey along the way! 🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms I work for a school system, so I’m about to have three months off. That’s the main reason I’m waiting. Also don’t want to spend a lot of money on things I “think” I need. We have a large lake nearby that hosts bass tournaments. I’m hoping to sell to local gardeners and to fishermen. I’ll keep you posted!
@@chitza3270 Well you’ve found the right worm channel! I do it as cheaply as I can, spending money where it makes sense to save me lots of time or work. Have you looked into making ore-compost? That’s a huge $$ saver as the ingredients can be had for free. Bonus: the worms love the stuff and it is both bedding and a food source. To chonky up the worms you may want to look into worm chow. Start keeping an eye out for grain based products that are heavily discounted at stores. You can maybe have a nice little income from selling worms to local users! That would be awesome ! 👍🪱😎
I had a bin. Life happened and they didn’t get fed for a year. No worms when I checked. I started over with new worms. I rehydrated the old castings and added some to the new bedding in a bin of young worms. I got baby worms long before I prob should’ve. I’m guessing there were cocoons in the castings. 🤷🏼♀️ The worms are now kept in a place where they are hard to ignore.
A year! Yep, I certainly can see that happening 😳😩. I’m sorry you also had a similar experience. Good idea to move the bin to a more visible location 👍. That’s nice you probably had some cocoons survive! One bin I had did have a handful of worms in it still. I rescued those of course. The other bins went to the outdoor plants and trees so I don’t know if any cocoons were in there. Frankly I didn’t even think about that possibility! Thanks for reminding me and other worm wranglers that there may indeed be a few surviving cocoons in an otherwise dead bin 👍🪱😎
These things do happen…. But just remember that they are forgiven to a point. And until now this hadn’t happened and hopefully it be ok again until you get ultra busy, my one suggestion would be if that happens again, you say they can go a bit longer, so feed the missed rack first and then go to your others after, just remember that whichever one gets missed needs sorting 1st, as then it’s 1 week longer and they will be ok.
Hi Cheryl! That’s a very good idea! I’m doing a bit of that right now - making sure I don’t skip a rack more than one time. Seems like such an obvious answer I should have done that from the start! 🙄😩😡. When you’re knee deep in a situation it’s sometimes hard to see what’s right in front of you. Ah well. Lesson learned! Thankfully I have plenty of happy healthy worms to keep me busy 😆🪱
@@RockinWorms the saying, can’t see the wood through the trees…. Comes to mind. But correct when in part of any situation it’s hard to see what’s happening at that time, things get missed. The important thing is the you and cameraman are ok…. Worms in the wild live and die…. No one in there right mind would ever want to hurt the worms intentionally, accidents happen, this one happened. As you say try to learn from it and do better/different. I have to have a move around and reorganise as worms are hatching and growing. I need to change who’s where etc and make myself more organised. So I’m happy with it. Coz I was but now there’s more and more bins I’m in the place I’m worried something will be neglected and something over worked, which happened 2 weeks ago on the over worked/fed…. And killed some worms for too much care! Trying too hard.
@@cherylhowker1792 You’ve phrased it perfectly 👍😍. You bring up a good point - worms can be harmed by too much fussing and care interference. It’s about managing the balance. Thanks for pointing that out! 👍🪱😎
@@RockinWorms I’m not great at the balance yet, as to what’s enough and not enough in get food, when I used premixed chow it’s ok but this time I didn’t and sprinkled a bit of this and that and the other, all in the chow usually but obviously too much in and of themselves. So tomorrow’s job is to find the chow box behind the worm trays. Lol
@@cherylhowker1792 The challenge is that the balance keeps shifting! The number of bins changes, the worms in each bin changes, different foods are used over time, etc. It’s a dynamic system after all!! And part of the fun 😍👍🪱
Thanks for all your great advice. I'm just getting started again and I was wondering what size these bens are? They look like a good size to handle. I have started my pre ben in a 30 gallon tote and just need a little help. Thanks again, John
@@johnwood1099 Hi John! Welcome! These bins are approximately 24”x 17” x 6”. 28 quart size. I bought them at Walmart online (which is out of stock the last time I looked) but were in the store too. Other stores may have similar sizes. I really like these bins. 👍🪱
Thanks Brandon for stopping by! Just like with chickens, sometimes bad things happen 🥲. I have chickens too! I’ve just started feeding them a handful of worms here and there - the few that come out when I’m scooping out a small section of mites. Some of the pullets aren’t quite sure what to do with the wiggly things but the older girls are all over it 😆🪱
I just checked one of my bins there still living lol so I added more food and tomorrow I'm gonna look at my other one I started 2 , I'll maybe make videos and share on my channel my progress, I'm a beginner on chickens, gardening, worms and hide tanning but I like sharing my experience
@@brandonfineday9672 Sharing lived experiences is the best part of TH-cam I think. If content makers keep it real (not anywhere the case mostly unfortunately) we can all learn what works and what doesn’t and not waste time re-inventing the wheel so to speak. So share away! 👍🪱😎
I still have no idea how or when I'm gonna start feeding to the chickens, this is gonna be going into the 2nd week of these 2 bins or one is a tray I still have to see how the tray is progressing tomorrow and put food in
@@brandonfineday9672 It’s ok! The chickens can wait. It’s hard to get everything done we need to, let alone want to, in a day. You’ll get to it! As long as the worms have food and at least some fresh bedding they can hold on for a while. 🪱🪱
Hi Ric! Hmm I didn’t think of that. I was focused on my not feeding them. The castings were dry-ish but not like sand so 🤷♂️. I do think the drier castings also helped with the bins not smelling! I’m very grateful for that mercy! 😳🪱👍
@@marymccusker8133 I made a promise that I would share the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think it’s important that we understand that things don’t always go to plan and mistakes happen. It’s sad when we lose any creature we’ve taken on caring for. We need to own it, honor their life, and then do better. Thank you for being a part of this wonderful community! 😍🪱🪱
@@Debbie-Keller Oh no! It went anaerobic 😡. Most likely to too much moisture and/or too much nitrogen for the carbon. You can ‘get it back’ by adding carbon to both absorb the moisture and balance the nitrogen. But sometimes it’s easier to throw it out and start fresh. It would not have killed your worms. They like all biota. But it would have continued to smell to at least some degree and that would have been very unpleasant for you 😩. Do you think you’ll try again? 😊
I make the total batch size at one time - or at least that’s my goal. Reality is that it may take me several days over a week to get the time to make up the full tote/trough worth of mixture. After that it cooks and i don’t add any more to it. It’s absolutely ok to add more to it if you want to though. In a similar situation that kinda like adding more after it’s cooked a good amount of time is this: As part of my PreCompost turning and getting it ready to use in my worm bins I offload finished (or close to it) PreCompost into the next size down container. That means the smaller 18-20 gallon totes get put into 5 gallon buckets that go inside to be used. Then I back fill the 18-20 gallon totes with pre-compost from the 100 gallon trough. There’s about half of the 100 gallon trough mixture left. So I move all of that to one side. I then fill the open side with fresh mix. I figure the biota from the finished side will work its way into the fresh stuff pretty quickly 👍. But there’s clearly a more done side and a fresh side so I can pull from either side if I want/need to. You can see this is sorta like adding new pre-compost to old pre-compost. Sorta! 🤩🪱
@@katiem9644 Hey. I just checked my bucket. It’s at 100F which is 12-14F above ambient. So mine has cooled down too, which isn’t a surprise. Did yours heat up more than the 7 degrees? Because if not, then it cooling down would lead it very much into the cold composting arena. Also not surprising. It’s very hard for me to give you good advice as the details matter. Did you purée the moldy broccoli? Mixed it in so all the materials were coated? Damp throughout? What do you think your C:N ratio is?
@@RockinWorms Hey Jayne, I found a great way to heat up the pre compost! Freshly mown grass! Free and easy to get, and it does a great job. Im back cookin with gas in my buckets.
Hey Katie! I think it’ll be a challenge. I’ve seen it done in a 13 gallon tall kitchen waste bin. It wasn’t completely full of course … so maybe in the 8-9 gallon range. The tall narrow shape helps a lot to concentrate the mass and keep the heat in. A 5 gallon bucket has the right shape so that’s a plus. I just don’t know if that low of a mass will work. 🤷♂️. You know, I made pre-compost mix a few hours ago, to fill up a Big Boy 50 gallon tote. I can go yank a 5 gallon bucket worth out and see what it does! Ok. Let me go do that and I’ll report back with what happens. Fun! 🤩 🪱
Alright! I’ve set up a 5 gallon pre-compost bucket with a burrito shred top. It’s sitting on top of the 100 gallon trough 😊. I’ll temperature check it later tonight or tomorrow morning 👍🪱
Nooooo :( I really need to get more organized because this is going to happen to me one of these days. Already accidentally ran out of food/bedding in one of my ANC bins and only noticed because they started trying to escape, which mine NEVER do for whatever reason (luck?)
Hello! Being organized is certainly helpful! It seems things still sneak up on us regardless 😳🙄. I’ve run out of pre-compost bedding several times so I feel your need 😆. ANCs don’t do well in old bedding so I’m not surprised they tried to escape. Red wigglers are more accommodating but at some point they need food and bedding too. I hope my mess up will save you some of the pain I had! Thanks for watching! 🪱🪱❤️
@@RockinWorms I find it interesting because my reds are the least behaved, the ENCs are somewhere in the middle, and the ANCs have been perfect (besides that incident which was totally my fault, put WAY too many in small breeder bins so they ate through everything within a week instead of 3-4 like I had wanted) I could go on and on all night about how each of them behave, but it's 1 am so I'm sure we'll talk again. Good content, keep up the good work! :)
@@Gerald_Tighe A worm friend of mine claims her red wigglers are more bratty than her Indian blues, which is not what most worm wranglers report 🤷♂️. Animals are individuals! We forget that sometimes. ANCs are HUGE carbon eaters apparently. And they don’t do well on old castings. They need refreshed bedding often, like every 2 weeks as you also saw. My only escapee experience was also when I had too many red wigglers in a very small holding bin overnight. 😳🙄😖. At least I keep making new mistakes 🤣😞. TTYL 😍🪱
@@RockinWorms yea my ANCs barely eat their food. They just chow on carbon all day and light snack on anything else. The reds attack any food I put in there. The ANCs are interesting because they seem to want to hang out in water... The only time they really seem to attack food is when the feeding is really wet and sloppy and they dont eat it fast they just hang out there lol I feed small amounts more often instead of all at once because I don't think they'd eat it fast enough.
@@Gerald_Tighe That’s really interesting about the ANCs. Thanks for sharing that info and your experience with them. I hadn’t heard of them having a strong preference for wet areas in a bin. Lots of worm wranglers (not me!) have at least a bin of them. I’m glad these comments can give some help to those worm keepers 👍🪱
Hi Jayne, sorry to hear about the wisps, lesson learned.
A favorite quote of mine is; There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in it's hands.
Keep up the great work. Have fun, Mark : )
That’s a good saying! If we are wise we will take the mistake and learn from it. I have! There were a few lessons I took away from this: don’t skip racks/bins more than once, don’t take on more care responsibilities than I can manage, and also just because I can (make a gazillion cocoons/wisps) doesn’t mean I should!
Although funny enough I am currently working on making a gazillion cocoons as I have a huge order to fill! Oh the irony 🤣. Thanks Mark for being a part of the Crew! 😍🪱
Very helpful, Jayne. Thank you for sharing. Great information and so supportive.
Hello! That’s what we are here for. Advice, information and support! Thank you for being a part of this 🤩🪱
Thank you for giving us such great information on what really does happen on a real day to day basis and answering questions that we didn’t even know we were going to have yet.❤😊
@@meilanhee Hi Mei Lan! Welcome to the Castings Crew! 🤩.
You’re very welcome to learn from my mistakes 😊. And hopefully from my successes as well 😝. Worm bins are loving systems and are not going to behave predictably every time. Bins right next to each other can develop in entirely different ways. And of course, sometimes we lose track of a bin or simply make what turns out to be a bad decision. 😩. Learning from our missteps is part of the process 😎. Thanks so much for watching and adding to the conversation 🪱🪱🪱
Hi Jayne. So I set up a 5 gallon bucket with coffee grounds, a few handfuls of worm castings, and damp cardboard shreds yesterday. I checked the temp this morning, and its up 7 degrees. Im pretty pleased with that. Im going to add more today since its only about 2/3 full and I have a little more to add.
Awesome! I have an update on mine too. Would you be willing to email me at RockinWFamilyFarm@gmail.com?
❤️
@@RockinWorms Will do!
@@katiem9644 Got it and responded already 🤣🤩
Hello Jayne, and thanks for the warning. I'm sorry to hear about you losing some worms but it's a lesson learned.
Hi Bill! Thanks for the sympathy ❤️🩹. It was definitely a bummer to finally get into the bins and… nothing but beautiful castings. I think the bins didn’t smell because it was wisps. So small that they went back to the soil very quickly. I do hope my tragedy gives other worm wranglers a heads up! 🪱🪱
Thank you for sharing your experience, Jayne. It's important we learn from each other.
~ Sandra
Hi Sandra! Yes it is. It’s important that we share when things crash. I’ve watched several worm wranglers where they’ve shared when they’ve had a really bad worm problem. I knew sooner or later it would be ‘my turn’ - life is like that! Thanks for watching. 😍🪱
@@RockinWorms My worm apocalypse was when I fed moist vacuum contents containing lots of dog hair 😕
~ Sandra
@@NanasWorms 😳😬😱🪱
I have been raising worms in bins for a couple of years. I am comfortable running my bins, and I have happy worms for the most part. I do have a bin of Indian blues that are difficult, but I’m thankfully moving to red wigglers only! My grandmother bought me an urban worm bag for Christmas. I was so excited. I took half of my 27 gallon established bin and placed them in the urban worm bag. I’m not sure if the bag doesn’t regulate the temperature as well as my bins, but I went down in the basement one morning before work. I had hundreds and hundreds of worms crawling out the bottom of the bag. I scooped the handful that were alive, but the majority of them didn’t make it. I was so sad. I emptied the bag into my bin, and I’m terrified to try using the bag again.
OMG Eric! That must have been a not fun sight to see! I don’t have a UWB and don’t want to disparage a product I have tried myself but… I’ve heard quite a few stories of the bag not exactly performing as desired 😩. Whether it’s temperature or moisture or compaction or worm coming out the bottom… I’ve heard all of that as issues.
I’m glad you were able to save some of your worms 🥰. I do like the bin systems a lot. Even my big totes are doing a great job as long as I do my part 😆. Thank you so much for sharing your story 🥰❤️🪱
I Trotally understand your hesitation to try the UWB again. That’s a hard call. You need to add enough worms and bedding to make it work but then if it fails again….Yikes! Maybe try it with the Indian blues?? If not fails you’re not so attached to those worms 🤷♂️
Good lesson! This is a thing we all come across, life's little happening! Thanks! And I for one will adjust my schedule trying to avoid a mishap.
Hi Michael! If I help just one worm wrangler avoid a similar issue that would be great! The worms are quite good at surviving adversity but at some point they do need food! 😳🙄. I’ve already adjusted my rotation to help me avoid making the same mistake again 👍😎. Thanks for watching 🪱🪱
Hi Jayne, Are you getting a little cooler weather yesterday and today? 70°yesterday and today.
Just beautiful for gardening.
It sounds like you learned your lesson without a total loss. I'm sorry you had any loss, but it could have been worse.
Your operation is really looking good 👍
One foot in front of the other 👍💪👍
Great lesson...be responsible 🪱❤️❤️🪱
Hi Peggy! Yes the weather was beautiful this morning in particular. We even have the house open today 👍😍. We got a little rain Sunday too which was nice. We’ve had a few hot days as well so this little cool spell is especially nice.
Oh I’m sure I have more lessons to learn! 😆. And I’m not above making the same mistake twice but I’m doing better so far with circling back and catching the skipped bins quicker. 👍🪱😎
Sorry to hear about your worms my friend,great video 🇳🇿❤️🪱
Hello! Yeah it sucked. I lost a few months, several breeder bin cycles worth, of cocoons/hatchlings. In a silver lining kind of thinking it did help bring my population back in line with what I can more reasonably handle BUT I would have preferred to simply release the worms into the pasture vs what happened in the bins.
Anyway, I can’t change the past but I can the future! And hopefully the future of a worm wrangler or two that will now avoid making the mistake I did 😊🤞🪱. Thanks for watching 🤗
I find all this so amazing. I grew up in South Alabama where there was a major worm farm operation. I would “dig worms” for them as a summer job. (I’m 60yo now, btw). Farming worms was tilling up a plot of land, throwing in some worms, cover with peanut hulls(the other major crop of that farm), set a sprinkler and wait. Digging worms was sitting on the ground with a pan and a small pitchfork. Turn the earth, rake your hand through and grab a worm between each finger, throw them in the pan until you had 1000. I got very good at counting by 3’s 😂
Hello! Welcome to the Castings Crew! It does sometimes seem funny to work at farming something that naturally occurs. Kind of like buying bottled water 🤣. Which I absolutely do 🙄.
I worked the neighboring produce farms as a kid. Strawberries, green onions, green beans, even potatoes once. I know what it’s like to do hot dirty work for no money 😩.
Do you have worms yourself now?? 🪱🪱😊
@@RockinWorms not yet. I’m doing my research and hoping to start in the next few months. I have 7 acres that was strip mined 80years ago and underwent reclamation. Below 6”, I have pure rock and slate so all my gardening is in containers right now. I want to be amending my soil and stop buying soil. Thank you so much for your wonderful and thorough information.
@@chitza3270 That’s so cool that you’re reclaiming the land and getting it producing again, even if it is all clear gainer gardening. I contain garden mostly too. Our water table is very high so it’s hard to deal with that. We’ve been amending the land for 20 years and it’s wonderful stuff now. But it’s still too close to the water table. And the weeds! OMG They are a nightmare. So containers it is.
I admire that you’re researching. I jumped in with a few handfuls of worms from a friend. Didn’t know a thing 🤣. I’m eager to hear your journey along the way! 🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms I work for a school system, so I’m about to have three months off. That’s the main reason I’m waiting. Also don’t want to spend a lot of money on things I “think” I need. We have a large lake nearby that hosts bass tournaments. I’m hoping to sell to local gardeners and to fishermen. I’ll keep you posted!
@@chitza3270 Well you’ve found the right worm channel! I do it as cheaply as I can, spending money where it makes sense to save me lots of time or work.
Have you looked into making ore-compost? That’s a huge $$ saver as the ingredients can be had for free. Bonus: the worms love the stuff and it is both bedding and a food source. To chonky up the worms you may want to look into worm chow. Start keeping an eye out for grain based products that are heavily discounted at stores.
You can maybe have a nice little income from selling worms to local users! That would be awesome ! 👍🪱😎
I had a bin. Life happened and they didn’t get fed for a year. No worms when I checked. I started over with new worms. I rehydrated the old castings and added some to the new bedding in a bin of young worms. I got baby worms long before I prob should’ve. I’m guessing there were cocoons in the castings. 🤷🏼♀️
The worms are now kept in a place where they are hard to ignore.
A year! Yep, I certainly can see that happening 😳😩. I’m sorry you also had a similar experience. Good idea to move the bin to a more visible location 👍. That’s nice you probably had some cocoons survive! One bin I had did have a handful of worms in it still. I rescued those of course. The other bins went to the outdoor plants and trees so I don’t know if any cocoons were in there. Frankly I didn’t even think about that possibility! Thanks for reminding me and other worm wranglers that there may indeed be a few surviving cocoons in an otherwise dead bin 👍🪱😎
These things do happen…. But just remember that they are forgiven to a point. And until now this hadn’t happened and hopefully it be ok again until you get ultra busy, my one suggestion would be if that happens again, you say they can go a bit longer, so feed the missed rack first and then go to your others after, just remember that whichever one gets missed needs sorting 1st, as then it’s 1 week longer and they will be ok.
Hi Cheryl! That’s a very good idea! I’m doing a bit of that right now - making sure I don’t skip a rack more than one time. Seems like such an obvious answer I should have done that from the start! 🙄😩😡. When you’re knee deep in a situation it’s sometimes hard to see what’s right in front of you. Ah well. Lesson learned! Thankfully I have plenty of happy healthy worms to keep me busy 😆🪱
@@RockinWorms the saying, can’t see the wood through the trees…. Comes to mind.
But correct when in part of any situation it’s hard to see what’s happening at that time, things get missed.
The important thing is the you and cameraman are ok…. Worms in the wild live and die…. No one in there right mind would ever want to hurt the worms intentionally, accidents happen, this one happened. As you say try to learn from it and do better/different.
I have to have a move around and reorganise as worms are hatching and growing. I need to change who’s where etc and make myself more organised. So I’m happy with it. Coz I was but now there’s more and more bins I’m in the place I’m worried something will be neglected and something over worked, which happened 2 weeks ago on the over worked/fed…. And killed some worms for too much care! Trying too hard.
@@cherylhowker1792 You’ve phrased it perfectly 👍😍.
You bring up a good point - worms can be harmed by too much fussing and care interference. It’s about managing the balance. Thanks for pointing that out! 👍🪱😎
@@RockinWorms I’m not great at the balance yet, as to what’s enough and not enough in get food, when I used premixed chow it’s ok but this time I didn’t and sprinkled a bit of this and that and the other, all in the chow usually but obviously too much in and of themselves. So tomorrow’s job is to find the chow box behind the worm trays. Lol
@@cherylhowker1792 The challenge is that the balance keeps shifting! The number of bins changes, the worms in each bin changes, different foods are used over time, etc. It’s a dynamic system after all!! And part of the fun 😍👍🪱
Thanks for all your great advice. I'm just getting started again and I was wondering what size these bens are? They look like a good size to handle. I have started my pre ben in a 30 gallon tote and just need a little help. Thanks again, John
@@johnwood1099 Hi John! Welcome! These bins are approximately 24”x 17” x 6”. 28 quart size. I bought them at Walmart online (which is out of stock the last time I looked) but were in the store too. Other stores may have similar sizes.
I really like these bins. 👍🪱
@@RockinWorms Thanks so much.
Thank you for sharing, I'm a beginner and raising worms for chicken feed for my chickens
Thanks Brandon for stopping by! Just like with chickens, sometimes bad things happen 🥲. I have chickens too! I’ve just started feeding them a handful of worms here and there - the few that come out when I’m scooping out a small section of mites. Some of the pullets aren’t quite sure what to do with the wiggly things but the older girls are all over it 😆🪱
I just checked one of my bins there still living lol so I added more food and tomorrow I'm gonna look at my other one I started 2 , I'll maybe make videos and share on my channel my progress, I'm a beginner on chickens, gardening, worms and hide tanning but I like sharing my experience
@@brandonfineday9672 Sharing lived experiences is the best part of TH-cam I think. If content makers keep it real (not anywhere the case mostly unfortunately) we can all learn what works and what doesn’t and not waste time re-inventing the wheel so to speak. So share away! 👍🪱😎
I still have no idea how or when I'm gonna start feeding to the chickens, this is gonna be going into the 2nd week of these 2 bins or one is a tray I still have to see how the tray is progressing tomorrow and put food in
@@brandonfineday9672 It’s ok! The chickens can wait. It’s hard to get everything done we need to, let alone want to, in a day. You’ll get to it! As long as the worms have food and at least some fresh bedding they can hold on for a while. 🪱🪱
I'm guessing that the lack of moisture had a lot to do with their demise.
Hi Ric! Hmm I didn’t think of that. I was focused on my not feeding them. The castings were dry-ish but not like sand so 🤷♂️. I do think the drier castings also helped with the bins not smelling! I’m very grateful for that mercy! 😳🪱👍
I like that you keep it real. It’s a good lesson for all of us.
@@marymccusker8133 I made a promise that I would share the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think it’s important that we understand that things don’t always go to plan and mistakes happen. It’s sad when we lose any creature we’ve taken on caring for. We need to own it, honor their life, and then do better.
Thank you for being a part of this wonderful community! 😍🪱🪱
My pre compost went terribly wrong, it stunk to high heavens. So I threw it out. I was afraid it would kill my worms.
@@Debbie-Keller Oh no! It went anaerobic 😡. Most likely to too much moisture and/or too much nitrogen for the carbon.
You can ‘get it back’ by adding carbon to both absorb the moisture and balance the nitrogen. But sometimes it’s easier to throw it out and start fresh. It would not have killed your worms. They like all biota. But it would have continued to smell to at least some degree and that would have been very unpleasant for you 😩.
Do you think you’ll try again? 😊
Re: making pre compost. Do you put together a batch and then just leave it until its done, or do you keep adding materials to it to keep it cooking?
I make the total batch size at one time - or at least that’s my goal. Reality is that it may take me several days over a week to get the time to make up the full tote/trough worth of mixture. After that it cooks and i don’t add any more to it. It’s absolutely ok to add more to it if you want to though. In a similar situation that kinda like adding more after it’s cooked a good amount of time is this:
As part of my PreCompost turning and getting it ready to use in my worm bins I offload finished (or close to it) PreCompost into the next size down container. That means the smaller 18-20 gallon totes get put into 5 gallon buckets that go inside to be used. Then I back fill the 18-20 gallon totes with pre-compost from the 100 gallon trough. There’s about half of the 100 gallon trough mixture left. So I move all of that to one side. I then fill the open side with fresh mix. I figure the biota from the finished side will work its way into the fresh stuff pretty quickly 👍. But there’s clearly a more done side and a fresh side so I can pull from either side if I want/need to. You can see this is sorta like adding new pre-compost to old pre-compost. Sorta! 🤩🪱
@@RockinWorms Wonderful info, Jayne. Really appreciate it.
Help! My bucket has gone cold. I even added some nice cruddy moldy broccoli. Should I add more greens? more brown? more castings?
@@katiem9644 Hey. I just checked my bucket. It’s at 100F which is 12-14F above ambient. So mine has cooled down too, which isn’t a surprise.
Did yours heat up more than the 7 degrees? Because if not, then it cooling down would lead it very much into the cold composting arena. Also not surprising.
It’s very hard for me to give you good advice as the details matter. Did you purée the moldy broccoli? Mixed it in so all the materials were coated? Damp throughout? What do you think your C:N ratio is?
@@RockinWorms Hey Jayne, I found a great way to heat up the pre compost! Freshly mown grass! Free and easy to get, and it does a great job. Im back cookin with gas in my buckets.
Hi Jayne. What do you think about making pre-compost in a 5 gallon bucket? Is it worth trying?
Hey Katie! I think it’ll be a challenge. I’ve seen it done in a 13 gallon tall kitchen waste bin. It wasn’t completely full of course … so maybe in the 8-9 gallon range. The tall narrow shape helps a lot to concentrate the mass and keep the heat in. A 5 gallon bucket has the right shape so that’s a plus. I just don’t know if that low of a mass will work. 🤷♂️. You know, I made pre-compost mix a few hours ago, to fill up a Big Boy 50 gallon tote. I can go yank a 5 gallon bucket worth out and see what it does! Ok. Let me go do that and I’ll report back with what happens. Fun! 🤩 🪱
Alright! I’ve set up a 5 gallon pre-compost bucket with a burrito shred top. It’s sitting on top of the 100 gallon trough 😊. I’ll temperature check it later tonight or tomorrow morning 👍🪱
@@RockinWorms You are so awesome!!!
@@katiem9644 Tell Cameraman that! 🤣🤣🤣
@@RockinWorms Ive got a feeling he already knows!
Nooooo :( I really need to get more organized because this is going to happen to me one of these days.
Already accidentally ran out of food/bedding in one of my ANC bins and only noticed because they started trying to escape, which mine NEVER do for whatever reason (luck?)
Hello! Being organized is certainly helpful! It seems things still sneak up on us regardless 😳🙄. I’ve run out of pre-compost bedding several times so I feel your need 😆. ANCs don’t do well in old bedding so I’m not surprised they tried to escape. Red wigglers are more accommodating but at some point they need food and bedding too.
I hope my mess up will save you some of the pain I had! Thanks for watching! 🪱🪱❤️
@@RockinWorms I find it interesting because my reds are the least behaved, the ENCs are somewhere in the middle, and the ANCs have been perfect (besides that incident which was totally my fault, put WAY too many in small breeder bins so they ate through everything within a week instead of 3-4 like I had wanted)
I could go on and on all night about how each of them behave, but it's 1 am so I'm sure we'll talk again.
Good content, keep up the good work! :)
@@Gerald_Tighe A worm friend of mine claims her red wigglers are more bratty than her Indian blues, which is not what most worm wranglers report 🤷♂️. Animals are individuals! We forget that sometimes.
ANCs are HUGE carbon eaters apparently. And they don’t do well on old castings. They need refreshed bedding often, like every 2 weeks as you also saw.
My only escapee experience was also when I had too many red wigglers in a very small holding bin overnight. 😳🙄😖.
At least I keep making new mistakes 🤣😞. TTYL 😍🪱
@@RockinWorms yea my ANCs barely eat their food. They just chow on carbon all day and light snack on anything else. The reds attack any food I put in there.
The ANCs are interesting because they seem to want to hang out in water... The only time they really seem to attack food is when the feeding is really wet and sloppy and they dont eat it fast they just hang out there lol
I feed small amounts more often instead of all at once because I don't think they'd eat it fast enough.
@@Gerald_Tighe That’s really interesting about the ANCs. Thanks for sharing that info and your experience with them. I hadn’t heard of them having a strong preference for wet areas in a bin.
Lots of worm wranglers (not me!) have at least a bin of them. I’m glad these comments can give some help to those worm keepers 👍🪱
Hello I just started my worms for fishing I'm having something go on .
Hi Kenneth! Welcome! I hope you’re finding some useful information 👍🪱