Part 4 of the beginning worm bin series. This is a short video showing how I feed my new bin. Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm affiliate link: unclejimswormfarm.com/?affili...
This is the most helpful video I have ever seen! I will now be adding my food scraps in quarters and adding dry bedding to each feeding. I am struggling with some pests in the bin and I think this will really help reduce their populations. Hoping my worms are happier too. Thank you!!
I realize that a lot of people say they don't want to waste time doing stuff like using a food processor to cut up their worm food, but I find that by doing that and then quickly putting it into the blender that it makes much nicer casting quicker. I also do it so that I can put it in plastic containers and freeze it and save it up for my six bins. Takes a lot of food to feed that many bins. Measuring the weight is a great concept in the beginning. Once they begin multiplying it becomes a bit more difficult. I just went through a portion of the castings from one bin and after two hours found over 1000 cocoons, and I know there are more. I use a nursery for raising my cocoons. Sounds dumb I know, but I'm 64 handicapped and have nothing better to do. I'm the granny worm lady. Lol
Catherine Fredericks when I first started I used a processor to purée the food waste. After a long time of doing that and getting tired of the hassle I set up a experiment. I weighed out 2 identical containers of food. I puréed one and chunked the other up like I do now. I placed them side by side in the bin and checked on them every day. From my observations the worms did start on the puréed food sooner but by the time it was done they where only 1 day or less of a difference in how fast they consumed both. I’m sure with certain foods like broccoli stalks it will make a huge difference but they will eventually break down on their own and it saves me a lot of time and dish washing. I normally just go by volume but I decided to weight out the food for this bin for a while to help my viewers get a idea of the amount of food the worms need.
Had no problems getting worms shipped up here from Northwest worms. But, I did it in April. I am in Anchorage and a gal sells them at Alaska Mill and feed but she is a rip off at $40.00 for 500. Through NW I got them for $26 a pound plus $6.00 shipping. Not sure if prices are the same as it will be 2 yrs in April for me. If you are in Anchorage or the surrounding area I could sell you a pound for $30.00 if you like and would want to pick them up from me since it is too cold to put them in the mail right now. But, you did say in the spring so whatever you like is great. If you like creatures you will enjoy it. I do.
Dear Roots, I am currently running a similar experiment and sharing the results with a F/B Vermi-group. My original contention is that processing increases speed and quality of castings production but ultimately- A pound of worms can only eat so much food. I have found so far, that more complete reduction of food input seems to be achieved faster over short periods of time since the "stemmy" materials are a size the worms can ingest. But I'm bored and have little else to do. Than you for your quality and very informative videos.
I tried worms years ago. I went to a vermicomposting presentation at our local state park. I did exactly what they said to do. All my worms took off and were all over the garage floor a couple of days later. I now know what I did wrong thanks to your videos. I never let the bedding age a few days to a week before putting my worms in. We were told all we needed was shredded up newspaper, dampen it, and put the worms in. Obviously, the bin wasn't right for the worms. Now I have a small styrofoam set up in the house sitting next to the garage. I started a couple of weeks ago. I put worms in with the stuff they came in (bait shop worms). They laid on the dirt for about 5 days and wouldn't go under into the bedding. Then all of a sudden they were buried under. Pretty cool. I'm feeding corn meal right now until the populations come up. If this works I'm going to spread into the garage and raise worms. Right now I'm raising them for bait.
Really good series!! I am definitely doing your method for my set up. I have my containers and drilled my holes. Just need to get my materials. I love how detailed the videos are.
Katelyn anderson thank you! I’m glad you enjoy my videos! I like giving detail because that is what I looked for when I first started with worm composting. 🙂
That's a good idea. I do it because I have plenty of time here in Alaska in the winter. Too cold and dark to go out. I even count my cocoons out of boredom before I put them in the nursery. TV gets old after a while. Happy worming. I would do my own videos but have no idea how to put them on U Tube.
Catherine Fredericks thanks! I have always wanted to visit Alaska. Everyone I know that has been says it is a beautiful place! How does the nursery work? I have thought about doing one to get worms that where all the same age and size for bait worms but didn’t know how to get started.
I use a 1/8 sieve to get my castings. Whatever is left in the sieve is put into a small bin and it includes all of the cocoons since they cannot go through the sieve. Then I keep it moist and may add coir if necessary. As soon as I see some baby's I begin to put a tablespoon or two of food and increase as necessary. When I am bored and have castings drying because they are too wet I pick out the cocoons and add to the nursery. My nursery right now has over 3500 cocoons and some newborns. It will be a bin in itself when they are all hatched. If you want them to be of the same age you would have to separate your cocoons by color. I find there are basically 3 stages. Yellow, brown and Amber. In that case three different small bins. Since I am disabled with nothing better to do I find it a lot of fun looking for them. It's amazing how many they produce and how many you miss when you thought you got them all.
Catherine, I am in a somewhat similar situation. I am still working but have respiratory issues, so my abundant spare time and limited physical activity is mostly confined to the home. I don't go to the extremes you do but I most certainly respect your situation. Happy Worming!
I'm happy to have found your channel thanks for the info. One question. What kind of temperature range should I be trying to keep the been at. I would prefer to keep them Outdoors. Protected of course and in the shade but it can get 90° Plus in my area. Thanks again
hey bud, I've been storing my foodscraps (no peppers or onion or anything) in jars the past 2 months for when I get my worms today or tomorrow. from what i read online everyone says feeding them old decomposed slightly mold food stuffs is totally fine and they love it. but this is the second youtube video now I've watched that suggested otherwise... should i just toss my old scraps I've been saving? I'm stressing out about this and can't get any good solid answers and don't want my worms to starve and die or get sick and die on bad old food. I ordered 2000 and deff can't feed them off just what I've been eating. I'll literally have to buy food to throw out to be able to grow the exact same food and was heavily relying on my saved foodscraps to be able to feed them. -.-; . thank you.
Your food scraps should be fine. Just spread them out good over half of your bed and cover them with bedding. The worms will work around what they don’t want. Worms are very hardy and will avoid things that are harmful until it has broken down enough. In the future I would suggest freezing your food waste then let it set out overnight before feeding it to them. Freezing it breaks it down faster and cuts down on smells.
@@robinettefamilyfarm3510 wow what a fast great and informative response. I will try freezing for sure. thank you so much i feel much more assured now. =D Appreciate your videos
Thanks for posting, Josh. I noticed that you didn't add any of your worm chow to the bed. Is there any reason for skipping this step? I had already made some of it using your recipe :) I'll be feeding my worms tonight.
Ernest Bunburry I don’t have any made up right now so I am just using egg shells. I will more then likely make some up soon. I wanted to get this bin going without using the manure and dry food for the people that don’t have access to it and want to spend as little money as possible. Once the bin gets going good and I get some more manure I am going to start adding it and dry food again. Thanks for watching!
This is the most helpful video I have ever seen! I will now be adding my food scraps in quarters and adding dry bedding to each feeding. I am struggling with some pests in the bin and I think this will really help reduce their populations. Hoping my worms are happier too. Thank you!!
I realize that a lot of people say they don't want to waste time doing stuff like using a food processor to cut up their worm food, but I find that by doing that and then quickly putting it into the blender that it makes much nicer casting quicker. I also do it so that I can put it in plastic containers and freeze it and save it up for my six bins. Takes a lot of food to feed that many bins. Measuring the weight is a great concept in the beginning. Once they begin multiplying it becomes a bit more difficult. I just went through a portion of the castings from one bin and after two hours found over 1000 cocoons, and I know there are more. I use a nursery for raising my cocoons. Sounds dumb I know, but I'm 64 handicapped and have nothing better to do. I'm the granny worm lady. Lol
Catherine Fredericks when I first started I used a processor to purée the food waste. After a long time of doing that and getting tired of the hassle I set up a experiment. I weighed out 2 identical containers of food. I puréed one and chunked the other up like I do now. I placed them side by side in the bin and checked on them every day. From my observations the worms did start on the puréed food sooner but by the time it was done they where only 1 day or less of a difference in how fast they consumed both. I’m sure with certain foods like broccoli stalks it will make a huge difference but they will eventually break down on their own and it saves me a lot of time and dish washing. I normally just go by volume but I decided to weight out the food for this bin for a while to help my viewers get a idea of the amount of food the worms need.
Catherine, I'm also in Alaska. Did you have any problems getting worms shipped up here? May try and get started this spring.
Had no problems getting worms shipped up here from Northwest worms. But, I did it in April. I am in Anchorage and a gal sells them at Alaska Mill and feed but she is a rip off at $40.00 for 500. Through NW I got them for $26 a pound plus $6.00 shipping. Not sure if prices are the same as it will be 2 yrs in April for me. If you are in Anchorage or the surrounding area I could sell you a pound for $30.00 if you like and would want to pick them up from me since it is too cold to put them in the mail right now. But, you did say in the spring so whatever you like is great. If you like creatures you will enjoy it. I do.
Dear Roots, I am currently running a similar experiment and sharing the results with a F/B Vermi-group. My original contention is that processing increases speed and quality of castings production but ultimately- A pound of worms can only eat so much food. I have found so far, that more complete reduction of food input seems to be achieved faster over short periods of time since the "stemmy" materials are a size the worms can ingest. But I'm bored and have little else to do. Than you for your quality and very informative videos.
I tried worms years ago. I went to a vermicomposting presentation at our local state park. I did exactly what they said to do. All my worms took off and were all over the garage floor a couple of days later.
I now know what I did wrong thanks to your videos. I never let the bedding age a few days to a week before putting my worms in. We were told all we needed was shredded up newspaper, dampen it, and put the worms in. Obviously, the bin wasn't right for the worms.
Now I have a small styrofoam set up in the house sitting next to the garage. I started a couple of weeks ago. I put worms in with the stuff they came in (bait shop worms). They laid on the dirt for about 5 days and wouldn't go under into the bedding. Then all of a sudden they were buried under. Pretty cool. I'm feeding corn meal right now until the populations come up. If this works I'm going to spread into the garage and raise worms. Right now I'm raising them for bait.
Nice and simple 👍👍 love your method.
Really good series!! I am definitely doing your method for my set up. I have my containers and drilled my holes. Just need to get my materials. I love how detailed the videos are.
Katelyn anderson thank you! I’m glad you enjoy my videos! I like giving detail because that is what I looked for when I first started with worm composting. 🙂
I'm also in Anchorage. Thanks for info!
Enjoyed your informative video. Thanks!
That's a good idea. I do it because I have plenty of time here in Alaska in the winter. Too cold and dark to go out. I even count my cocoons out of boredom before I put them in the nursery. TV gets old after a while. Happy worming. I would do my own videos but have no idea how to put them on U Tube.
Catherine Fredericks thanks! I have always wanted to visit Alaska. Everyone I know that has been says it is a beautiful place! How does the nursery work? I have thought about doing one to get worms that where all the same age and size for bait worms but didn’t know how to get started.
I use a 1/8 sieve to get my castings. Whatever is left in the sieve is put into a small bin and it includes all of the cocoons since they cannot go through the sieve. Then I keep it moist and may add coir if necessary. As soon as I see some baby's I begin to put a tablespoon or two of food and increase as necessary. When I am bored and have castings drying because they are too wet I pick out the cocoons and add to the nursery. My nursery right now has over 3500 cocoons and some newborns. It will be a bin in itself when they are all hatched. If you want them to be of the same age you would have to separate your cocoons by color. I find there are basically 3 stages. Yellow, brown and Amber. In that case three different small bins. Since I am disabled with nothing better to do I find it a lot of fun looking for them. It's amazing how many they produce and how many you miss when you thought you got them all.
Catherine, I am in a somewhat similar situation. I am still working but have respiratory issues, so my abundant spare time and limited physical activity is mostly confined to the home. I don't go to the extremes you do but I most certainly respect your situation. Happy Worming!
I like your quarter bin food placement. I'm a worm newbie and have kind of been doing it randomly.
I learned a lot from your videos.Thanks!
Good deal! Good video!
Great video! I feed my bin today also😊
Your videos are the best on worm feed. Can i use fall leaves instead of cardboard stuff ?
Srinivasan Padmanabhan thank you! You sure can. Worms love leaves! Just make sure you break them up as fine as possible.
After a while wouldn't measuring your food waste be pointless as the worms breed/multiply?
The baby's who grow up won't grow as large because of the limited amount of food and they'll only grow as large as they can with all the food provided
Awesome scale what is it?
How many worms are you putting in your new bins to start? 250? 500? (Thank you in advance.)
This guy has to be appalachian
Is chicken manure good for starting a worm bin
I'm happy to have found your channel thanks for the info. One question. What kind of temperature range should I be trying to keep the been at. I would prefer to keep them Outdoors. Protected of course and in the shade but it can get 90° Plus in my area. Thanks again
He commented this on a different video but he said 55-80 Fahrenheit anything below or above those might harm them
hey bud, I've been storing my foodscraps (no peppers or onion or anything) in jars the past 2 months for when I get my worms today or tomorrow. from what i read online everyone says feeding them old decomposed slightly mold food stuffs is totally fine and they love it. but this is the second youtube video now I've watched that suggested otherwise... should i just toss my old scraps I've been saving? I'm stressing out about this and can't get any good solid answers and don't want my worms to starve and die or get sick and die on bad old food. I ordered 2000 and deff can't feed them off just what I've been eating. I'll literally have to buy food to throw out to be able to grow the exact same food and was heavily relying on my saved foodscraps to be able to feed them. -.-; . thank you.
Your food scraps should be fine. Just spread them out good over half of your bed and cover them with bedding. The worms will work around what they don’t want. Worms are very hardy and will avoid things that are harmful until it has broken down enough. In the future I would suggest freezing your food waste then let it set out overnight before feeding it to them. Freezing it breaks it down faster and cuts down on smells.
@@robinettefamilyfarm3510 wow what a fast great and informative response. I will try freezing for sure. thank you so much i feel much more assured now. =D Appreciate your videos
A gallon of water weighs 7.444 lbs
Thanks for posting, Josh. I noticed that you didn't add any of your worm chow to the bed. Is there any reason for skipping this step? I had already made some of it using your recipe :) I'll be feeding my worms tonight.
Ernest Bunburry I don’t have any made up right now so I am just using egg shells. I will more then likely make some up soon. I wanted to get this bin going without using the manure and dry food for the people that don’t have access to it and want to spend as little money as possible. Once the bin gets going good and I get some more manure I am going to start adding it and dry food again. Thanks for watching!
Catherine, may have found you on facebook and sent you private message rather than broadcast my email and full name. Blessings!
You are doing it all wrong.
How about you explain how you do it?