Hi Lynn! I love that! The more I worm, the more I learn! I’m totally high jacking that!! You’re going to love the pre-compost once you’ve got it down. Only one poor soul has reported having a stinky bin but she battled and won it back!! I continue to be amazed at how the worms just chow thru the bedding. 🪱❤️🪱 Thanks for watching!
Well I must say this is great information to take bedding full of castings in three weeks amazed. New worm Person that has interest in your channel, great job.
Hello BlueMountainWorms! Welcome! The bedding mix has been a super develop for my worm keeping. So easy to make and the materials are feee or really cheap too! Have you had a chance to watch the how to make to playlist yet? It could super charge your worm journey too! Thanks for watching. I hope you are or decide to become a Castings Crew member by subscribing ❤️🪱👍
Hi Jane, I followed your series on preparing bedding for worms and started it 2 days ago. My bin is at 108 degrees this morning. Thank you so very much for that whole series. I've learned so much from you!
Hi Jan! Welcome to the Castings Crew 🤗. 108F is great! It may still go up a few degrees before it starts to cool down. Then it dies cool down you can decide to do another heat cycle or use as is. Please keep us informed on the status! 🪱😎❤️
Welcome Lyra! I’m happy you’re here too ❤️. Please share what you’re doing with worms and ask any questions you have! Also hit that subscribe button and like videos as you go along ❤️🪱. Castings Crew members rock!
I am in love with the precomposted bedding. It really does make a huge difference. I made the mistake of doing my second batch in my garage and dang soldier flies moved in it. I just decided to let them have their fill of it and start a new one. Key word in the “indoor pre-composted bedding” indoors!!! Lol. Thanks Afro another great informative worming video! Love your content and great teaching skills!! Happy 4th!!🎉
Hi Leo! Oh no on the BSFs 😬. Now if you had chickens too… 🤣 The ‘indoor’ part IS important BUT what it REALLY MEANS is keeping the bugs out and that is accomplished by the deep dry cardboard/paper (I prefer cardboard cause it’s heavier and doesn’t blow around) top layer on the pre-compost tote AND keeping it off the ground maybe at least 2 feet (I’m guessing on that but it feels right). I’d think you can use other deep dry carbon such as straw, coconut coir, wood chips, etc. I have a big tote (which you’ve probably already read about in my posts) on my outdoor covered patio. There is every type of bug Florida has passing thru that space, ripped pool screening be damned. Plus the occasional snake, bunny, big lizard and I’m sorry to say, rat. Ugh. But I run the tote the EXACT same as the true indoor bins - off the ground and deeply covered with the dry carbon. So far so good except for the snake skin shed that one time. A small bin of pre-compost I offloaded once to have working room and forgot to cover up and left on the floor had ants in it the next morning. I tossed it into the chicken run 🙄. I also do not have mites or springtails in it. Which is important for further experimentation I hope to get time to do this summer 🤞. So what I’m saying in my long winded way is: the garage is fine! Get the bin off the floor if it’s on it and cover it with the deep dry carbon. If you are already doing the above and/or re-experience BSF or other bugs in it please please let me know! Otherwise I’m so glad you’re loving it! It’s great stuff!! Thanks for sharing your experience as it may encourage others to give it a try too ❤️🪱❤️
That reminds me of my attempt at having an outdoor worm bin that failed on the very first night when every type of insect in my garden moved in. Ant, slugs, everything! In one night! So now there's a nature bin that also includes my attempt at outdoor composting. Birds other than pigeons and seagulls have started arriving 8n my garden though so it's all good in the end I guess 😂🌻
@@RockinWorms thanks Jayne! Well I actually do both of those things. I use a landscape cloth with about 8-10 inches of cardboard shred on top and it’s up off the floor! 🤷♂️😩 I did notice that when I first saw the larvae I gave the bin a really good mixing and I think the heat that generated from the composting process killed a lot of the existing larvae but there were still some who survived on the outer edges. Lol yes I have chickens and boy they sure don’t mind the soldier flies. I check all my outside bins every few days and pick out what I can see to feed my ladies. Pros and cons I suppose but just gotta go with it! Mother Nature doing her thing!
@@leobaltz2057 Uh. Color me surprised. Maybe I’ve just been lucky? Maybe you were unlucky once? I do tuck in the corners super well but sometimes the sides aren’t as well covered. Well, I’m sorry that happened! Happy for the chickens though 🤣. Mine never get BSF. But now my mealies are breeding out of control I’ve started feeding them to the girls. Happy happy happy. Just had a thought - would adding in bT (is it Bt? I have a bottle but haven’t used it yet) or mosquito dunk take care of the BSF larvae? Both are ok for worms and gardens so wouldn’t harm the pre-compost headed to the worms.
You have nailed it, Jane, I am finding the substrate makes a huge difference and so now I’m going to need to locate the supplies in my area that will get processes the easiest. The cow manure does move through them better than the horse does, the cow partial size is much smaller than the horse does. I do find though this is only best IMO for the breeding bins, I love the horse poo for the nursery and grower bins. Thank you for your attention to detail and hard work
Hello! I’m so sorry for the delayed response. I thought I had responded as I was quite interested in your cow vs horse manure observations. I probably forgot the northernmost button 🙄😆. I struggled in the beginning with my worms due to the bedding I was using. Just the standard stuff everyone was supposedly using but it didn’t work for me at all 😡. Making and using the pre-compost was a game changer. And many worm wrangler’s that have tried it agree! I hope you can find the materials easily and cheaply! I don’t have ready access to horse manure and it’s been a looong time since I’ve cleaned stables 😝. That’s interesting about the difference in particle size between the manures. I mean it makes sense but I never gave it one thought 🙄. I use the ice manure always in the breeder bins as part of my basic bedding. I use it in the grow out bins as a dry down material for very wet bins. Sometimes but not often I use it as a quick feed. Do you notice any differences between the castings? 🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms Like always, I am finding…it all matters. I don’t really see a huge difference in the castings themselves but more partials that make their way in with them. Not only that, the dairy cows are fed a much richer diet than the meat cattle and so the nitrogen content in the castings is subject to change. I plan to have some tested. Usually meat cows are fed more carbon rich hay and the dairy cows more nitrogen high protein food stock. Goodness now I am chasing down the chemistry of it ALL, the cows do digest into a much finer fiber that the horses or donkeys do, yes. Yep, I’ll be seeing what a 100% cow pre-compost will do for the breeders. I have a feeling I will be stock piling cow pies and grinding them for winter breeding 🤦♀️ If I keep the lids off I could get buy with feeding it wet but I like the idea of using it as a drying agent too. Thanks for all your hard work and info 🙏
@@MyMicrobialGarden Haha! It’s a deep rabbit hole we fall into, isn’t it?! 🤣. There’s so much interesting data and information still to gather and learn regarding composting worms ❤️. Industry is finally waking up to the myriad of possibilities with worms and I expect that $$$ toward research is on the cusp. Exciting times! I don’t know what you meant by ‘partials moving in’..? I have beef cattle although for now they girls are more pets than food 😍. It’s their poop that goes into the wormery. There’s definite hay and grass fibers visible. And I can see that it hangs around the longest in the bin when it’s sifting time. It’s one of my benchmarks for determining if castings are ready. Of course sometimes I sift anyway! 😝😎. I do not pre-compost the cow manure. Just collect, dry and sift. I have garbage cans of it 🤣. How do you plan to compost it at 100%? I’m eager to learn how you move forward and what your results/experiences are! 🪱🪱❤️
@@RockinWorms Oops, sorry, the particles that make their way into the castings, that is really only difference I am seeing in the castings. I realize it is good for the biology of the bin though and keeping the castings healthy but not sure how “clean” people want their castings, educating them is key I suppose
Thanks Jayne and crew and worms. I've just today picked up a tumbler composter bin that I'm intending to use to precompost bedding in. I've got a supply of brown paper bags to shred, some clean wood shavings snd sawdust, and bags of coffee grinds. I'll have to scrounge manure to give it a dose or later stage compost from another bin to kick it off. I'll let you know how it goes.
Hi Bruce! Excellent! I don’t add the manure until I’m making the bedding. To the carbons and nitrogen you listed I only add yucky vegetable slurry and sometimes yeast if I need a heat boost during the composting process. Not that you can’t add manure, I just don’t at that stage. I’m looking forward to your updates!! 🪱🪱❤️
Just re set my bin and filled it with mostly pre composted bedding so can't wait to see how long it takes, my last harvest was 3 months ago so it won't take much to be faster than that😂
@@RockinWorms I had a pound back in September and a 30 litre bin but to be honest I have no clue. They were bait size when I got them and the population seemed pretty topped out to where they started shrinking and stopped producing cocoons when I sieved the bin this week and I have split them in hopes they start breeding again but short answer is no idea! I always end up feeling bad for them getting tossed about because the European red worms can really flip around like crazy when disturbed and they also play dead which is always fun. Not. I'm getting there with being less squeamish but not to the point of counting or weighing them yet. Honestly half the time I'm convinced I've killed them somehow
@@eleanoraddy4683 I often feel like I’ve killed something - plant, chickens, bin of worms - by doing something stupid. But it’s rarely the case. It’s me being nervous or scared or simply uninformed at that time. Or being too perfectionist! As I gain more information and experience and therefore more confidence, I am better able to take the bumps - even the very hard ones! - and learn and move on better. Long way of saying, I get you cause I’ve been there myself! But it does get easier, just give yourself time! I wonder if it’s the mixed species part of the bin that’s contributing to the slow down in reproduction and size diminishing you’re seeing. Or they bred like crazy in the beginning and have reached the self regulating point. Do you see mostly younger juveniles vs adults or a random mix? If we go with conventional wisdom that a pound of worms is about 1,000 worms or so, then having that many in 30 liters (8 gallons) is ‘not that bad’. My breeder bins have had 918 worms in 3.5 gallons (11-12 liters) and they make lots of cocoons. Of course the cocoons gets removed so the population doesn’t increase and they get fresh bedding with plenty of food every 3 weeks. So food availability and bedding freshness could be playing a part too in your situation. Bottom line is I think it’s a very good idea to split the bin up and see what happens ❤️. Please keep us updated on what happens so we can all learn along with you! ❤️🪱❤️
Excellent video 👍👍 Very educational, awesome explanations! I have always used the acronym GIGO, garbage in garbage out. I also use the acronym GSI GSO, good stuff in great stuff out. It seems to me you have the GSI GSO down to a science 👍👍 The bedding is the secret sauce. Enjoy worms and have a great Day!
Thanks! I appreciate you saying so 😊. I’m going to harp on the bedding until there’s a revolution- or a revolt and everyone tells me to shut up 😳😆. I like your expanded abbreviations ❤️
@@RockinWorms I apologize for using the word abbreviation, I just did an edit to acronym. I think it is more correct. Keep on harping about the bedding! It is good to let the cat out of the bag or the Jennie out of the bottle! People need to know this stuff. Happy 4th of July too!
@@wormsforlife7352 Acronym is correct but I knew what you meant ❤️. Can I be silly? Is your genie called Jennie? I’m just jealous you have one!! I’d be so darn proud if my pre-compost bedding took over the world. I think it’s marvelous and using up landfill bound items and putting them back into the earth is fantastic. I make a personal point do inly getting cardboard and coffee grounds when I’m already out running errands so I’m not adding to the crisis in order to offset it a bit, if you follow that 🙄. I need to experiment more with the mealworms. It’s killing me to buy wheat bran and oatmeal. I think I’m going to try a test bin of them on the sifted cow manure. They’re going thru a ton of veg too. Thank goodness for my veg guy!!!
@@RockinWorms Being silly, I have a little dog named Precise, I rub her like an oil lamp and then call her Genie. I am glad and would encourage anyone and almost everyone to do the same to save landfill space. For me in my situation I cannot do that, part of the reason is the gasoline and time to pick up cardboard and coffee grounds (I would need a lot) The other part is I would have to get a waste disposal license and have the city, County and State inspecting my worm operation frequently. I don't want that stress. The reason I use peat (reed sedge) is because I can get it by the yard at a time (a yard is two of the bags Captain Matt uses heaping full). The price of gas and the price of the peat comes to about $45 a yard, a yard weighs between 2,300 -2,500 lbs. depending on moisture. I use the ANCs which are faster at breeding, it takes 22 weeks from putting the worms in the bedding to breed until they are 4" long and become breeders themselves. My system is a 2-week breed, 10-week nursery and a 10 week grow out. So, everything is on a 10-week cycle. I am also able to use the same system with Dendrobaena worms (ENCs) except with 3-week breeds. There is a lot of prep already involved in getting the bedding ready, also a lot of space used for holding/storing the peat before use, along with hard on the body work. The pure castings weight in at 8lbs a gallon at 30% moisture. So, if I were to get the waste disposal licensing, I would have to move my operation to a large facility. With the peat as bedding I can do it and remain residential. I do use RWs for reducing household waste (food scraps, wastepaper and coffee grounds) and it makes excellent fertilizer for my garden beds, but not nearly enough. When I give worms to friends, I tell them to do the same just to make sure they tear off all tape, labels and windows from envelopes. Then I always say, "we don't really know if micro plastics leach forever chemicals into the water table or if plants uptake them". With RWs I tell them to feed them everything regarding food scraps and if they get ENCs or ANCs I tell them to google the worm do not feed list. Give the meal worms a try in your bedding it just may work out or just the sifted cow manure. For me I pretty much always have 2 or more meal worms in each bin or bucket when I clean them out or move onto the next stage. It is only occasionally, after the winter months when I actually see the beatless when cycling a bin/bucket. It is possible the peat holds them off or slows down their development. Give it a try and see how it goes for you. It is always fun to experiment and try new things especially when you or I have enough stock to play with. Back to the worms for a bit have you tried pure newspapers as bedding? The guy that first got me into worms would use last week's Buyers Guide and Shoppers Herald, he would pick them up for free from the newspaper companies. He had what he called a "worm laboratory." a fancy name for a walk-in cooler. He grew Canadian nightcrawlers for fisher scientific and they would supply the schools with worms for children to dissect. He actually started the whole paper as bedding thing back in 1965. The product he manufactured was called BUSS BED-DING it is the original worm bedding (finely ground newspaper). The product is still available, and his son now runs Magic Products Inc. His name was George he was known as the "International Worm Czar". It was in the early 1980s that they started to push the RWs (Eisenia foetida, now fetida and Eisenia andrei) for vermicomposting as something that anyone could do at home, by the late 80's and early 90's the people that were called hippies from the 60's and 70's where the main people doing it. When I started with worms I did it in the basement, I used old coolers (Igloo, Colmen and other brands) along with foam ones. They had cold water circulating in the bottoms of them. The cold water circulated in copper coils and old radiators from cars and motorcycles. There was a refrigerator kept as cold as possible with a bucket of water in it and a water pump that would feed water out of the fridge through the bins in a series and back into the bucket. The choice of bedding was ground newspaper. Back in those days the worms I grew where Lumbricus terrestris (Canadian Nightcrawler) Lumbricus rubellus (Redworms) and Dendrobaena octaedra (a variety of ENC). I still do the octaedra just at room temps. Octaedra are smaller than Hortensis or Veneta they max out at 1.5 grams when fully plump. Holy smokes I just looked up! I hope this is not too much information. Have a great Day!
@@wormsforlife7352 First off, I love your replies! I appreciate the time and detail you put into sharing your extensive experience and knowledge with all of us 👍🪱❤️. I regret that I can’t always respond as fully as I’d like to. One reason is that I like to mull over what you say and that takes me time 🤣. I’m a good thinker but necessarily a fast thinker. You’re operating on a much bigger scale than I am and what you need and can do is not the same as what I need and can do. And that’s perfectly fine! We’re both doing what works best for us where we currently are. And that’s one of the things I hope to convey to others - I (and others here) can give ideas and pointers and knowledge but the person has to figure out what works for them. Location makes a big difference too. Your resources are way different than mine as well. I love what your set up is. It’s just way beyond me at the moment. But maybe one day…. I’ll be oh yea! Wormsforlife did this, that and the other thing - now’s the time for me to try it! Knowledge ‘in the bank’ is always a good thing 😎. So please keep up your posts. Know I - and I’m sure others - read every word and are soaking in your words! ❤️🪱❤️
I’ve had worms in a bin 4 weeks. I soaked the bedding for a week before the worms got here. I’ve given the worm a little bit of food, several pieces of moldy fruit and vegetables I removed from my mealworm drawers. Also some worm food I got from Uncle Jim’s Worms. This bin is red wiggler mix. Some are almost the size of European night crawlers. I can’t tell if substrate is castings or composted bedding. It’s lumpy but bigger than caviar.
Hi! Soaking bedding for that long is not necessary. In fact it may allow anaerobic bacteria to grow and become stinky. You probably don’t want that 😊. The red worm mix from Uncle Jim’s usually has a lot of Indian blue worms in it. You can put a sheet of newspaper on the top of the bin. The worms will crawl all over it and leave castings behind. This will allow you to get familiar with what castings look like. They will be very small and fine and soft feeling 🪱🪱🪱
Hi jane, Lou here. I use powered eggshells as well as powdered oyster shells. Whatever I get my hands on first with every feeding am I using too much? Should I alternate between feedings?
Hi Lou! Happy new year! How was your trip? Is your back feeling any better? Either eggshells or oyster shells are perfectly fine. You don’t need to alternate. Whatever one you grab first is ok to use. As far as amounts go a light sprinkle is all that’s needed. We all tend to ‘use too much’ as in more than what’s needed. But extra hasn’t been seen (as far as I can find from research or anecdotal data) to cause any harm to the worms unless cups and cups are being added on a regular basis, impacting the pH or biota activity. It’s very likely that you are ok! 👍🪱😎
Hi again Jane. Not to distract from the video's theme, but when you saw the tail and thought it was a cocoon, it reminded me. I rarely find cocoons although my worms keep multiplying. However just at a glance at my bins (which i keep outside here south of Tampa), you would think there were millions of cocoons, but all my bins are loaded with "Awl Snails", they are cone shaped like a cone seashell but quite small, the head the size of a cocoon. They don't seem to harm anything they just help break down any food i feed the worms, but in sifting, depending on their size, they usually go through the sifter. I don't want to give or sell anyone the castings and have them wind up with an infestation, or that will be the last time they deal with me. Have you heard of these? If so how do I deal with them? It's a pain picking them out one by one, as they are not only on the surface. Thanks for your help, or from any commenters.
Hello! If your population is growing then there are cocoons somewhere sometime! They can be very hard to see, especially outside where the light may be not be quite right or helpful. As for the snails I’m not much help 🤷♂️. Since my worms are all inside I don’t have that kind of pest. Mites are my biggest pest issue. I googled, which I’m sure you did too. Remind me, are your worms in bins outside or windrows? I’d say try drying the bedding waaaay down so the snails leave. Then surround the area with the snail repellent of your choice. You may end up deciding to do a reset. Pull the worms and set them up in fresh bedding with the repellent in place. See if you can keep the snails out. If anyone has experience dealing with snails in with the worms, please jump on with your experience and what you did 👍❤️🪱. We need help!
Hi Jane! I sold my first 2 lb. of castings. I directed the lady to you as she was interested in how i made the castings! I had to sift through 3 sifter sizes, but got some nice castings, and cocoons for me! My question for you is can I use my bagged dry chicken poo, the kind that can be purchased at Home Depots or Menards. I have a large 3 wk old pre-compost bin in the garage, slowly doing its thing. I'd like to add some chic poo to it, but am concerned of the smell as my bins are in my spare "Worm Room"!
@@lisalarson938 Congratulations Lisa! That’s awesome! And thank you for the referral 🥰. What sizes of mesh did you use for the castings sift? I generally only use the 1/8” and 1/12”. Chicken poop is fine to add to pre-compost as a nitrogen. I’m haven’t used store bought poop but it should be aged and not be smelly when added to the pre-compost totes. You can always bury it deep as well. The added nitrogen should speed up your slow working bin as well. Just as a reminder you still want to stay within the carbon to nitrogen ratio so if you add quite a bit of chicken poop you might want to add some additional carbon as well. 👍🪱
Welcome! Yes, I tend to spoil all the animals I have responsibly for 😍. It adds to the quality and enjoyment of my life. There’s nothing wrong with being ‘lazy’ as long as their needs are met 👍.
Hi Deborah! It’s the bulk pricing bag for 2 bags of chips at the warehouse store I’m a member of. Fits perfect! I have used plastic storage baggies that are no longer air sealed, tortilla plastic bags, produce or meat plastic bags, etc. Of course once I found the chips bags fit so well I only use them now :). But take a look around - you may find something that works really well for your sized worm home 👍🪱❤️
Hi again! I don’t mix them into the worm chow for a few reasons but the main reason is that I feed worm chow exclusively to my breeder bins so need one ratio of chow to amendments for that vs also feeding chow to the grow out bins but much less. I’d have to add more amendments to the grow out bins than what would get added via the worm chow because more food scraps requires more ag lime to be a pH balancer. Also my nins have varying amounts of worms so varying amounts of food and amendment needs. Basically I’d have to be adding or adjusting the amendments anyway so doing it all as separate additions is just easier for me. If I didn’t have different types of bins or fewer bins overall it would make a lot of sense to have the amendments on the worm chow. 👍❤️🪱
@RockinWorms thanks again for sharing you are a great teacher. t's funny. I've kept worms for 10 years and mainly feed food scraps. I've produced enough to sell for 7 years. But I've never heard about adding lime until resent youtube binges. So I am trying it on a bin (I use bathtubs and IBCs). Looking forward to seeing changes. I have uploaded a video on my new worm sifter if you wanna see. I never used to sift before this month
@@keelapermaculturefarmHi! Thank you for the kind words 🤗. I’m so glad you’re finding my videos helpful. You may be ‘adding’ enough pH balancing action into your worm bins thru other means. Do you add grit? Eggshells, oyster shells, etc can act as pH mitigation as well as grit. I just watched (and have a thumbs up) to your video! Nice job! My 1/12” sifting is similar to your 3mm - very few cocoons and wisps. I love how your bathtubs are elevated! How ever did you hang the one you put the cocoons into?? ❤️🪱
@RockinWorms all my bath tubs just sit on plastic beer crates. Easy to move (when empty). I am planning to make a bathtub worm farm in the garden, encolsed in a wooden box with insulation, but not gonna raise it. The idea is to use it as a bench in the garden, bath tubs dont look so good.. I do add crushed egg shells so that must be it.
Hi Jayne, Happy 4th! Wondering what your thoughts are on how high a temperature the bins can safely be kept at. Down here in Miami, my garage seems to be getting into the mid to high 80's pretty often and I'm worrying about he worms. I'm trying to bring in more "cooler" air at night and spraying the floor with water hoping the evaporation would cool things a little but it is still very warm and it is only early July. Any thoughts or tips?? Thanks, Al
Hi Al! Happy 4th to you too! I’m worried about outside worm bins too 🥵. The heat is what’s keeping me from expanding to the covered patio. It’s one thing if it’s a tower in the garden where they can escape into the ground
Oops, hit the send button 🙄. Patrick in Tampa uses frozen water bottles in the bin itself. He’s got a UWB now outside and he’s figuring out how to handle the heat in that. I’ve used frozen water bottles for my chicken’s water in the last but gave that up. It took too much freezer space, was a constant chore and didn’t even last that long in keeping the water cool. BUT dry (drier) bedding will cool down and stay cooler longer than water itself. So…. If you have a big bin where you could bury a frozen gallon of water it may last/cool longer. The bigger bin would give the worms space to move to where it’s most comfortable for them. Hmmmm… I think I’ll give this a try! I have the bin I want to use outside but was stuck on the heat fear. I can try it out once my pre-compost batch is ready (I don’t have enough for all my bins right now as it is let alone a new big bin!). I’ve also thought of using some type of flexible insulation to wrap the bin in but I’m not at all sure that would be effective due to the top being open (air exchange). Someone suggested running cool water thru hoses wrapped around the bin. That might work but seems …. a lot. And the electricity and water and if something goes wrong with the water all over the place. So yeah, I don’t have a solution but maybe all of us brutally hot summer people (everyone!!) can spark ideas off each other and come up with something brilliant ❤️
Ohhh. So I use a pretty expensive (but not tasty!) micro green. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. It is made from dehydrated grasses; veggies, fruit. Etc… I’m guessing I’m doing something good?
Yes you are! You’re kinda using a combo of worm chow and veggie powder 👍❤️. It’s full of good things for the worms. As always, especially with dehydrated foods as they’re so concentrated, feed in moderation. It’s easy to add way too much and have the bin heat up or the worms not be able to eat it in a reasonable time frame. But yeah! Sprinkle away 🪱🪱👍❤️
Hi Cege! This is my standard sized bin. It is 59.7cm x 42.9 cm x 14.9 cm. This is right off the bin label. This video featured a grow out bin. I do not count how many worms I have in these bins. However, I do count how many worms are in my breeder bins (exact same bins) and they have between 750-950 adult worms in them. I have recently decided to shoot for about 850 breeders per bin. This seems to be the right number for them to chew thru 3 gallons of bedding mix within a 16-21 day breeder cycle. All but a cupful of bedding/castings went thru a 1/4” mesh sifter at the end of the cycle. Slightly ess than 1 gallon did not go thru the 1/8” sifter, which I personally add back into the bin. This stuff has a lot of cocoons in it and forms the base bedding for all the cocoons/cocoon bin from the cycle. The rest went thru the 1/8” and the 1/12” sifters, which are my personal castings sifter preference. The 1/12” castings are very fine and have very few cocoons in them. They go right into my castings bucket. The castings trapped between the 1/8” and 1/12” screens have lots of cocoons in it. I usually pick out the cocoons over a few evenings and add them all into the one cocoon bin for that breeder cycle (the bin with the greater than 1/8” bedding bits). The (relatively) cocoon free castings then also go into the castings bucket. In the end from one breeder cycle I usually end up with (approximately) : 3 new fresh breeder bins 6 gallons of (relatively) cocoon free castings 3 gallons of less than 1/4” but more than 1/8” sized bedding material for all the cocoons to hatch in plus that cup or so of larger than 1/4” bedding. That’s more info than you asked for 😎. ❤️🪱❤️
@@davidguenzel1441 Happy to! I decent everyone in a while in various bid but not every time. It’s a general term to encompass all the micro and mini life forms in worm bins, pre-compost, soil, etc. Often people say ‘bacteria’ but it’s so much more, critically more, than that. It’s fungi, viruses, mites, tiny spiders, all the tiny insects I don’t know the names of, single cell microbes, etc. They all are part of the ecosystem web. To not give them credit would be a shame 😊🪱
One of the big reasons why I don't wear gloves is because of those hitchhikers. I have three different species of worms, and I can feel when I have someone trying to jailbreak from their bin on my hand. I just knock whatever off before I move on. Also means I can feel those icky little pot worms... 🤢 What's your overall volume and timeframe you're working with at any given time with your tabletop precompost? I'm kinda looking at my 43 gallon tumbler, and given that it'll take a couple of months... Beginning to wonder if that's not going to be quite enough to sustain my bins, especially if they cycle through it within a month. 😵
Icky pot worms are the worst. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t revile them. I had that one explosion of them in the one bin - first and last time I’ve seen them 🤷♂️. Mites are my big thing followed by springtails. I can live with them if they don’t get out of control. I’m actually starting to play with some ideas to keep them down to a minimum too 😊. You can separate out species but it’s SO much easier to avoid it to begin with. I felt a little wiggle the other night on my leg - it was a mealworm! Yes, I’d been feeding and changing their bedding too ❤️ I usually start with a full 18 gallon tote of pre-compost ingredients. After I get that one on it’s way (a few days) I try to start the next 18 gallon tote. I used to (past tense!) wait until those totes were near completion (2 heat and cool downs) then dump them into the big tote on the covered patio (keep that covered with the burrito shred to keep critters out and it’s work fine except for one snake once 😳) and take a few weeks off making pre-compost. NOW since I have more worms, more bins, more need, I have everything going! One 18 gallon is close to being usable (it’s down to 105), the 2nd 18 gallon is ready for its 2nd cycle (but I may have to skip that this time cause I need it sooner - I’ll know this weekend as it’s breeder bin reset weekend 🤣). And I have half the big tote working on a batch. I just got more coffee grounds so hope to get the other half made up tonight. As I said before, I slacked in prepping for the demand so I’m scrambling now. In my own defense (😎) I’ve only been using this bedding for 4 cycles… 3 months! It’s been way more fantastic than I dreamed of to begin with ❤️. It took 2 cycles to see how effective it is. Know I need enough for ALL the bins every few weeks!! And that’s a job in itself figuring it out - the where, when and how much of it. I’ll be making it every time a bin/tote gets empty I think. Good times! ❤️🪱❤️ For you I’d suggest getting that tumbler 50-60% full and let it rip! If you have other totes and space and ingredients, get them going too. I don’t know how many worms/bins you have in total but it sounds like a goodly amount. The best thing is the pre-compost doesn’t go bad - it just gets better and better 👍.
@@RockinWorms Thank you so much for your thorough reply! I was actually just looking back over your previous tabletop precompost videos to refresh my memory of that process. I have 8 working bins that are so crowded with worms that I could very easily spilt each into maybe 4 breeder bins each? So once I get my shelves, I could jump as high as 24 bins (though I'm doubtful I'll be able to accommodate them all right away... Everything is so expensive!) Hence my worry of being able to process enough bedding. I have the thing about halfway full now, but the heat is just not happening as well as I'd like it to. I'm sure that'll change once I start pumping in the coffee grinds. The cardboard is just too high on the C:N ratio for table scraps to really seem to nudge it enough. The local coffee shop a mile down the road from me did agree to give me their grounds though, so soon...! I do like your idea of getting it most of the way there and then putting it into a large tote to further process and age. Greay way to maximize efficiency and space utilization! 👍👍
@@evelynknight5627 You’re welcome 😊. I can never judge if I’m going into way too much detail 🤷♂️. I agree with you - if you have lots of cardboard you need the coffee grounds to get the ratio close enough to start the heating. Did you add in an inoculation ingredient? That’s vital too. You can use strong castings tea plus the castings themselves as well. Excellent job talking to the local coffee shop!!! Space is always an issue. No matter how big it is, it’s never enough 🥲. The pre-compost is HEAVY. So watch the weight if it’s on a table. Ask me how I know. Twice 😡. But I do find having the really big tote very helpful for storage and aging as you said. I just can’t move it. So I scoop out into a working bucket and that’s good for mixing into the work tray and then into the worm bins. Everyone has to find what works for them and their space. But we can share ideas!! ❤️🪱❤️
@@RockinWorms Haha! No worries at all. A little self-disclosure, but I'm autistic and my special interest is worms... You literally could never talk too much about worms to me! And thank you. I have a fair bit of social anxiety, so it was a big step for me to ask a stranger such a weird request. Happy I did it, and I'm sure my worms will be happy too! I actually just barely added some finished castings I had lying around that should be sufficiently aged and baited of all worms. Hopeful that helps, but I imagine in the end it's really the C:N ratio tripping things up presently. I figure the bin is incredibly heavy. Think you even mentioned it in your series. Figure I'll fill the 10 gallon tote I have under my composter as a drippings catch tray bit by bit with the semi-finished product, then haul that downstairs to my storage bin, which is conveniently located next to my worms.
@@evelynknight5627 Well, we are closer on that spectrum than you’d probably guess 🤗. So I can at least appreciate where you’re coming from. Double good for you then for getting the coffee hook up! I had to brace up to talk to the veg people and that turned out wonderful beyond my wildest dreams. And one success can lead to being able to tackle another one down the road ❤️. Let us know when you add the coffee grounds and it takes off! I may have mentioned the weight cause it’s a killer. Table killer🤣🙄😳. It’s a good reminder to re-mention for others. You may find a 5 gallon bucket is a good sized compost hauler ❤️. Watch your drip bin for critters! If it’s not covered, then it makes a nice nest for many bugs. Just saying. 🪱❤️🪱
Approximately 850 breeder worms. My breeder bins vary a bit in number but that’s the average. 2.5 square feet of surface area and about 3 gallons of basic bedding. After the 21 day cycle I get about 2 gallons of fine castings that sift thru a 1/8” sifter and it’s on the dry side half of that will go thru a 1/12” sifter. The last gallon sifts thru a 1/4” mesh screen but that’s bigger than I like to go. Also as this is a breeder bin, there’s all those cocoons in there that you have to decide what to do with 😍🪱
I took the plunge last night and ordered a dehydrator…. Not an expensive one but one I can afford. I did it coz I’m struggling with room in the freezer for 1 and 2, I need a way to feed dryer food as the moisture from the food is causing problems when I’m not careful with it.
@@cherylhowker1792 I don’t know that brand but that doesn’t mean anything. There’s lots of good moderate priced dehydrators on the market. I moved to dehydrating to get stuff out of my freezers. I have more dry storage space than cold storage space. Like most people! 👍❤️🪱
@@RockinWorms yea I just got the one freezer for me - it’s a taller thinner one as needed it to fit the space lol. But yea I have no space really but I have to make it somewhere. Don’t want all worm food in the freezer as it may never get used! As I have to remember to get it out to feed em. And I’m not good at doing that for myself let alone the worms. So fresh food or dried is better for me personally. But I’ve been hovering around coz I only want it for the worm food and mum thinks that’s silly money for the worms but I don’t if it means I can dry down the food I can’t eat instead of letting the fruit ferment! It’s gonna be better long term I think
@@RockinWorms Cooks Professional Food Dehydrator | Food Dehydrators with Trays | Fruit Dryer Machine for Home | Adjustable Temperature Control and Timer 240W | (5 Tier)
I could! But I won’t. I live in mango central. I already have 8 (??) named varieties of mango trees planted. They’re still young so no fruit yet. But neighbors have mature trees so… yum!
The more I worm, the more I learn. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm can't wait to get started on the precomposted bedding as soon as possible.
Hi Lynn! I love that! The more I worm, the more I learn! I’m totally high jacking that!!
You’re going to love the pre-compost once you’ve got it down. Only one poor soul has reported having a stinky bin but she battled and won it back!! I continue to be amazed at how the worms just chow thru the bedding. 🪱❤️🪱
Thanks for watching!
Well I must say this is great information to take bedding full of castings in three weeks amazed. New worm Person that has interest in your channel, great job.
Hello BlueMountainWorms! Welcome! The bedding mix has been a super develop for my worm keeping. So easy to make and the materials are feee or really cheap too! Have you had a chance to watch the how to make to playlist yet? It could super charge your worm journey too!
Thanks for watching. I hope you are or decide to become a Castings Crew member by subscribing ❤️🪱👍
Hi Jane, I followed your series on preparing bedding for worms and started it 2 days ago. My bin is at 108 degrees this morning. Thank you so very much for that whole series. I've learned so much from you!
Hi Jan! Welcome to the Castings Crew 🤗. 108F is great! It may still go up a few degrees before it starts to cool down. Then it dies cool down you can decide to do another heat cycle or use as is. Please keep us informed on the status! 🪱😎❤️
So glad I have come across your channel, I'm learning so much!
Welcome Lyra! I’m happy you’re here too ❤️. Please share what you’re doing with worms and ask any questions you have! Also hit that subscribe button and like videos as you go along ❤️🪱. Castings Crew members rock!
I am in love with the precomposted bedding. It really does make a huge difference. I made the mistake of doing my second batch in my garage and dang soldier flies moved in it. I just decided to let them have their fill of it and start a new one. Key word in the “indoor pre-composted bedding” indoors!!! Lol. Thanks Afro another great informative worming video! Love your content and great teaching skills!! Happy 4th!!🎉
Hi Leo! Oh no on the BSFs 😬. Now if you had chickens too… 🤣
The ‘indoor’ part IS important BUT what it REALLY MEANS is keeping the bugs out and that is accomplished by the deep dry cardboard/paper (I prefer cardboard cause it’s heavier and doesn’t blow around) top layer on the pre-compost tote AND keeping it off the ground maybe at least 2 feet (I’m guessing on that but it feels right). I’d think you can use other deep dry carbon such as straw, coconut coir, wood chips, etc.
I have a big tote (which you’ve probably already read about in my posts) on my outdoor covered patio. There is every type of bug Florida has passing thru that space, ripped pool screening be damned. Plus the occasional snake, bunny, big lizard and I’m sorry to say, rat. Ugh. But I run the tote the EXACT same as the true indoor bins - off the ground and deeply covered with the dry carbon. So far so good except for the snake skin shed that one time. A small bin of pre-compost I offloaded once to have working room and forgot to cover up and left on the floor had ants in it the next morning. I tossed it into the chicken run 🙄.
I also do not have mites or springtails in it. Which is important for further experimentation I hope to get time to do this summer 🤞.
So what I’m saying in my long winded way is: the garage is fine! Get the bin off the floor if it’s on it and cover it with the deep dry carbon. If you are already doing the above and/or re-experience BSF or other bugs in it please please let me know!
Otherwise I’m so glad you’re loving it! It’s great stuff!! Thanks for sharing your experience as it may encourage others to give it a try too ❤️🪱❤️
That reminds me of my attempt at having an outdoor worm bin that failed on the very first night when every type of insect in my garden moved in. Ant, slugs, everything! In one night! So now there's a nature bin that also includes my attempt at outdoor composting. Birds other than pigeons and seagulls have started arriving 8n my garden though so it's all good in the end I guess 😂🌻
@@RockinWorms thanks Jayne! Well I actually do both of those things. I use a landscape cloth with about 8-10 inches of cardboard shred on top and it’s up off the floor! 🤷♂️😩 I did notice that when I first saw the larvae I gave the bin a really good mixing and I think the heat that generated from the composting process killed a lot of the existing larvae but there were still some who survived on the outer edges. Lol yes I have chickens and boy they sure don’t mind the soldier flies. I check all my outside bins every few days and pick out what I can see to feed my ladies. Pros and cons I suppose but just gotta go with it! Mother Nature doing her thing!
@@eleanoraddy4683 haha! Yep! Sometimes what we get isn’t what we planned or wanted but it may work out just fine in the end ❤️.
@@leobaltz2057 Uh. Color me surprised. Maybe I’ve just been lucky? Maybe you were unlucky once? I do tuck in the corners super well but sometimes the sides aren’t as well covered. Well, I’m sorry that happened! Happy for the chickens though 🤣. Mine never get BSF. But now my mealies are breeding out of control I’ve started feeding them to the girls. Happy happy happy.
Just had a thought - would adding in bT (is it Bt? I have a bottle but haven’t used it yet) or mosquito dunk take care of the BSF larvae? Both are ok for worms and gardens so wouldn’t harm the pre-compost headed to the worms.
Hi Jayne, Great video and excellent advice 👍
Take care
❤Peggy❤
Thanks Peggy! Have a great 4th!
You have nailed it, Jane, I am finding the substrate makes a huge difference and so now I’m going to need to locate the supplies in my area that will get processes the easiest. The cow manure does move through them better than the horse does, the cow partial size is much smaller than the horse does. I do find though this is only best IMO for the breeding bins, I love the horse poo for the nursery and grower bins. Thank you for your attention to detail and hard work
Hello! I’m so sorry for the delayed response. I thought I had responded as I was quite interested in your cow vs horse manure observations. I probably forgot the northernmost button 🙄😆.
I struggled in the beginning with my worms due to the bedding I was using. Just the standard stuff everyone was supposedly using but it didn’t work for me at all 😡. Making and using the pre-compost was a game changer. And many worm wrangler’s that have tried it agree! I hope you can find the materials easily and cheaply!
I don’t have ready access to horse manure and it’s been a looong time since I’ve cleaned stables 😝. That’s interesting about the difference in particle size between the manures. I mean it makes sense but I never gave it one thought 🙄.
I use the ice manure always in the breeder bins as part of my basic bedding. I use it in the grow out bins as a dry down material for very wet bins. Sometimes but not often I use it as a quick feed.
Do you notice any differences between the castings? 🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms Like always, I am finding…it all matters. I don’t really see a huge difference in the castings themselves but more partials that make their way in with them. Not only that, the dairy cows are fed a much richer diet than the meat cattle and so the nitrogen content in the castings is subject to change. I plan to have some tested. Usually meat cows are fed more carbon rich hay and the dairy cows more nitrogen high protein food stock. Goodness now I am chasing down the chemistry of it ALL, the cows do digest into a much finer fiber that the horses or donkeys do, yes. Yep, I’ll be seeing what a 100% cow pre-compost will do for the breeders. I have a feeling I will be stock piling cow pies and grinding them for winter breeding 🤦♀️ If I keep the lids off I could get buy with feeding it wet but I like the idea of using it as a drying agent too. Thanks for all your hard work and info 🙏
@@MyMicrobialGarden Haha! It’s a deep rabbit hole we fall into, isn’t it?! 🤣. There’s so much interesting data and information still to gather and learn regarding composting worms ❤️. Industry is finally waking up to the myriad of possibilities with worms and I expect that $$$ toward research is on the cusp. Exciting times!
I don’t know what you meant by ‘partials moving in’..?
I have beef cattle although for now they girls are more pets than food 😍. It’s their poop that goes into the wormery. There’s definite hay and grass fibers visible. And I can see that it hangs around the longest in the bin when it’s sifting time. It’s one of my benchmarks
for determining if castings are ready. Of course sometimes I sift anyway! 😝😎.
I do not pre-compost the cow manure. Just collect, dry and sift. I have garbage cans of it 🤣.
How do you plan to compost it at 100%?
I’m eager to learn how you move forward and what your results/experiences are! 🪱🪱❤️
@@RockinWorms Oops, sorry, the particles that make their way into the castings, that is really only difference I am seeing in the castings. I realize it is good for the biology of the bin though and keeping the castings healthy but not sure how “clean” people want their castings, educating them is key I suppose
Thanks Jayne and crew and worms.
I've just today picked up a tumbler composter bin that I'm intending to use to precompost bedding in. I've got a supply of brown paper bags to shred, some clean wood shavings snd sawdust, and bags of coffee grinds. I'll have to scrounge manure to give it a dose or later stage compost from another bin to kick it off.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Hi Bruce! Excellent! I don’t add the manure until I’m making the bedding. To the carbons and nitrogen you listed I only add yucky vegetable slurry and sometimes yeast if I need a heat boost during the composting process. Not that you can’t add manure, I just don’t at that stage.
I’m looking forward to your updates!! 🪱🪱❤️
Just re set my bin and filled it with mostly pre composted bedding so can't wait to see how long it takes, my last harvest was 3 months ago so it won't take much to be faster than that😂
Woohoo! How many worms you got in the bin do you think??
@@RockinWorms I had a pound back in September and a 30 litre bin but to be honest I have no clue. They were bait size when I got them and the population seemed pretty topped out to where they started shrinking and stopped producing cocoons when I sieved the bin this week and I have split them in hopes they start breeding again but short answer is no idea! I always end up feeling bad for them getting tossed about because the European red worms can really flip around like crazy when disturbed and they also play dead which is always fun. Not. I'm getting there with being less squeamish but not to the point of counting or weighing them yet. Honestly half the time I'm convinced I've killed them somehow
@@eleanoraddy4683 I often feel like I’ve killed something - plant, chickens, bin of worms - by doing something stupid. But it’s rarely the case. It’s me being nervous or scared or simply uninformed at that time. Or being too perfectionist! As I gain more information and experience and therefore more confidence, I am better able to take the bumps - even the very hard ones! - and learn and move on better. Long way of saying, I get you cause I’ve been there myself! But it does get easier, just give yourself time!
I wonder if it’s the mixed species part of the bin that’s contributing to the slow down in reproduction and size diminishing you’re seeing. Or they bred like crazy in the beginning and have reached the self regulating point. Do you see mostly younger juveniles vs adults or a random mix?
If we go with conventional wisdom that a pound of worms is about 1,000 worms or so, then having that many in 30 liters (8 gallons) is ‘not that bad’. My breeder bins have had 918 worms in 3.5 gallons (11-12 liters) and they make lots of cocoons. Of course the cocoons gets removed so the population doesn’t increase and they get fresh bedding with plenty of food every 3 weeks. So food availability and bedding freshness could be playing a part too in your situation.
Bottom line is I think it’s a very good idea to split the bin up and see what happens ❤️. Please keep us updated on what happens so we can all learn along with you! ❤️🪱❤️
Happiest 4th❤❤❤
Thank you! The same to you too!!
Excellent video 👍👍
Very educational, awesome explanations!
I have always used the acronym GIGO, garbage in garbage out.
I also use the acronym GSI GSO, good stuff in great stuff out.
It seems to me you have the GSI GSO down to a science 👍👍
The bedding is the secret sauce.
Enjoy worms and have a great Day!
Thanks! I appreciate you saying so 😊. I’m going to harp on the bedding until there’s a revolution- or a revolt and everyone tells me to shut up 😳😆. I like your expanded abbreviations ❤️
@@RockinWorms I apologize for using the word abbreviation, I just did an edit to acronym. I think it is more correct. Keep on harping about the bedding! It is good to let the cat out of the bag or the Jennie out of the bottle! People need to know this stuff. Happy 4th of July too!
@@wormsforlife7352 Acronym is correct but I knew what you meant ❤️. Can I be silly? Is your genie called Jennie? I’m just jealous you have one!!
I’d be so darn proud if my pre-compost bedding took over the world. I think it’s marvelous and using up landfill bound items and putting them back into the earth is fantastic. I make a personal point do inly getting cardboard and coffee grounds when I’m already out running errands so I’m not adding to the crisis in order to offset it a bit, if you follow that 🙄.
I need to experiment more with the mealworms. It’s killing me to buy wheat bran and oatmeal. I think I’m going to try a test bin of them on the sifted cow manure. They’re going thru a ton of veg too. Thank goodness for my veg guy!!!
@@RockinWorms Being silly, I have a little dog named Precise, I rub her like an oil lamp and then call her Genie. I am glad and would encourage anyone and almost everyone to do the same to save landfill space.
For me in my situation I cannot do that, part of the reason is the gasoline and time to pick up cardboard and coffee grounds (I would need a lot) The other part is I would have to get a waste disposal license and have the city, County and State inspecting my worm operation frequently. I don't want that stress.
The reason I use peat (reed sedge) is because I can get it by the yard at a time (a yard is two of the bags Captain Matt uses heaping full). The price of gas and the price of the peat comes to about $45 a yard, a yard weighs between 2,300 -2,500 lbs. depending on moisture.
I use the ANCs which are faster at breeding, it takes 22 weeks from putting the worms in the bedding to breed until they are 4" long and become breeders themselves. My system is a 2-week breed, 10-week nursery and a 10 week grow out. So, everything is on a 10-week cycle. I am also able to use the same system with Dendrobaena worms (ENCs) except with 3-week breeds. There is a lot of prep already involved in getting the bedding ready, also a lot of space used for holding/storing the peat before use, along with hard on the body work. The pure castings weight in at 8lbs a gallon at 30% moisture. So, if I were to get the waste disposal licensing, I would have to move my operation to a large facility. With the peat as bedding I can do it and remain residential.
I do use RWs for reducing household waste (food scraps, wastepaper and coffee grounds) and it makes excellent fertilizer for my garden beds, but not nearly enough. When I give worms to friends, I tell them to do the same just to make sure they tear off all tape, labels and windows from envelopes. Then I always say, "we don't really know if micro plastics leach forever chemicals into the water table or if plants uptake them". With RWs I tell them to feed them everything regarding food scraps and if they get ENCs or ANCs I tell them to google the worm do not feed list.
Give the meal worms a try in your bedding it just may work out or just the sifted cow manure. For me I pretty much always have 2 or more meal worms in each bin or bucket when I clean them out or move onto the next stage. It is only occasionally, after the winter months when I actually see the beatless when cycling a bin/bucket. It is possible the peat holds them off or slows down their development. Give it a try and see how it goes for you. It is always fun to experiment and try new things especially when you or I have enough stock to play with.
Back to the worms for a bit have you tried pure newspapers as bedding? The guy that first got me into worms would use last week's Buyers Guide and Shoppers Herald, he would pick them up for free from the newspaper companies. He had what he called a "worm laboratory." a fancy name for a walk-in cooler. He grew Canadian nightcrawlers for fisher scientific and they would supply the schools with worms for children to dissect. He actually started the whole paper as bedding thing back in 1965. The product he manufactured was called BUSS BED-DING it is the original worm bedding (finely ground newspaper). The product is still available, and his son now runs Magic Products Inc. His name was George he was known as the "International Worm Czar". It was in the early 1980s that they started to push the RWs (Eisenia foetida, now fetida and Eisenia andrei) for vermicomposting as something that anyone could do at home, by the late 80's and early 90's the people that were called hippies from the 60's and 70's where the main people doing it.
When I started with worms I did it in the basement, I used old coolers (Igloo, Colmen and other brands) along with foam ones. They had cold water circulating in the bottoms of them. The cold water circulated in copper coils and old radiators from cars and motorcycles. There was a refrigerator kept as cold as possible with a bucket of water in it and a water pump that would feed water out of the fridge through the bins in a series and back into the bucket. The choice of bedding was ground newspaper. Back in those days the worms I grew where Lumbricus terrestris (Canadian Nightcrawler) Lumbricus rubellus (Redworms) and Dendrobaena octaedra (a variety of ENC). I still do the octaedra just at room temps. Octaedra are smaller than Hortensis or Veneta they max out at 1.5 grams when fully plump.
Holy smokes I just looked up! I hope this is not too much information.
Have a great Day!
@@wormsforlife7352 First off, I love your replies! I appreciate the time and detail you put into sharing your extensive experience and knowledge with all of us 👍🪱❤️. I regret that I can’t always respond as fully as I’d like to. One reason is that I like to mull over what you say and that takes me time 🤣. I’m a good thinker but necessarily a fast thinker.
You’re operating on a much bigger scale than I am and what you need and can do is not the same as what I need and can do. And that’s perfectly fine! We’re both doing what works best for us where we currently are. And that’s one of the things I hope to convey to others - I (and others here) can give ideas and pointers and knowledge but the person has to figure out what works for them. Location makes a big difference too. Your resources are way different than mine as well.
I love what your set up is. It’s just way beyond me at the moment. But maybe one day…. I’ll be oh yea! Wormsforlife did this, that and the other thing - now’s the time for me to try it! Knowledge ‘in the bank’ is always a good thing 😎.
So please keep up your posts. Know I - and I’m sure others - read every word and are soaking in your words! ❤️🪱❤️
I’ve had worms in a bin 4 weeks. I soaked the bedding for a week before the worms got here. I’ve given the worm a little bit of food, several pieces of moldy fruit and vegetables I removed from my mealworm drawers. Also some worm food I got from Uncle Jim’s Worms. This bin is red wiggler mix. Some are almost the size of European night crawlers. I can’t tell if substrate is castings or composted bedding. It’s lumpy but bigger than caviar.
Hi! Soaking bedding for that long is not necessary. In fact it may allow anaerobic bacteria to grow and become stinky. You probably don’t want that 😊.
The red worm mix from Uncle Jim’s usually has a lot of Indian blue worms in it.
You can put a sheet of newspaper on the top of the bin. The worms will crawl all over it and leave castings behind. This will allow you to get familiar with what castings look like. They will be very small and fine and soft feeling 🪱🪱🪱
Hi jane, Lou here. I use powered eggshells as well as powdered oyster shells. Whatever I get my hands on first with every feeding am I using too much? Should I alternate between feedings?
Hi Lou! Happy new year! How was your trip? Is your back feeling any better?
Either eggshells or oyster shells are perfectly fine. You don’t need to alternate. Whatever one you grab first is ok to use. As far as amounts go a light sprinkle is all that’s needed. We all tend to ‘use too much’ as in more than what’s needed. But extra hasn’t been seen (as far as I can find from research or anecdotal data) to cause any harm to the worms unless cups and cups are being added on a regular basis, impacting the pH or biota activity. It’s very likely that you are ok! 👍🪱😎
Hi again Jane. Not to distract from the video's theme, but when you saw the tail and thought it was a cocoon, it reminded me. I rarely find cocoons although my worms keep multiplying. However just at a glance at my bins (which i keep outside here south of Tampa), you would think there were millions of cocoons, but all my bins are loaded with "Awl Snails", they are cone shaped like a cone seashell but quite small, the head the size of a cocoon. They don't seem to harm anything they just help break down any food i feed the worms, but in sifting, depending on their size, they usually go through the sifter. I don't want to give or sell anyone the castings and have them wind up with an infestation, or that will be the last time they deal with me. Have you heard of these? If so how do I deal with them? It's a pain picking them out one by one, as they are not only on the surface. Thanks for your help, or from any commenters.
Hello! If your population is growing then there are cocoons somewhere sometime! They can be very hard to see, especially outside where the light may be not be quite right or helpful.
As for the snails I’m not much help 🤷♂️. Since my worms are all inside I don’t have that kind of pest. Mites are my biggest pest issue. I googled, which I’m sure you did too. Remind me, are your worms in bins outside or windrows? I’d say try drying the bedding waaaay down so the snails leave. Then surround the area with the snail repellent of your choice. You may end up deciding to do a reset. Pull the worms and set them up in fresh bedding with the repellent in place. See if you can keep the snails out.
If anyone has experience dealing with snails in with the worms, please jump on with your experience and what you did 👍❤️🪱. We need help!
Hi Jane! I sold my first 2 lb. of castings. I directed the lady to you as she was interested in how i made the castings! I had to sift through 3 sifter sizes, but got some nice castings, and cocoons for me! My question for you is can I use my bagged dry chicken poo, the kind that can be purchased at Home Depots or Menards. I have a large 3 wk old pre-compost bin in the garage, slowly doing its thing. I'd like to add some chic poo to it, but am concerned of the smell as my bins are in my spare "Worm Room"!
@@lisalarson938 Congratulations Lisa! That’s awesome! And thank you for the referral 🥰. What sizes of mesh did you use for the castings sift? I generally only use the 1/8” and 1/12”.
Chicken poop is fine to add to pre-compost as a nitrogen. I’m haven’t used store bought poop but it should be aged and not be smelly when added to the pre-compost totes. You can always bury it deep as well. The added nitrogen should speed up your slow working bin as well.
Just as a reminder you still want to stay within the carbon to nitrogen ratio so if you add quite a bit of chicken poop you might want to add some additional carbon as well. 👍🪱
Happy 4th
Same to you my friend! Stay safe ❤️
Happy Fourth of July, Jayne!
~ Sandra
Hi Sandra! Thanks! I’d wish you the same but you don’t celebrate the 4th in Vancouver the same way we Yanks do 🤣. Take care 🪱❤️🪱
@@RockinWorms We do Canada Day July 1st. Everyone wears red and white!
~ Sandra
"Once you go worm, that's what you'll yearn"
- MIB
Really? I’ll have to rewatch MIB for that line! 😂🪱
You really spoil those worms and spend a lot of time and effort. I guess I'm a lazy farmer😊
Welcome! Yes, I tend to spoil all the animals I have responsibly for 😍. It adds to the quality and enjoyment of my life. There’s nothing wrong with being ‘lazy’ as long as their needs are met 👍.
Where do you get your plastic covering???
Hi Deborah! It’s the bulk pricing bag for 2 bags of chips at the warehouse store I’m a member of. Fits perfect!
I have used plastic storage baggies that are no longer air sealed, tortilla plastic bags, produce or meat plastic bags, etc. Of course once I found the chips bags fit so well I only use them now :). But take a look around - you may find something that works really well for your sized worm home 👍🪱❤️
Any reason you don't mix you azimite and lime in with your worm chow so you can just add it from one container?
Hi again! I don’t mix them into the worm chow for a few reasons but the main reason is that I feed worm chow exclusively to my breeder bins so need one ratio of chow to amendments for that vs also feeding chow to the grow out bins but much less. I’d have to add more amendments to the grow out bins than what would get added via the worm chow because more food scraps requires more ag lime to be a pH balancer. Also my nins have varying amounts of worms so varying amounts of food and amendment needs. Basically I’d have to be adding or adjusting the amendments anyway so doing it all as separate additions is just easier for me. If I didn’t have different types of bins or fewer bins overall it would make a lot of sense to have the amendments on the worm chow. 👍❤️🪱
@RockinWorms thanks again for sharing you are a great teacher.
t's funny. I've kept worms for 10 years and mainly feed food scraps. I've produced enough to sell for 7 years. But I've never heard about adding lime until resent youtube binges. So I am trying it on a bin (I use bathtubs and IBCs). Looking forward to seeing changes.
I have uploaded a video on my new worm sifter if you wanna see. I never used to sift before this month
@@keelapermaculturefarmHi! Thank you for the kind words 🤗. I’m so glad you’re finding my videos helpful.
You may be ‘adding’ enough pH balancing action into your worm bins thru other means. Do you add grit? Eggshells, oyster shells, etc can act as pH mitigation as well as grit.
I just watched (and have a thumbs up) to your video! Nice job! My 1/12” sifting is similar to your 3mm - very few cocoons and wisps. I love how your bathtubs are elevated! How ever did you hang the one you put the cocoons into?? ❤️🪱
@RockinWorms all my bath tubs just sit on plastic beer crates. Easy to move (when empty). I am planning to make a bathtub worm farm in the garden, encolsed in a wooden box with insulation, but not gonna raise it. The idea is to use it as a bench in the garden, bath tubs dont look so good.. I do add crushed egg shells so that must be it.
Hi Jayne, Happy 4th! Wondering what your thoughts are on how high a temperature the bins can safely be kept at. Down here in Miami, my garage seems to be getting into the mid to high 80's pretty often and I'm worrying about he worms. I'm trying to bring in more "cooler" air at night and spraying the floor with water hoping the evaporation would cool things a little but it is still very warm and it is only early July. Any thoughts or tips?? Thanks, Al
Hi Al! Happy 4th to you too!
I’m worried about outside worm bins too 🥵. The heat is what’s keeping me from expanding to the covered patio. It’s one thing if it’s a tower in the garden where they can escape into the ground
Oops, hit the send button 🙄.
Patrick in Tampa uses frozen water bottles in the bin itself. He’s got a UWB now outside and he’s figuring out how to handle the heat in that. I’ve used frozen water bottles for my chicken’s water in the last but gave that up. It took too much freezer space, was a constant chore and didn’t even last that long in keeping the water cool. BUT dry (drier) bedding will cool down and stay cooler longer than water itself. So…. If you have a big bin where you could bury a frozen gallon of water it may last/cool longer. The bigger bin would give the worms space to move to where it’s most comfortable for them. Hmmmm… I think I’ll give this a try! I have the bin I want to use outside but was stuck on the heat fear. I can try it out once my pre-compost batch is ready (I don’t have enough for all my bins right now as it is let alone a new big bin!).
I’ve also thought of using some type of flexible insulation to wrap the bin in but I’m not at all sure that would be effective due to the top being open (air exchange). Someone suggested running cool water thru hoses wrapped around the bin. That might work but seems …. a lot. And the electricity and water and if something goes wrong with the water all over the place.
So yeah, I don’t have a solution but maybe all of us brutally hot summer people (everyone!!) can spark ideas off each other and come up with something brilliant ❤️
Ohhh. So I use a pretty expensive (but not tasty!) micro green. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. It is made from dehydrated grasses; veggies, fruit. Etc… I’m guessing I’m doing something good?
Yes you are! You’re kinda using a combo of worm chow and veggie powder 👍❤️. It’s full of good things for the worms. As always, especially with dehydrated foods as they’re so concentrated, feed in moderation. It’s easy to add way too much and have the bin heat up or the worms not be able to eat it in a reasonable time frame. But yeah! Sprinkle away 🪱🪱👍❤️
what size is your bin in centimeters and how many worms did you put in.
Hi Cege! This is my standard sized bin. It is 59.7cm x 42.9 cm x 14.9 cm. This is right off the bin label.
This video featured a grow out bin. I do not count how many worms I have in these bins. However, I do count how many worms are in my breeder bins (exact same bins) and they have between 750-950 adult worms in them. I have recently decided to shoot for about 850 breeders per bin. This seems to be the right number for them to chew thru 3 gallons of bedding mix within a 16-21 day breeder cycle. All but a cupful of bedding/castings went thru a 1/4” mesh sifter at the end of the cycle.
Slightly ess than 1 gallon did not go thru the 1/8” sifter, which I personally add back into the bin. This stuff has a lot of cocoons in it and forms the base bedding for all the cocoons/cocoon bin from the cycle. The rest went thru the 1/8” and the 1/12” sifters, which are my personal castings sifter preference. The 1/12” castings are very fine and have very few cocoons in them. They go right into my castings bucket. The castings trapped between the 1/8” and 1/12” screens have lots of cocoons in it. I usually pick out the cocoons over a few evenings and add them all into the one cocoon bin for that breeder cycle (the bin with the greater than 1/8” bedding bits). The (relatively) cocoon free castings then also go into the castings bucket.
In the end from one breeder cycle I usually end up with (approximately) :
3 new fresh breeder bins
6 gallons of (relatively) cocoon free castings
3 gallons of less than 1/4” but more than 1/8” sized bedding material for all the cocoons to hatch in plus that cup or so of larger than 1/4” bedding.
That’s more info than you asked for 😎. ❤️🪱❤️
hi. could you please define biota
@@davidguenzel1441 Happy to! I decent everyone in a while in various bid but not every time.
It’s a general term to encompass all the micro and mini life forms in worm bins, pre-compost, soil, etc. Often people say ‘bacteria’ but it’s so much more, critically more, than that. It’s fungi, viruses, mites, tiny spiders, all the tiny insects I don’t know the names of, single cell microbes, etc. They all are part of the ecosystem web. To not give them credit would be a shame 😊🪱
One of the big reasons why I don't wear gloves is because of those hitchhikers. I have three different species of worms, and I can feel when I have someone trying to jailbreak from their bin on my hand. I just knock whatever off before I move on. Also means I can feel those icky little pot worms... 🤢
What's your overall volume and timeframe you're working with at any given time with your tabletop precompost? I'm kinda looking at my 43 gallon tumbler, and given that it'll take a couple of months... Beginning to wonder if that's not going to be quite enough to sustain my bins, especially if they cycle through it within a month. 😵
Icky pot worms are the worst. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t revile them. I had that one explosion of them in the one bin - first and last time I’ve seen them 🤷♂️. Mites are my big thing followed by springtails. I can live with them if they don’t get out of control. I’m actually starting to play with some ideas to keep them down to a minimum too 😊.
You can separate out species but it’s SO much easier to avoid it to begin with. I felt a little wiggle the other night on my leg - it was a mealworm! Yes, I’d been feeding and changing their bedding too ❤️
I usually start with a full 18 gallon tote of pre-compost ingredients. After I get that one on it’s way (a few days) I try to start the next 18 gallon tote. I used to (past tense!) wait until those totes were near completion (2 heat and cool downs) then dump them into the big tote on the covered patio (keep that covered with the burrito shred to keep critters out and it’s work fine except for one snake once 😳) and take a few weeks off making pre-compost. NOW since I have more worms, more bins, more need, I have everything going! One 18 gallon is close to being usable (it’s down to 105), the 2nd 18 gallon is ready for its 2nd cycle (but I may have to skip that this time cause I need it sooner - I’ll know this weekend as it’s breeder bin reset weekend 🤣). And I have half the big tote working on a batch. I just got more coffee grounds so hope to get the other half made up tonight. As I said before, I slacked in prepping for the demand so I’m scrambling now. In my own defense (😎) I’ve only been using this bedding for 4 cycles… 3 months! It’s been way more fantastic than I dreamed of to begin with ❤️. It took 2 cycles to see how effective it is. Know I need enough for ALL the bins every few weeks!! And that’s a job in itself figuring it out - the where, when and how much of it.
I’ll be making it every time a bin/tote gets empty I think. Good times! ❤️🪱❤️
For you I’d suggest getting that tumbler 50-60% full and let it rip! If you have other totes and space and ingredients, get them going too. I don’t know how many worms/bins you have in total but it sounds like a goodly amount.
The best thing is the pre-compost doesn’t go bad - it just gets better and better 👍.
@@RockinWorms Thank you so much for your thorough reply! I was actually just looking back over your previous tabletop precompost videos to refresh my memory of that process. I have 8 working bins that are so crowded with worms that I could very easily spilt each into maybe 4 breeder bins each? So once I get my shelves, I could jump as high as 24 bins (though I'm doubtful I'll be able to accommodate them all right away... Everything is so expensive!) Hence my worry of being able to process enough bedding.
I have the thing about halfway full now, but the heat is just not happening as well as I'd like it to. I'm sure that'll change once I start pumping in the coffee grinds. The cardboard is just too high on the C:N ratio for table scraps to really seem to nudge it enough. The local coffee shop a mile down the road from me did agree to give me their grounds though, so soon...!
I do like your idea of getting it most of the way there and then putting it into a large tote to further process and age. Greay way to maximize efficiency and space utilization! 👍👍
@@evelynknight5627 You’re welcome 😊. I can never judge if I’m going into way too much detail 🤷♂️.
I agree with you - if you have lots of cardboard you need the coffee grounds to get the ratio close enough to start the heating. Did you add in an inoculation ingredient? That’s vital too. You can use strong castings tea plus the castings themselves as well. Excellent job talking to the local coffee shop!!!
Space is always an issue. No matter how big it is, it’s never enough 🥲.
The pre-compost is HEAVY. So watch the weight if it’s on a table. Ask me how I know. Twice 😡. But I do find having the really big tote very helpful for storage and aging as you said. I just can’t move it. So I scoop out into a working bucket and that’s good for mixing into the work tray and then into the worm bins. Everyone has to find what works for them and their space. But we can share ideas!! ❤️🪱❤️
@@RockinWorms Haha! No worries at all. A little self-disclosure, but I'm autistic and my special interest is worms... You literally could never talk too much about worms to me! And thank you. I have a fair bit of social anxiety, so it was a big step for me to ask a stranger such a weird request. Happy I did it, and I'm sure my worms will be happy too!
I actually just barely added some finished castings I had lying around that should be sufficiently aged and baited of all worms. Hopeful that helps, but I imagine in the end it's really the C:N ratio tripping things up presently.
I figure the bin is incredibly heavy. Think you even mentioned it in your series. Figure I'll fill the 10 gallon tote I have under my composter as a drippings catch tray bit by bit with the semi-finished product, then haul that downstairs to my storage bin, which is conveniently located next to my worms.
@@evelynknight5627 Well, we are closer on that spectrum than you’d probably guess 🤗. So I can at least appreciate where you’re coming from.
Double good for you then for getting the coffee hook up! I had to brace up to talk to the veg people and that turned out wonderful beyond my wildest dreams. And one success can lead to being able to tackle another one down the road ❤️.
Let us know when you add the coffee grounds and it takes off!
I may have mentioned the weight cause it’s a killer. Table killer🤣🙄😳. It’s a good reminder to re-mention for others.
You may find a 5 gallon bucket is a good sized compost hauler ❤️. Watch your drip bin for critters! If it’s not covered, then it makes a nice nest for many bugs. Just saying. 🪱❤️🪱
Started getting hungry at 11:20 😅
Hi Jordan! Welcome to the Castings Crew! Yea, it looks like it could be the base of vegetable soup! The worms eats good 🤩👍🪱. Do you have worms? 🪱
I started my small scale bins two months ago and they are well cared for thanks to the knowledge you impart! Keep Rocking!!! 🤘
@@jordanlai3102 Excellent! I’m glad your bins are going well! 👍😎🪱
How many worms are in that bin?
Approximately 850 breeder worms. My breeder bins vary a bit in number but that’s the average. 2.5 square feet of surface area and about 3 gallons of basic bedding. After the 21 day cycle I get about 2 gallons of fine castings that sift thru a 1/8” sifter and it’s on the dry side half of that will go thru a 1/12” sifter. The last gallon sifts thru a 1/4” mesh screen but that’s bigger than I like to go. Also as this is a breeder bin, there’s all those cocoons in there that you have to decide what to do with 😍🪱
I took the plunge last night and ordered a dehydrator…. Not an expensive one but one I can afford.
I did it coz I’m struggling with room in the freezer for 1 and 2, I need a way to feed dryer food as the moisture from the food is causing problems when I’m not careful with it.
What kind did you get??
@@RockinWormscooks
It says cooks professional dehydrator
@@cherylhowker1792 I don’t know that brand but that doesn’t mean anything. There’s lots of good moderate priced dehydrators on the market. I moved to dehydrating to get stuff out of my freezers. I have more dry storage space than cold storage space. Like most people! 👍❤️🪱
@@RockinWorms yea I just got the one freezer for me - it’s a taller thinner one as needed it to fit the space lol.
But yea I have no space really but I have to make it somewhere.
Don’t want all worm food in the freezer as it may never get used! As I have to remember to get it out to feed em. And I’m not good at doing that for myself let alone the worms. So fresh food or dried is better for me personally. But I’ve been hovering around coz I only want it for the worm food and mum thinks that’s silly money for the worms but I don’t if it means I can dry down the food I can’t eat instead of letting the fruit ferment! It’s gonna be better long term I think
@@RockinWorms
Cooks Professional Food Dehydrator | Food Dehydrators with Trays | Fruit Dryer Machine for Home | Adjustable Temperature Control and Timer 240W | (5 Tier)
❤🙏💞🪱🥀😊
Grow a mango tree.
I could! But I won’t. I live in mango central. I already have 8 (??) named varieties of mango trees planted. They’re still young so no fruit yet. But neighbors have mature trees so… yum!