Wow, where to start.

ANC's - I've only read about them, but they tend to be a warmer weather critter. I'd try ENC's (European nightcrawlers) for the cooler climate.

How fast for how many? Well, variables galore, but put it this way, if I started with pure adult breeders (2000 no cocoons or young at all), in 6 months, I'd have approx. 20,000 adults + cocoons and young, rough total of around 50,000 from cocoon to adult. This assumes a 20 week life cycle (ie fresh cocoon to adult in 20 weeks), and losses of 1% per week. Each adult lays 1 cocoon per week, and each of them hatch 2 worms in 10 weeks. THESE ARE CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATES! Proper trials show better numbers, but we are talking home wormfarms here, not acedemics doing a scientific studies in perfect environments.

I have made a little calculator (excel spreadsheet) to do this calculation. Post an email addy and I'll send it to you.

IMHO....lol!
Cheers

PS I have had a 4 tray Worm Factory going for about 18 months (somewhat under utilised till recently), and it's only on it's third tray now. Started with "4000" EF's.

Thanks for answering back. I know I tossed a lot of questions out there. Just enthusiastic. :)

Email: Michellereviews at gmail.

The worms are in the basement, but think they're headed upstairs until it gets warmer. Even with towels, the bin is at about 58 F. Think they'll appreciate my guest bedroom?

chelleagain, Here're a few questions for you:

- How long has your WF been in operation?
- Do you precompost, freeze, or chop the food before adding?
- When you began, how many trays did you set up? (The WF trays have to be added slowly, so that the material in each one can break down and become populated with the micro-organisms that are the real worm food. If you set up too many, the micro-organisms grow slower, the worms are all over the place and they take longer to find each other to mate. Been there, done that.)

I've had a 3-tray WF for 18 months and the guys still aren't consuming all of our food scraps. (2-person household with lots of veggies.) However, they do live outside and for the last 2-1/2 months I've let them hibernate. I wrapped the WF in styrofoam sheets, covered with a fabric bag and topped with a plastic garbage bag. When I last looked, there was still a lot of bedding, and the worms were fat and slow.

My WF has been in operation 2 additional days beyond what I stated in the original post, so, still a couple weeks. I'm on my first tray. ::grin::

I'm not planning on setting up more trays until this one's done. I want them to make lots of love connections. And eat.

I keep the scraps in a jar on the sink and usually chop. Since the worms can't keep up, bless all their many hearts, I'll probably start freezing some.

Temps here are routinely well below zero, so mine stay inside. Last frost is usually June.

I think I should go ahead and buy more worms. I get it takes a while, but I'm so sad throwing out all the scraps. I worry that an influx might slow down breeding though. I'd play Barry White, but doubt it would work.

Here's another idea (tried / trying it myself as we speak!),

Start a 10 gallon tote (half full of cardboard and shredded paper). Wet down and add a handfull of compost from either your existing wormery or a compost bin. Add a cup of kitchen scraps and wait a week. Count out 100 worms and add to the tote. Monitor moisture closely (you dont need holes in the tote if you are careful with your use of "wet food) using dry cardboard if it gets too wet.

I have one 5 months old (100 worms), and it's running great! I estimate there are 1000+ adults plus babies and cocoons in there right now. I'll do a proper count next month, just for interest.

When you are happy with them, return the lot to the worm factory and start again.

Or, if you are really keen (like me! lol), start 10 totes, wait 6 months and have more than enough worms for your families needs within 6 months.

The beautiful part is that it cost me nothing for the worms (taken from my WF), only the totes ($8 ea).

Just an idea. Works for me.

That's an interesting idea! Thank you.

I plan on freezing excess food for the time being (knowing that the squirm will grow...freezing as much as my average freezer will allow that is). I'm pretty sure that as my sqirm expands they will catch up and exceed my 3 person family's output. *Hopefully* once the worms outgrow our leftovers, I'll be able to use (and store over the winter, via outdoor compost piles) cuttings from the yard. Even if they don't care for the cuttings, I'm sure I can convince friends to contribute (I've already got one on board!). Since one nearby town charges waste by the bag (and they HAVE to buy special bags), I'm sure I can persuade others. Coerced recycling is not such a bad thing! LOL

2 lbs of worms should eat 1 lb of food a day. I think it's important to feed them. They need to eat and I'm sure they won't increase in number as quickly if food is scarce.
As long as they have plenty of paper bedding they can get away if the temp or ph is a little off. I fill a 2 gallon bucket and layer it in the bin with shredded paper like lasagna with an occasional handful of ground lime stone. I've been doing this for 29 years and I've always had good results.

Last year I did an experiment similar to maurauder01's; but instead of a 10-gallon tote, I used a 2-gallon plastic jar with holes drilled around the shoulder and a porous lid secured to the top. I kept the jar in a dark cabinet in the house. The worms multiplied like crazy. I began with 30 adults and one month later had 50+ worms and 80+ cocoons of various colors/development. I kept the jar going for a couple of months and then seeded the WF.

The one problem with this is that when I introduced the indoor worms to the outside WF, I was bound to lose a lot of the adults due to the vastly different environment. However, the cocoons that hatched should have been fine.

(I documented the experiment on another forum under the topic "Breeder bin experiment".)

If you decide to freeze your food scraps, you might consider setting up a worm tower once the ground warms up and using it until your worms catch up. This Youtube video explains the WT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIyEQoxgocY
You can also do the same thing with a partly buried metal trash can.

My granddaughter Chloe just finished her 10 week science project. The project was a comparison between two (2) worm boxes which were 6 quart plastic containers. Each container was prepared with one (1) pound of Black Kow pasteurized manure (available at LoweÂs), shredded cardboard and worm tea as an inoculate of microbes. Container A started with ten (10) adult worms and Container B started with 20 cocoons. Both boxes were kept together in the house (aver. temp 66F). These boxes were not feed but the moisture level was checked regularly. The results were hand counted by my son and my granddaughter created a poster board for the presentation.
The results:
Container A started with 10 Adult Worms: 12 Adults, 47 Adolescents, and 120 Cocoons
Container B started with 20 Cocoons: 11 Adults, 4 Adolescents, and 38 Cocoons

Michelle, unless you freeze scraps before feeding them, you may find fruit flies in your guest bedroom. If that's not a problem, then why not use some of the additional trays to pre-compost your scraps. Don't put any worms in those trays, just some leaves, torn cardboard and a handful of garden soil to start. It will essentially become a small indoor compost bin. You will take material from these trays to feed your worms in the bottom tray.

Another option is to get a 18-25 gal. tote and use that as a pre-compost bin in your garage. Obviously material will decompose at a slower rate in the colder environment. I've had good luck with a low wattage rope light coiled under a bin to add heat. I set it on a timer for a couple of 4 hr. sessions during the night.

I, too, have a similar question about adding the next level to my WF. Two lbs of Ef have been in the bin for 4 weeks. They have adjusted well. I am feeding 2 cups of processed veg material 2X per week (~65 degrees avg room temp) and see migration to the new food area the next day. I see numerous juveniles and cocoons. There is still a fair amount of newspaper bedding and the volume of the bin has reduced.
Should I add more bedding to this level or just keep the original stuff and add another level with more bedding?
Could the high population density be slowing the colony development?
The experiments described in the thread suggest that more room encourages better breeding. I want my worms supporting (via castings) my gardening this spring. South Alabama veggies start early and then flag in the heat of summer.
Thanks.
carol

Thanks for the responses. I think freezing is the way to go for the extras. I've found a warmer place in the basement, so they can stay down there.