t's already fairly well established that cocoons can survive being frozen.

"Previous studies by the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) had confirmed that the cocoons or "eggs" of compost worms can survive deep freezing for extended periods of time and still hatch out healthy and hungry baby worms."

I've heard of some of those and one thing that interests me is still the viability issue. I'd bet that coccoons close to hatching have far higher mortallity than freshly layed eggs when frozen. Also temperature and rate of freezing has an effect. Ice crystals forming in the cells is one of the main problems. Also I wonder how cold those eggs were. In a pile there are pockets that are insulated enough that while they "froze" they did not get too low. There is alot of difference between 32 degrees and 0 F. We would put a heart from a donor in a solution of ice and water made from normal saline (32 degrees) for transport and when rewarmed the heart functions normally.

I should have said if enough of my coccoons I have in my finishing castings are not viable, I will repeat. My idea of chilling the coccoons is to accumulate a larger number of coccoons and then have them hatch within a fairly close interval. This is done in commercial poultry hatcheries as a matter of course. The idea is to have all eggs hatch at the same time.

If your intention is to produce castings, then nothing is gained. But if say you are trying to produce bait worms for distribution, eliminating the labor of sorting for size could be important. All the worms in a given bin would be the same age and approximately the same size.

It certainly is a good experiment. I haven't read the original study, but "deep freezing for extended periods of time" sounds like it would eliminate pockets etc.

The more us enthusiasts do our own testing, the better the quality of knowledge is. Keep it up!

I tried Jim08204's technique for harvesting floating coccoons. I wanted to preserve the majority of my castings in dry state, so I used a spon and separated coccoons and castings as I saw them and put them into a cup. I added water, stirred the mess and sure enough a fair number of eggs rose to the surface. I skimmed them off and drained them on a paper towel. When I poured off the "tea" i was surprised to see a large amount of coccoons still in the castings. so I added more water and stirred. These eggs did NOT float.

I found I had alot of eggs that floated and about as many that did not. I do not knot know if only non-viable eggs float or if it is more due to the stage of the coccoon. For instance older coccoons may had air inside so they float or vice versa. I do not not know enough about the biology of the developing coccoon to know.

Pjames- I get the same results (some float, some don't). I put the ones that float into a "cocoon only" bin and I'll see in a few weeks if I have babies. I dump the rest of the castings and eggs from the tea bucket back into the bins and the worms love it. I will freeze/refrigerate some post results in the future.

-Jim

Jim...what were the results from the floating "cocoon only" bin? Were they viable?

Pjames- Yes- out of a couple hundred cocoons, pulled about 100 juvies out of the bin. - Jim

Does anyone have any advice about how to test the nitrogen levels of finished castings? I've have about 7 bins (one for each day of the week) and would like to compare the nitrogen levels to see if they are consistent... any advice would be most appreciated.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worm Compost

Searching the net gives me the impression it's a laboratory job, not really something that can be done at home. Look for testing soil for nitrogen.

Lab tests to be sure--but if you're just checking for consistent levels and are in a DIY frame of mind, mix samples of each vermicompost with equal parts dried leaves in small bags and track the heating. Assuming all your vermicomposts are fertile and damp,

Nitrogen + oxygen = carbon dioxide + heat.

Note, please, that I haven't tried this myself--I'm more the harvest-and-apply type--but now I'm half tempted to search for wide-mouthed balloons so I could measure the off-gassing!

Best of luck,

DSF

Here is a link that might be useful: Bokashislope