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austrya

New and have questions

18 years ago

My 6 year old son and I built a worm bin out of shallow rubbermaid bins. We drilled holes in the bottom of one and then stacked it inside another one to catch any drips. It also has a lid on it.

We used shredded cardboard, newspaper, papertowels, and dead leaves for the bedding. We got the bedding wet and then squeezed all of the water out so it was like a sponge.

We were only able to get 100 worms today from the bait shop, so we added those along with the dirt they came in. We should be able to get more this weekend. We also added another cup of garden dirt for "grit".

We fed them some crushed egg shells, coffee grounds and unbleached filter, some slimy dill weed that I found way in the back of the fridge and an old apple cut up into little pieces.

Does it sound like we did ok?

Will the worms be ok seeing as how there are only about 100 of them for now?

We have a container to save kitchen scraps in the fridge until we need to feed them again. How soon should we give them more food? Should we just wait to see how fast they eat what we gave them and then go from there?

Thanks in advance for all of your help. This forum is terrific!

Comments (3)

  • 18 years ago

    It does sound like you have done OK.

    Feeding:
    Just put a handful of scraps in at a time. Wait until the previous handful has nearly gone before adding more. Try and put in a handfull of shredded paper, either newspaper or shredded junk mail in every couple of times you feed.

    In time you will find you can put more in at a time.

    Let your scraps decompose for a bit before putting the in. What I do is have a container in your kitchen for a week filling up. Then put it in the frezzer for a week (to kill fly eggs) then leave it in the garage for a week (all with the lid on tight) and then on the third week put it in the wormery.

    DO NOT OVERFEED, YOU WILL KILL YOUR WORMS

    100 is not alot. I got 1000 tiger worms about 2 months ago and I have only feed them once with 3 very rotten bananas. I looked in last night and the food was nearly gone so I will start collection again.

  • 18 years ago

    just "OK" .... the "dirt" [teach the young'un it's called soil] would be a useful addition for supplying the grit that worms need, which is also the only thing the eggshells really contribute, and a very little lasts a long time, too much eggshell can make the bedding too alkaline over time .... the coffee grounds are good for maintaining a friable structure, but actually decompose very slowly so have little real food value .... slimey dill is a good thing

    you don't need to start with a large quantity of worms, under good conditions they breed fast and will grow their own population, better to use what you have now to learn the ropes, especially what and how they eat ... note that worms do not have very big mouths, nor do they have teeth

    the real food for worms is the microbes [bacteria and fungi] that cause decomposition, so foods that "go bad" fastest will be what disappears fastest, sugary and soft things particularly, that they can "slurp" the surface slime off of ... because food waste is largely water you need to be careful you're not making the bin too wet adding food too fast, watching what happens should guide you

    Bill

  • 18 years ago

    You may also want to check your bottom catch-basin now and then for worms who escaped through the drainage holes. Sometimes before they get their bearings in a new bin environment they burrow down too far and find themselves in a very dry place and can't get out. Cheryl

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