Darren,
Just out of curiosity, why did you choose the bin size that you did, and what are you using for materials?

I've never had any luck with propagation bins myself, so I can't offer much advice here. The feedstock you are using is ideal, but why only 5"?

Kurt

what exactly is "maximum efficiency"? what is your end goal, to sell worms? have lots of castings? get rid of horse biscuits and cardboard? going to 'harvest' the worms for use in a non-breeding bin? how do you prevent them from breeding elsewhere, or encourage them to breed in the proposed bins?

and yes, why only 5"? I have a bin that's 3' deep, and late spring I try to pretty much fill it, and let the worms do their thing so I can use the material the following spring - depth lets them deal with temp and moisture changes on their own terms, 5" of that mix will dry out real quick and they'll all be huddled at the bottom ... and if it's a good blend of just horse manure and cardboard, it should heat from bacterial action if kept wet enough unless it's been previously composted

cubic feet is more relevant, you have 10 cu.ft. if the bins are filled, and a foot deep would be much more hospitable and encourage the worms to grow to breeding size - or are you planning to get 25# of mature worms at once to start things off?

need real questions and a game plan to provide any answers

Bill

Maximum efficiency would be the worms reproducing as fast as they possibly can. Yes the end goal is to sell worms eventually. Castings and waste reduction are secondary at this point.

The bins are only five feet because where they are located is 10.5 ft in lengh. Plus I will be moving them next spring to a new location. I figured these size bins would be easier than 4x8's to move.

my last bins were filled 10 inches deep and the worms only processed the top 5 inches. Which left undigested material at the bottom. As the worms process the original 5 inches it will be added to. I'll have to see how the moisture works out. The horse manure is green. This is another reason for the shallow depth as it will have less of a chance to heat up shallower.

The worms will be bed run.

The short term goal would be to have 200 pounds within 11 months.

Any Advice?

Darren

Hi Darren,

I'm fairly new at the vermi stuff, but is it really possible to breed as many as 200 pounds in this time frame? I'd love to implement a "quick breed" bin(s) to rapidly get to a point where my worms can consume all my kitchen scraps / junk mail, and even give away worms to friends for free, as here in AUSTRALIA they seem to be VERY expensive (paid $120 for 4000+), and I'd love to see more organic recycling happening.

What do you mean by "bed run" worms, and what's the difference?

Looking with interest.
Jay

Hi Jay

Bed Run worms are all worms that are seperated when they harvest worms. Some breeders keep the mature adults, I'm not sure what that is called.

I don't think it is unreasonable to get to 200 pounds. 25 should turn into 50 in 4 months. 50 should turn into a hundred in four more. And that hundred should turn into 2oo in about 12 months total.

Bill I answered your questions the best I could. Advice?

Thanks
Darren

I don't know about advice, but maybe some relevent thoughts :)

ideal reproduction might be achievable given perfect conditions always, but I can't imagine anyone maintaining that permanently - I'd say if you keep them supplied with more food than they can use, and the moisture and temp conditions are as good [and constant] as you can make them, it'll be as good as you can get, don't believe the population doubling figures from worm sellers or scientists, worms are as [or more] likely to cast cocoons when under stress!! also remember that worms don't reproduce until they're mature, and then when the mood strikes, not when a certain number of days go by .... and supposedly, one # can consume 1/2# of [microbially active] material per day, which I doubt is ever achieved .... means the roughly 5 cu.ft. of material you add 5# of worms to might disappear -> in 2 days if it weighed about 5#; in 10 days if it weighed about 25#

from hatching to sexual maturity can take 6-8 weeks, and for mating to then occur, the worm has to bump into a mature partner [influenced by population density], then when they drop a cocoon, it might only have 1 baby or it might have a half dozen ... if conditions are too dry at the time, the cocoons go dormant, maybe not hatching for weeks or months, then after hatching it's another 6-8 weeks before new ones might be sexually mature .... where ever you are, you'll have seasonal variation in temp and humidity, which will influence things a lot

I don't think the horse/cardboard mix is ideal, not enough native moisture, and horse manure dries quickly - running both together thru a shredder might help, but I'd prefer to have more veg waste for more bacterial action, and "pre-composting" would help as well by avoiding heating problems and increasing the bacterial population

the problem with shallow beds is they're harder to maintain good conditions, your observation of the worms only processing the top half of the previous bins doesn't explain why .... was it too wet or too dry? or did it get too compacted so they didn't get enough air? supplying twice as much material as they can use [too much food for #]? I find lots of worms deep in a bin of good material, but I put in as much as I have at one time, and let'em do their thing for quite awhile, just watering it regular in the summer, and maybe forking it up ocassionally to insure they're happy and not hungry ... a few weeks before I want the material I add some newly made hot compost on top of one side and water well so as many as possible migrate to that new food, easier to leave most behind for refilling the bin

recently I made a big batch [about 2-3 yards] of hot compost with stable sweepings [lots of manure and the sawdust/chip bedding] and fresh grass clippings - it heated well but didn't stay hot long, made great surfce mulch for the garden and I put 3/4 of it into the worm bin - I haven't checked yet, but the surface is drying pretty fast and I'm watering it more than I would with other material

Bill

Thanks Bill

You gave me something to think about when you mentioned the depth of the bedding.

I assumed that the worms did work the bottom half of my bin was because they are surface feeders and don't work a foot down unless absolutely necessarry.

If you say your worms work 8 to 10 inches deep? as much as the surface then perhaps you are right. Maybe it was too wet but to me it seemed the same as the surface. If I did error it was on the too wet side. I did just harvest my two outdoor bins and it screened good so I don't have a sloppy wet bed.

Anyways you gave me food for thought.

Thanks
Darren

Thanks Bill

You gave me something to think about when you mentioned the depth of the bedding.

I assumed that the worms did work the bottom half of my bin was because they are surface feeders and don't work a foot down unless absolutely necessarry.

If you say your worms work 8 to 10 inches deep? as much as the surface then perhaps you are right. Maybe it was too wet but to me it seemed the same as the surface. If I did error it was on the too wet side. I did just harvest my two outdoor bins and it screened good so I don't have a sloppy wet bed.

Anyways you gave me food for thought.

Thanks
Darren

probably you were expecting too much action too soon from too small a population - I fill my bin as much as possible after harvesting castings in the spring, and usually add to that late summer and in the winter ... it can get as much as 3' deep, but I just let them work on it as they will until the next spring - it's mostly all worked over

worms do tend to migrate up, as material is added, maybe cuz they like to poke their heads up at night altho there's always some who don't bother .... right now I have a rubbermaid tub about 3/4 full of old compost that I was putting worms into as I dug out a 4x4x4 hot bin to add to the garden [worms like those bins too] - I put a few sheets of newspaper on top of it and a plastic garbage bag full of shredded paper I keep handy to add to the hot compost - I've noticed that there's always a few worms that come up on top the damp paper under the plastic, some just keep working away at the material in the tub .... I keep thinking I need to carry that tub over to the worm bin and tip it in and see what's shakin in it, I put quite a few real big'uns in ... soon :)

Bill