Why do you want to have ENC's in your bins?

Gerry,I'm in the same predicament as you.But just a few days back I made a very dramatic discovery!! You see,I've been keeping a bin of african nightcrawler and I accidentally put in a material the size of a small match box into the bin. By the time I notice it and took it out, I was surprised to see it impregnated with nearly a hundred egg capules!!!!The worms just left their eggs in it.I need not seach for the eggs in the wormcast.I'm now trying to duplicate the process to see if it is just a coincidence that the worms just happen to place the eggs there.I'll keep you informed if my little experiment works.
Best regards.
SSmah

This novice needs help. I now know what the eggs/cocoons look like (after much checking of websites & mini worm bin)so I've since picked about 20 out and placed them aside on moist brown cardboard bedding. What do I do now? Monitor their hatching? All info appreciated.
tks

bibik,

I think it is a better idea to leave the cocoons in the bin where they are. The conditions are probably just right for worms to breed and the worms might just know that there is lots of microbial food for the babies to eat when they hatch. Sometimes I think we try too hard. :-)

Marshall

Thanks. They're back with their moms & pops.
I think I'll concentrate on finding out what their castings look like and what I can do with them.

bibik

>I think it is a better idea to leave the cocoons in the bin where they are.

Well, at sometime one has to change the bedding. I have never found the spent bedding (castings) not loaded with eggs. The capsules can take a fair mount of time to hatch, I will have breeders in the bedding before all hatch since some eggs re much nearer hatching than others.

I am no worm expert but have been doing some reading. Have kept a stackable tray worm farm for 2 years but that is all I can say I have actually done. So I will just add my 2cents' worth but stand ready to be corrected if my interpretation is wrong.

I recall that a certain volume of worm bin or bed can only support a certain population of worms and once that is reached, the population will not actually increase. No mention whether the worms cannabalise each other or the eggs or whether they just stop laying.

All said and done, if the population has been reached, one would have to divide up the worms into new trays or beds, otherwise breeding might be unreliable.

My worm books mentioned two ways of breeding the worms fast.

The first uses a dedicated breeder bed. The recommended design seems to be an elevated worm bed with a mesh in between. The bottom layer is filled with vermicast. The top layer is only 100mm deep and is filled with fresh manure or really rich worm food. A good population of mature breeders are added to the top layer. Immediately they will proceed to eat their way through the manure and will lay their eggs within this top layer. After some 2 to 3 weeks, this top layer is scrapped away (giving the wroms adequate time to retreat back to the vermicast) down to the separating mesh. This yields fresh casting filled with eggs that are within 2 to 3 weeks in age. This is then mixed with wet peat or similiar bedding material in another bed and allowed to hatch. With this new bedding and good food, the worms breed fast.

The other way mentioned was to lay a couple of layers of hessian sacking over the worms. Put a couple of handful of fresh manure between the layer so that worms will go therein to feed and to lay their eggs. Every week or two, expose the top layer to drive the worms back into the original beds. Brush off the casting and eggs found within the exposed layers to whereever you want them to hatch.

Hope that this is correct and is of use.