Vermiculture?......worms are next.....

[savingdogs]

So I think worms are our next "animal" to add.

We live near a fishing resort. We have rabbits. We have teenagers. We will have a garden where worm castings will be a tremendous help.

Doesn't it seem like a match made in heaven?

Has anyone done this? I'm thinking of using the method where you use a rubbermade tote with holes in the bottom and just counting out X amount when a fisherman comes.

If I have too many worms, I can always feed my ducks and chickens some extras too.

Do I want night crawlers? Red wigglers?

Barred Buff, I know you are starting out some worms, wondering how that works for you. Where did you get your starter worms? We see plenty of worms when we dig here but I'm not sure of the types. Maybe I should go to the tackle shop and buy some fishing worms?

I'm hoping people with some experience with this can chime in here.

 

[k0xxx]

I know a local gentleman that raises worms for the castings. He says that red wigglers are the better than night crawlers for castings. I have NO idea how he decided that, and I'm not too sure I'd like to know.

As for the fishermen, they seem to but more night crawlers. At least that's 90% of what the bait shops around here stock.

 

[savingdogs]

So perhaps I might want a bin of each?

 

[Mackay]

Red wigglers are what you want.

I looked into this extensively a while back and set up my worm bins.

Then the worms got mites! I freaked and dumped them and that was it.

Since then I do bokoshi with lasagna gardening and I feel that the soil is very rich with this... maybe this summer I'll throw some worms in the beds...as soil around here does not have them at all.
I think worms would love bokoshi

 

[BarredBuff]

I ordered mine from Uncle Jims Worm Farm online. I got super red worms they are cold/heat resistant, breed quickly, 6 inches long.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i had bad worms. they all escaped. it was awful but entirely my fault.

"hey you chickens! get away from those expensive worms!"

 

[savingdogs]

Holy cow, why didn't dog number one herd up those worms?

I'm trying to picture these worms escaping.....kind of in.......slow motion.....

Did you have a hard time chasing them?

Sorry, good thing I know you have a sense of humor OFG.....worms escaping gave me a good laugh.

But I'll watch for that...forewarned is forearmed.......I did not think about worms that would defect from the cause.

 

[lorihadams]

I did red wigglers....but I had a loose compost pile at my last house and had tons of big fat juicy nightcrawlers. We made our worm bin from an old rubbermaid tote drilled with drainage holes. It was easy. The kids loved feeding them.

I have a friend that has horses and rabbits and he puts his worm bins under his rabbit cages so the poo falls underneath and he also puts them in his horse manure pile. He sells red wigglers to the local bait shop.

 

[savingdogs]

Hmmmm.....selling to the bait shop is a grand idea.....

 

[lwheelr]

We ordered some from Gurney because we had a $25 off coupon so we got the worms almost free with the seed we were ordering.

We did the tote system. We forgot about them too much, they were in the garage, we thought sure they'd frozen. We brought them into the back room, it stank too much there and oozed too much - trust me when I tell you that the lid from one of the totes will NOT make an adequate moisture tray...

We neglected them there too, just could not remember to check them - we got them right at the same time that we got the chickens and we were trying to find goats, which was right after we got rabbits and then ducks, so we were pretty overloaded.

Also, worms turned out to NOT be my thing - or my husband's thing. A good idea, and we'll take them up again (especially if we can persuade my son to not mind handling them), but I can't stomach the idea of actually having to sort them.

Anyway, a friend of ours came over, said he'd take the worm bin and check to see if there were any still alive. They were thriving in spite of our neglect. He said the bin was wiggling with them, thinned them a bit to provide a treat for his chickens (which he got when someone came and abandoned a dozen chickens in town - he chased them individually, caught them, and penned them up).

So he now has the worms until we move, we'll separate them and give him half.

I'll figure out how to manage them once we get where we are going. Worst case, I'll create a compost pile and dump them in there if I get to where I just can't manage them, at least they'll not die from neglect.

We've decided to invest in a Black Soldier Fly Larvae system. It should do better in the hotter climate we are moving to, and it is self-harvesting so we don't have to handle the things directly. Much easier on my morning-sick stomach.