start a worm bin

I’ve had my worm bin for a little over a year now. It’s nice to make vermicompost to keep the plants healthy. Poor little fellas are in the chilly basement – maybe I should bring them back upstairs…

but then the worms all died. There was a huge infestation of fruit flies because I overloaded the bin with apple peels. Big mistake. In the process of trying to fix it I was taking the bin outside for a time in the fall – must have been too cold or something – they all died. Might try again – I’m not sure.

I think actually building the bins is a project best deferred for warmer weather. Build a wooden box, or make a stacker out of rubbermaid…hmmm? I’m leaning towards the stacker, but only if I can be sure it’s stable. I used to have an expensive pre-fab worm bin that the City gave me for free as a demonstration project. So of course I was spoiled. But I had to give it (and all the wormies) up during a move.
Now, here, I can entertain worms for as long as they wish to stay.

I’ve read about it, have the container, shredded paper, motivation – just need to order the worms. Sheesh I don’t know what I’m waiting for! Maybe I’m just afraid of the pending death for some of them in transit since it’s SOOOO cold.

I established a place under the sink for one or two bins, and have pretty much convinced one of my housemates that this is a good idea. And my mom is going to ask a friend if she has extra worms that I might barter a cake for, or something. More slow progress.

OK, I brought my parents’ old bins back from their house, so now I just need to establish a place for them in the basement, clean them up a little bit, and obtain worms and bedding. Onward!

So it took a little bit to stop the little fly larvae from getting into my makeshift worm bin, but I think I have it a little more together now. They’re eating food steadily now! One of the things I found very helful, was as i was getting food scraps, I froze them in the freezer until i was ready to put them in the worm bin, this cut down on my excess food in the bin. LESS STINKIES!

DH and I harvested our first tray of worm castings last week! It was rich and black, with hardly any unprocessed food or paper left. I was surprised at how little that compost pile looked compared to our big back yard! I think that the next time I do this I will make compost tea.

There were a lot of worms still in that tray, and most of them made the trip back to the Worm Factory, but some were left to make it on their own in the great outdoors.

I’m going to stop making entries on this topic since I feel I’ve successfully completed this goal.

More and more worms are moving to the new bin. I feel sorry for the ones lagging behind in the old bin, but I guess they’ll get their chance to move up, too.

Last night, when I checked things out, I found worms all over the food, and several of them were babies! They all must’ve hatched at the same time.

I’m finding more liquid in the drainage tray. I can’t figure this out. I haven’t been putting more liquid into the bins, so where is it coming from???

I’ve taken the plunge and arranged a lot of paper on top of the worms’ bottom bin so that they can start migrating up into another one. Checked them out this morning, and some of them are on the move. I may have given them too much food, anticipating that there would be more of them in the upper bin to chow down.

I’m a little worried because the bottom bin contents look very compressed with the second bin on top.