The First Five Days

..... the worms lived by day on the covered patio and by night in the middle of my kitchen, uncovered, with the light on.  Light is painful to the worms so this is how they are trained to stay in the bin.  Future generations are born in the bin so they don't need to be taught this.

I remember one night we went out and left the worms in the kitchen.  Despite my best assurances to my husband, yes, I was a little anxious and desperately praying I wouldn't come home to 1,000 worms exploring my cupboards.  Yes, I did manage to avoid that.  In all, I think a few worms, like 5, decided to take a stroll around but they were right by the bin on the floor in the morning.  No where near cupboard, food, counters....

After five days, the worms stayed permanently on the patio.  I left the patio light on a few more nights and they did well. I had some stragglers escaping a few larger scale evacuations (maybe 25 worms) but that had nothing to do with the light. 

I didn't season the bin when I set it up and did not add a little dirt so it was a pretty sterile bin with only the few microbes that come with them.  Not really enough for a new farm so the natives were restless.  Had I researched a little more, I would have had my bin prepared at least a few days before the worms arrived and it would have been a different story.  

As a new worm farmer, it was trial and error to try and pinpoint the reason the worms were scouting out new digs. Reasons for this could be they weren't light trained, bit is too wet, don't like the food, ph level off.  

1.  Too wet - this was pretty easy to do when you have a bin with drain holes. 

2.  Food - I was not pureeing the food, just freezing it and giving it a few days to ripen before adding. Only once did I determine the problem was the food and it was pretty obvious.  There was a terrible stench from the bin and so it was easy to remove the madly molded onion that NO ONE was around.  Believe it or not, your bin isn't supposed to smell.  It smells like fresh dirt, like planting season.

3.  Bad bin conditions - I didn't see a lot of mites in the bin and no other new bugs so I rules this out. 

4.  Ph Level - This was the only thing I could think of so I purchased a 4 way meter and boy was my ph level off.  I think it was 3.5 -4.  Really should be about 6.5-7.  So garden lime was purchased and added every week until the PH was correct.  I've also added fireplace ash in lieu of lime so save those ashes.  Now, it's maintained by adding ground eggshells.  Be sure to check out your bin the day after adding ground eggshells.  Huge party in the shells going on!

Authored by Connie Watts

How I Became A Worm Farmer

I started worm farming May 2013 because my outdoor barrel composter wasn't processing fast enough. Translation: I couldn't figure out how to get my bin hot enough, consistently, for it to process our waste. Believe it or not, we started out outdoor composter May 2012 and it STILL WASN'T DONE!  What was I doing wrong?

What I did decide is I needed to stop adding waste to the composter but I couldn't bring myself to just throw it away.  I needed to figure out an easier way to compost until I could figure out my outdoor composter.

Much to my husband's dismay, worms were ordered.  I actually think I ordered the worms and THEN told him about it.  He's a real handy guy and will jump in and do just about anything but worms aren't really one of his favorites.

My first order was for 1,000 red wigglers the small but mighty worm and best composting worm.  I made an an outside 18 gallon rubber maid worm bin.  The bin sat uncovered in my kitchen for the first five days (Did I mention what a great husband I have?) with the light on so they would learn to stay in the bin.  From there, they went out on our covered patio.

A month later I realized we had more food than 1,000 worms could handle.  So I ordered 1,000 more but this time I bought European Night Crawlers so I'd have my own stock of fishing worms.  The following month I decided to add more and I found a local guy and purchased 1,000 more Red Wigglers. From this stock I took about 100 worms and started an in-ground doggy worm bin to handle the waste from my two little dogs.

Authored by Connie Watts