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