Hi Ann, some commercial worm farmers deliberately stress a system to spur a breeding frenzy. I haven't seen a lot of videos on it (probably because it looks heartless!), but I have heard more than a couple breeders mention it. Healthy, happy worms are the way to go, even if it takes longer to build a population! ~ Sandra
hi sandra, what do you mean "stress"? how do they do that? i have experienced enc's delivered to me very fat and really breeding a lot but also the adults are dying, like 10 a day.
@@nancyfargo4209 If your worms are new to you, they will be stressed if they are in new conditions. Stress can be moisture, temperature, low food or bedding. How long ago did you get them? Were they shipped? Sorry this is happening, Nancy. Once the bin is running smoothly, it gets easier. ~ Sandra
@@nancyfargo4209 I just did a little bit of research on ENC's and they don't tolerate acidic environments as well as red wigglers. The suggestion is to give them lots of pH buffers (finely ground egg shells or oyster shells, for example). Also, feeding lots of carbon with each feeding will help moderate the pH. Hope this helps! ~ Sandra
In my oldest bin, 2yrs, i find the least cocoons. Started with 250worms. Now there are probably several pounds. The mid aged bin i find the most cocoons. Takes an hour to pick them out of the castings. The youngest bin was just started 2 months ago taking from the strong population of the oldest one. Over the winter the ENC's were looking pale and limp. So i upped my 'food' from just compost to ground egg shells, azomite, rolled oats, and dry molasses flakes, and recently a bit of kitchen scraps and comfrey leaves to track the dreakdown process visually and make sure everything is moving along properly. Everyone now looks well colored and wiggly. I think i'm getting the hang of it lol
Yeah in the cool of winter, it seems you need to give your worms "comfort food" a bit like us. 😊 Grains/ flour etc. seem to work well for me at least. Less regular food of course.
Hey Anne! Happy Easter! 🎉 I had some sort of protein poisoning problem (you know, worms with this 'truncated' kind of body, or only half their body) with a secondary bin I set up with 100 worms. I soaked the initial bedding (shredded paper) in rice water, plus a few handfuls of worm castings from the initial bin. I think they didn't like it so much. 😅 Oddly some worms were looking absolutely perfect, so thick and lively even after weeks. So at first I let it on its own, didn't give much food (only some coffee ground and salad roots). After a few months it went back to normal, it self-regulated and now it's full of castings with a thriving worm population. Ofc if it'd been my only worm bin I couldn't have waited it out. But yeah after just about 6 months, from 100 worms to 100s. 😁 Cheers! 😉 Thomas
So i have a 3 tier bucket set up, and im concerned because im having trouble turning the bedding to aerate it. It doesnt smell terrible, but the 7x7 ft room can sometimes smell musty. The worms seem healthy tho. Any advice?
Maybe get another container to flip the layers in to get air through it every few months. As long as there is enough bedding to keep the scraps from going anaerobic you should be fine.🪱👍🏼😃
I have had my worms from eons of breeding and dying (old age) for 23 years. I have given away thousands.Under no circumstances do I feed any grain product or anything acidic. I also use a 5 gallon pale for "brewing" my microbes and fungi. I use a 10% worm casting to 90% uncoordinated water. If I am using it for agriculture then it is increased but at the same as for my plants.I also never put chlorinated water on a vegetable garden or a hose that the water is extremity cold and shocks their roots, Like people that take pro biotics and have a glass of water that contains chlorine then it will kill all of the microbes you have taken. Now this is only my opinion so what works for you stick with it...
Hey Anne, you always say "if they still have food, don't feed them". The crazy worm lady suggested a similar, but more elaborate set of rules that I follow: feed fixed amounts at fixed intervals. If the worms have not started processing the most recent meal, or if the meal before that is not completely gone, skip a meal. Double the amount (or the frequency) when both of the most recent feedings are completely gone. I make an exception for very slow foods when it comes to "completely gone". My worm bin is about one year old and it's doing well. Last time I checked the bin, however, for the first time, I found it very difficult to decide whether I could consider the second most recent meal "completely gone". The only food I could recognize was very slow: pieces of avocado skin, an avocado pit (still whole) and a garlic skin. Nevertheless, the area of the meal was very moist and full of pot worms and compost worms (I have a mix of red wigglers and ENC), as if there was something rich and edible in there that was attracting them. What would you make of such a situation? Is there such a thing as attractive food, disguised as wet castings? Is an avocado pit alone enough reason for the worms to congregate and increase local humidity? Can I feed the worms if the second most recent meal looks like that or not? For what it's worth, I feed the worms a spot sandwich with dry bedding at the bottom, then food scraps that were fermented by lactic acid bacteria, then ground eggshells, then prepared bedding (shredded paper, some exhausted potting mix, a pinch of worm castings and water). The food scraps are already less recognizable when they come out of the prefermentation, but they still look different from worm castings.
For me if there is avocado skin or peel of veg I will still feed the worms as normal. If there is still squishy flesh then I will either reduce the feeding or skip a feed. I hope that helps. 👍🏼🪱😃
Hello Ann, My question is really concerningme. When it rains my worms seem to be committing some kind of suicidal migration attempt. My worms live in a large plastic container in my carport. after a rain I am finding dehydrated worms all over my floor. When I check the box the lid is covered with worms. Not just mature worms, but tiny new babies. I am at a loss as to what to do. They have plenty of food and moisture. Lawrence
I experience the same problem here. My African nightcrawlers which are large worms are all over my floor. Every time we get a bad thunderstorm it seems that some worms are just prone to it which is why I have them in a zipped bag. Blue worms in African nightcrawlers are usually the ones that are prone to this. I have seen people have success with putting screen on the lid after cutting the middle out.sorry I can't be more help. It really is them it's not you 🙂🪱👍🏼
I´m using buckets to vermicompost and I decided to colonize then with some natives worms to help the red wigglers. Since I preatty much use my castings as teas, I though that could be beneficial to have then to reinforce the diversity. Is that a problem? Happy Easter from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!!!!
Diversity is great. My big Blue bin has 3 or 4 species of worms. The warm loving blue worms take over when it gets hot and the ENC take over when it is cold. Great idea. 😁👍🏼🪱
Hi Ann, some commercial worm farmers deliberately stress a system to spur a breeding frenzy. I haven't seen a lot of videos on it (probably because it looks heartless!), but I have heard more than a couple breeders mention it. Healthy, happy worms are the way to go, even if it takes longer to build a population!
~ Sandra
Yikes that is not nice. I agree it is better to keep them happy. 👍🏼🪱😁
hi sandra, what do you mean "stress"? how do they do that? i have experienced enc's delivered to me very fat and really breeding a lot but also the adults are dying, like 10 a day.
@@nancyfargo4209 If your worms are new to you, they will be stressed if they are in new conditions. Stress can be moisture, temperature, low food or bedding. How long ago did you get them? Were they shipped? Sorry this is happening, Nancy. Once the bin is running smoothly, it gets easier.
~ Sandra
@@nancyfargo4209 I just did a little bit of research on ENC's and they don't tolerate acidic environments as well as red wigglers. The suggestion is to give them lots of pH buffers (finely ground egg shells or oyster shells, for example). Also, feeding lots of carbon with each feeding will help moderate the pH. Hope this helps!
~ Sandra
In my oldest bin, 2yrs, i find the least cocoons. Started with 250worms. Now there are probably several pounds. The mid aged bin i find the most cocoons. Takes an hour to pick them out of the castings. The youngest bin was just started 2 months ago taking from the strong population of the oldest one. Over the winter the ENC's were looking pale and limp. So i upped my 'food' from just compost to ground egg shells, azomite, rolled oats, and dry molasses flakes, and recently a bit of kitchen scraps and comfrey leaves to track the dreakdown process visually and make sure everything is moving along properly. Everyone now looks well colored and wiggly. I think i'm getting the hang of it lol
Yeah in the cool of winter, it seems you need to give your worms "comfort food" a bit like us. 😊
Grains/ flour etc. seem to work well for me at least. Less regular food of course.
That is great. It is stressful when you are new. 🪱👍🏼😁
Yep and the freezer stash of worm food multiplies to the max just in time for the spring summer baby boom here. 😁👍🏼🪱
Great discussion & fun check-in with the worms! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!😁🪱👍🏼
G’day. Your worms always look pretty darn healthy.
Happy Easter.
Pretty good now. I made mistakes in the beginning. 👍🏼🪱😁
Hey Anne! Happy Easter! 🎉
I had some sort of protein poisoning problem (you know, worms with this 'truncated' kind of body, or only half their body) with a secondary bin I set up with 100 worms. I soaked the initial bedding (shredded paper) in rice water, plus a few handfuls of worm castings from the initial bin. I think they didn't like it so much. 😅 Oddly some worms were looking absolutely perfect, so thick and lively even after weeks. So at first I let it on its own, didn't give much food (only some coffee ground and salad roots). After a few months it went back to normal, it self-regulated and now it's full of castings with a thriving worm population. Ofc if it'd been my only worm bin I couldn't have waited it out. But yeah after just about 6 months, from 100 worms to 100s. 😁
Cheers! 😉
Thomas
I love to hear a good success story. 😊🪱👍🏼
So i have a 3 tier bucket set up, and im concerned because im having trouble turning the bedding to aerate it. It doesnt smell terrible, but the 7x7 ft room can sometimes smell musty. The worms seem healthy tho. Any advice?
Maybe get another container to flip the layers in to get air through it every few months. As long as there is enough bedding to keep the scraps from going anaerobic you should be fine.🪱👍🏼😃
I have had my worms from eons of breeding and dying (old age) for 23 years. I have given away thousands.Under no circumstances do I feed any grain product or anything acidic. I also use a 5 gallon pale for "brewing" my microbes and fungi. I use a 10% worm casting to 90% uncoordinated water. If I am using it for agriculture then it is increased but at the same as for my plants.I also never put chlorinated water on a vegetable garden or a hose that the water is extremity cold and shocks their roots, Like people that take pro biotics and have a glass of water that contains chlorine then it will kill all of the microbes you have taken. Now this is only my opinion so what works for you stick with it...
Worm farming success and failure are the best teachers. Keep doing what works I agree 100% 😁🪱👍🏼
Hey Anne, you always say "if they still have food, don't feed them". The crazy worm lady suggested a similar, but more elaborate set of rules that I follow: feed fixed amounts at fixed intervals. If the worms have not started processing the most recent meal, or if the meal before that is not completely gone, skip a meal. Double the amount (or the frequency) when both of the most recent feedings are completely gone. I make an exception for very slow foods when it comes to "completely gone".
My worm bin is about one year old and it's doing well. Last time I checked the bin, however, for the first time, I found it very difficult to decide whether I could consider the second most recent meal "completely gone". The only food I could recognize was very slow: pieces of avocado skin, an avocado pit (still whole) and a garlic skin. Nevertheless, the area of the meal was very moist and full of pot worms and compost worms (I have a mix of red wigglers and ENC), as if there was something rich and edible in there that was attracting them.
What would you make of such a situation? Is there such a thing as attractive food, disguised as wet castings? Is an avocado pit alone enough reason for the worms to congregate and increase local humidity? Can I feed the worms if the second most recent meal looks like that or not?
For what it's worth, I feed the worms a spot sandwich with dry bedding at the bottom, then food scraps that were fermented by lactic acid bacteria, then ground eggshells, then prepared bedding (shredded paper, some exhausted potting mix, a pinch of worm castings and water). The food scraps are already less recognizable when they come out of the prefermentation, but they still look different from worm castings.
For me if there is avocado skin or peel of veg I will still feed the worms as normal. If there is still squishy flesh then I will either reduce the feeding or skip a feed. I hope that helps. 👍🏼🪱😃
Hello Ann, My question is really concerningme. When it rains my worms seem to be committing some kind of suicidal migration attempt. My worms live in a large plastic container in my carport. after a rain I am finding dehydrated worms all over my floor. When I check the box the lid is covered with worms. Not just mature worms, but tiny new babies. I am at a loss as to what to do. They have plenty of food and moisture.
Lawrence
I experience the same problem here. My African nightcrawlers which are large worms are all over my floor. Every time we get a bad thunderstorm it seems that some worms are just prone to it which is why I have them in a zipped bag. Blue worms in African nightcrawlers are usually the ones that are prone to this. I have seen people have success with putting screen on the lid after cutting the middle out.sorry I can't be more help. It really is them it's not you 🙂🪱👍🏼
What are the little white bugs that are barely the size of a pin tip and that move really fast?
Usually white mites or springtails. Both are helpers. 👍🏼🪱😊
I´m using buckets to vermicompost and I decided to colonize then with some natives worms to help the red wigglers. Since I preatty much use my castings as teas, I though that could be beneficial to have then to reinforce the diversity. Is that a problem?
Happy Easter from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!!!!
Diversity is great. My big Blue bin has 3 or 4 species of worms. The warm loving blue worms take over when it gets hot and the ENC take over when it is cold. Great idea. 😁👍🏼🪱
What if some of your worms have a much darker colour than the rest, its Redwigglers
I have seen that too but I'm not sure why. 🪱👍🏼🙂
Well i guess as long as they are healthy
I personally would love to know more about protein poisoning. I've heard about it but I don't know anything about it.
I will try and find some good pictures and sources for my next video. Thank you for the ideas 👍🏼🪱🙂
Great information on feeding worms when it’s colder weather because a lot of people make that mistake I also have done it 🇳🇿❤️
I learn the hard way so other people don't have to lol. 🪱👍🏼😁
I did a small harvest this weekend and noticed a lot of worms being prego. Iowa
Nice. Baby boom in the near future 👍🏼🪱🥰
I don't see a lot of cocoons in my bin, but I see a lot of wisps. 😂😅
That is good. Pretty soon there will be enough cocoons you will be able to see them. 😊👍🏼🪱
Another awesome video with so much info...now I'm on to watch baby worm aortic arches beat!!🪱🪱🪱
I'm you liked it. 🪱👍🏼😄
Healthy and happy worms. 🪱
They are good babies 🥰🪱👍🏼