Switching to the dry worm chow has made a big difference for me. It has increased the output by about 25% over previous kitchen scrap chow. The reason being live alone and dont accumulate enough feed for the amount of worms I have. My recipe now is Oats, Corn Meal, Whole Wheat Flour, and Chicken egg layer crumbles, and egg shells. In my opinion its the egg layer crumbles that is the big kicker, has more vitamins, protein as you would think. Aside from sprinkling the mix on top , I also mix into new bedding. Worms are constantly on top going after the dry mix. Also less spider mites and gnats.
@@steve50431 No response from anyone, so..... it is one name for a type of "chicken feed". In this particular case ir is obviously a feed for hens which lay eggs. I would be inclined to use a higher protein feed formulated for baby chickens. As posted it will have a good range of vitamins and minerals which I reckon cannot do any harm. One BUT.. make sure it is not medicated with a de-wormer or antibiotic. Some countries will not have such foods, but others do.
I dry my food scraps and grind them into a powder then mix the powder along with some grit into an all purpose "worm chow", this way i can also add things you don't usually add to worm bins, like dairies/citruses/pastas/old beans/wasted grains/bones/(old spices and left-over meats within reason), the ratio doesn't appear to matter THAT much, I just try to make sure there aren't too many things that are bad for them added at a time and the worms are healthy/active/fat and breeding. just sprinkle on the surface like regular worm chow and wet the material, the worms devour a layer within a day or two or three depending on how warm it is or how thick the layer is. then just feed again when you see no more chow. I think they like the variety of ingredients and the ease of "bite sized" pieces. it's a lot more work then just feeding them the scraps on their own but they eat it much better and more eagerly, some added pluses, i can monitor the bin's condition a lot easier, i know for certain if they need more or less feedings since i can see the food still on the surface, the food doesn't take up freezer space unless it's waiting to be dried and powdered and once powdered it takes up way less space and it can just sit in a cool dry place and wait to be fed to the worms. oh, and surprisingly it smells really nice, kinda sweet despite all of the smelly stuff like old whole fish, garlics and onions i added to it. my end product is dark, rich, fluffy and holds moister very well, i only water it for feeding time and even then i just spritz it to keep the food moist, I'm very happy with this system. funny story, at first i wasn't sure if the worms were enjoying my homemade chow and wondered if i should just switch back to feeding them the scraps as is, until one day i sprinkled some chow onto the surface as usual and the entire surface of my compost started writhing and undulating, it was like they were saying "its food time!" even before i wet the material, they were waiting for it and it startled the fuck outta me to see that in action. since then I've been convinced that they love it and I've been sticking to this system. now they are so spoiled they barely touch any of the food scraps i do add, just a little while ago i added some nice overripe pear, it was really soft and juicy so i thought they would enjoy this as a nice treat and it sat there for days with only a single tiny worm sized hole to speak for it. I thought by now they would have eaten a quarter or an eighth of it at minimum so i was thinking of taking it out since they don't seem to want it and i don't want it to spoil my bin. it's not bite sized so perhaps next time i feed them "a treat" I'll blend it up with a little worm chow.
Great healthy option is to also add some ground up flax seeds for the worms. Great video, thank you... Also crickets & meal worms are a great addition & will fatten them up...
For those who feel inclined to criticize, whole wheat, corn, and oats are easily grown organically and non-GMO. Sourcing the ingredients may take a bit more work but if you have land, just grow your own. I grow oats and wheat in my deer food plots every year. Oyster or egg shells are easy to come by and can also be sourced to get high quality organic components. In my opinion, its easily possible to feed worms a completely natural dry food worm chow that you make yourself from organic ingredients. This most certainly doesn't go against vermicomposting principles at all. If the worms were simply living in the soil on an organic farm they might easily have access to all of these ingredients every single day of their lives. How then is feeding worms in a bin the foods they would be able to enjoy naturally if they were free ranging a violation of vermicomposting? I don't see it to be!
I work my hives in both organic and chemical farms. What I've found is that the organic farms are full of worms. The chemical farms not so much. However, don't give the chemicals a bad name. Hives in the 'chemical' farms survive far better than on the organic farms. Management is the same and so are the treatments. But I get your point as to non-GMO consumption.
Haha, "I like to use yellow corn meal for some reason". Haha don't know why I do what I do but I do what do haha you made me laugh out loud. You're just so adorable.
I have a Canadian Crawler bin in the basement. I add Maple flavoring in a breakfast mix (grits), and since I have them inside...I use diatomaceous earth for any flying pests. The red wigglers and Canadian guys both seem to love it. Thank you for the information!
I absolutely love this video. The second you mentioned why you use the oyster shell or egg shell... I've heard the PH imbalance can be quite a problem. Heading to watch your other video now. Thanks so much!
My theory is microbes/worms are little piglets or perhaps graze like a cow,lol, and it fattens them little buggers up, along with everything else we feed them. Thank you for your recipe.
Feldy66 I'm glad u like it. I will use it a lot of times as a supplement when I don't have enough food scrapes to feed them. I just give them a light dusting under the dry bedding ever couple days until I round up enough food scrapes to feed them.
Your welcome Sylvia! The calcium in the dry worm food does seem to help them with reproduction and really helps to buffer the ph of the beds. Other then that I don't get to technical with them. They will live in a big pile of manure naturally and thrive so I don't think they are to picky. Haha.
I found something tonight at the store that I think will be good it’s called Maseca And it’s from the Mexican section but the ingredients are just cornfield with hydrated lime in public acid and they also had a version without folic acid but you don’t have to grind it up in a powder form already. Also I suggestion for egg shells is if you make eggs to put the shells in a hot pan when you’re done or in the oven for a second and it will dry up all day and make it easier to grind them up
is the corn meal a necessity? i am feeding them on mainly tea bags i had some potato skins in but they dont degrade quick the carrot peeling seem to be better and there is plenty of shredded paper but i am going to use them for fishing aswell as using the worm tea and castings for a mini garden orchard i want to fatten them up i have some tiger worms and some dendrobina (euros) i might get some chickens later on aswell so i can use the egg shells for the worms and the worms to feed the chickens. thanks Matt
I fed my worms potatoe skins and they dont like it..come to find out potatoe and skins are not good for them. I took the skins out immediately and just gave them coffee grounds..corn meal is a food that they actually like..oats too but sprinkle water to moist it.
Around $56. per pound. If you buy worm castings at $2.00 per pound it does not pay. Works out about $33.60 over 4 months and say you get 20 lbs. of castings not such a good deal. Of course with luck you will maybe double your worm count so that is worth $45 per pound of worms. I will try it and see.
can i replace the oyster shell for egg shell (by processing them like you do in your other video)? or do the two handle the ph differently? thanks! enjoy your vids
It is just another food source. They seem to like the grains for some reason. I don’t give it to them on a regular basis now. Just food waste for the most part.
@@thelake31061 Hi Donna, i know this is a bit late and you may already have found an answer, but if not here is what i recommend. The only problem with feeding them dry food all the time is it doesn't give them the best balanced diet. The recipe in this video is great for fattening up worms, food high in protien is great for this. The easiest way to feed your worms would be to just buy some compost from a reputable producer in your local area. I would only lightly cover your worm farm with compost, then sprinkle some of the dry food on top. This will ensure that your worms come up to the top to feed, and while the are feeding have "fun" time and make caccoons. aim to feed them 2-3 times a week. feel free to message me if you have anymore questions.
Worm consume it's own weight daily. Meaning to say, the bigger your worm size, the more food scrap they eat. Adding protein into worm food is a good idea to increase their size.
Would you try kelp? I heard it has a crazy amount of nutrient density levels. And azomite I heard it helps with the bacteria and enzymes and mycos in the soils. And I also heard that biochar helps to revitalize
josh, i just got my worms delivered today so thank you for your information. I put them in a bin as i was instructed and they keep trying to escape up the sides of the bin, help! How do i keep them in?
What kind of bedding did u use? Is it damp but not to wet? What kind of bin are they in? When u first start a bin they can go through a little bit of shock because or the traveling through the mail and different environment then they are use too. If everything is ideal conditions for them (right type of bedding, moister and ph) they should settle in in a few days. Keeping a layer of dry bedding on top and putting a light over them for a few days will help them stay down till they get use to their new home. Best of luck!
HELEN PARKS I give my worms this dry food every time I feed them food waste. Anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup of this mix along with food waste would be a good amount to feed 3000 worms.
Hi John. Thoroughly enjoy your videos. Love that voice of yours. What part of the country do you hail from? A comment I seem to be hearing very often, "buffer the PH". What PH do composting worms thrive in ? What lowers the PH and, what raises it if need be?
Bee Rock I am from eastern Kentucky. 🙂 Red wigglers like a ph around 6.0-7.0. It is best to let the bed work out its own ph over time and add egg shells to help keep it constant. A fluctuating ph is sometimes worse for the worms then a steady slightly out of idea range ph. If it is a emergency and you have to alter the ph you can lower it by adding peatmoss or raise it by adding garden lime.
R. T. I haven't really thought about it. I have seen them in my bins before though. They tend to just show up after the bin has been set up for a while.
You want unbleached flour. The whole reason bleached flour was developed was because the rats were eating the unbleached flour. Once the flour was gassed with chlorine gas, the rats wouldn't touch it. And, neither should you.
Beartiv it will be perfectly fine to leave out the corn meal. You could add a little more of the oats and flour to make up for leaving it out if you wanted but it would be fine without it.
I'm wondering about using corn meal because I've heard most US corn is GMO roundup ready. The roundup (glyphosate) could be harmful to the bins bacteria. Here is a good YT video on the possible effects of glyphosate on our gut bacteria. " The Health Dangers of Roundup (glyphosate) Herbicide. Jeffrey Smith & Stephanie Seneff " It's the reason I'm into biomicrobial gardening anyway. Thanks for your videos.
Bill Wilson . Hello Bill, I have looked into glyphosate and I find it alarming!! I started using worms to produce my organic fertilizer but after hearing about glyphosate I am not sure I am doing the best for my organic food project!! What info do you have on this? How can I contact you?
How do you know when it's time to feed more if you're using a powder? Also, I read that it's good to mix into their bedding and food, some micronized rock dusts and using different products gives more access to a higher variety of nutrients. For example, Azomite has a good selection of trace minerals and Green Sand has other minerals not found in Azomite. Do you know anything about this?
Melissa RMT usually when feeding only powdered food you will sprinkle it on top of the bedding and feed them more when most of it is gone. As far as additives I occasionally add azomite and other things like bonemeal and granulated organic fertilizers to up the nutrient value of the casting. This is especially helpful when using the castings in a potting mix or seed starting mix.
I give my worms green sand as grit, it’s very good for the garden. Azomite is already in one of the other fertilizer meals I use. Down to earth has a lot of good products that would be awesome worm food and give you awesome castings for the garden. I use several different down to earth boxes of various meals and meal mixes...
For example, I have 2 worm factory 360s, one gets high nitrogen fertilizer meals like alfalfa, kelp, cottonseed, blood, fish, etc...the other gets high phosphorous fertilizer meals like bone, fish bone, seabird guano, bat guano, etc..then are all around fert meals that I give all my bins like crab, shrimp, azomite, kelp, green sand... I make teas out of my castings, so it’s easy to make either a high nitrogen or high phosphorous or a mix of both... Then I have bins that I just throw food scraps in, and bins that I just throw rotten leaves in, I use those castings in my outdoor raised beds... They all get fairly fresh horse manure as bedding, and all get coffee grounds. You can totally affect the output of worm bins by the input...
Coffee grounds are acidic unless they have been brewed already. They can mess with the ph of the bedding if you use to much. They also don’t provide good grit like the oyster shells do. I would use egg shells if you want to use something besides the oyster shells.
An animal feed store was the cheapest place I found it, 50 lb. bag for ~$12 USD... if the same bag is at a store for gardening the price will likely be 4x that
I would say it will be just fine Sara. The shell fragments may take a little while to break down before the worms can process it but it would provide a slow release food source for them. I would be careful if the mix has sunflower seeds though. Sunflowers have allelopathic properties that will hinder plant growth. In small doses it won't really hurt but to much in a vermicompost seed starting mix could have some bad results.
+Sara Chen Your welcome! I use to grow sunflowers in my garden and wondered why the plants closest to them where half the size of the rest. After a little research I learnt that all parts of the plant was allelopathic. Now I just plant them next to the garden several feet from any other plants. Other plants such as walnut trees have the same properties.
From what I read it seems they are allelopathic in a way that interferes with seed germination (autotrophic growth stage) but not so much with already germinated plants so if you grow plants from seed then don't put sunflower plant in your compost and then use that in seed beds. For the same reason dont use eucalyptus, Black Walnut, Juniper etc in your compost.
You shouldn’t give the worms the egg white and any yolk. It could contain bacteria that could kill them. Just like I wash my egg shells before composting them.
I have the same feeding regimen as you are talking about. I was wondering if you have ever tried to take these worms that have been eating grain for a long period of time (1 year or more) and tried to incorporate them back into eating kitchen scraps, garden waste etc.? Thank you.
So why whole wheat flour? I have been to the grocery store 2 or 3 times a week and nothing. But I have 100% rye flour I use for baking bread. Could I substitute this? I also asked you a few weeks back on another video about how you process egg shells if your microwaving egg shells is good enough to use egg shells instead of oyster shells. Or do I need to actually wash them first?
Worm castings are supposed to be nutritious. You are growing them like a commercial style but using corn meal (over 90% of corn is gmo) and most of the other filler ingredients don't have much nutrition as well. I think this could work well if your a breeder or if you are using for fishing bait.
Picked up a 50-pound bag of oyster shell flour at my local feed store for $12... if you buy it from a gardening store you will only be able to get that 6-pound box that he has in this video for the same price
@@TheRealHonestInquiry yeah I pay 17..00 for a 50lb oyster shell flower, or 4.50 for oyster shell scratch from tractor supply. both work. If you know a oyster restaurant near by I make deals to pick up bulk daily shells
papa al dog food is made for mammals. To high in fat for worms. If anything chicken feed would be a better alternative but I can't get my worms to eat it like they do the worm chow. 😀
Dad has used dog kibbles with great success for +20 years. Broken bags from the feed store, $5 /48 lbs. Lower fat content brand X , not Purina &c. Maybe 11cents per lb. Curious, what is the per pound price of your concoction? Your worms must be real choosy if they be rejected dog food. ;-)
I have never tried dog food with my worms. They eat mostly food scrapes and other free stuff like yard waste. The dry worm food is more of a supplement or snack to give them the calcium and grit they need. As far as price per pound I have never been that concerned with price sense they only go thorough maybe a cup or so ever month. The majority of their food and bedding is absolutely free.
Yes they'll eat about anything. But if one wants max yield, they need nutritionally complete diet: vitamins & minerals; carbs, fatty acids, amino acids. Read the label and you will find expensive 'worm chow' is about same ingredients as cheap dog food. I understand this is inconsequential in your operation, but maybe a serious cultivator could befit from this info.
Are you stupid or something? Talk about racial/regional profiling… You realize that down South we call raccoons = coons. ZERO racial overtones in his in his presentation but you go ahead with with your crappy prejudice opinion which wrong. But keep jumping to conclusions and playing the victim. 🤣👉🏼🤡
Thank-you for the Simple demonstration of how you make your worm Chow and explaining what it does for a worm. It was understandable & Simple.
Switching to the dry worm chow has made a big difference for me. It has increased the output by about 25% over previous kitchen scrap chow. The reason being live alone and dont accumulate enough feed for the amount of worms I have. My recipe now is Oats, Corn Meal, Whole Wheat Flour, and Chicken egg layer crumbles, and egg shells. In my opinion its the egg layer crumbles that is the big kicker, has more vitamins, protein as you would think. Aside from sprinkling the mix on top , I also mix into new bedding. Worms are constantly on top going after the dry mix. Also less spider mites and gnats.
what is a egg layer crumble ? thanks.
@@steve50431 No response from anyone, so..... it is one name for a type of "chicken feed". In this particular case ir is obviously a feed for hens which lay eggs. I would be inclined to use a higher protein feed formulated for baby chickens. As posted it will have a good range of vitamins and minerals which I reckon cannot do any harm. One BUT.. make sure it is not medicated with a de-wormer or antibiotic. Some countries will not have such foods, but others do.
I dry my food scraps and grind them into a powder then mix the powder along with some grit into an all purpose "worm chow", this way i can also add things you don't usually add to worm bins, like dairies/citruses/pastas/old beans/wasted grains/bones/(old spices and left-over meats within reason), the ratio doesn't appear to matter THAT much, I just try to make sure there aren't too many things that are bad for them added at a time and the worms are healthy/active/fat and breeding.
just sprinkle on the surface like regular worm chow and wet the material, the worms devour a layer within a day or two or three depending on how warm it is or how thick the layer is. then just feed again when you see no more chow. I think they like the variety of ingredients and the ease of "bite sized" pieces.
it's a lot more work then just feeding them the scraps on their own but they eat it much better and more eagerly,
some added pluses, i can monitor the bin's condition a lot easier, i know for certain if they need more or less feedings since i can see the food still on the surface, the food doesn't take up freezer space unless it's waiting to be dried and powdered and once powdered it takes up way less space and it can just sit in a cool dry place and wait to be fed to the worms.
oh, and surprisingly it smells really nice, kinda sweet despite all of the smelly stuff like old whole fish, garlics and onions i added to it.
my end product is dark, rich, fluffy and holds moister very well, i only water it for feeding time and even then i just spritz it to keep the food moist, I'm very happy with this system.
funny story, at first i wasn't sure if the worms were enjoying my homemade chow and wondered if i should just switch back to feeding them the scraps as is, until one day i sprinkled some chow onto the surface as usual and the entire surface of my compost started writhing and undulating, it was like they were saying "its food time!" even before i wet the material, they were waiting for it and it startled the fuck outta me to see that in action. since then I've been convinced that they love it and I've been sticking to this system.
now they are so spoiled they barely touch any of the food scraps i do add, just a little while ago i added some nice overripe pear, it was really soft and juicy so i thought they would enjoy this as a nice treat and it sat there for days with only a single tiny worm sized hole to speak for it. I thought by now they would have eaten a quarter or an eighth of it at minimum so i was thinking of taking it out since they don't seem to want it and i don't want it to spoil my bin. it's not bite sized so perhaps next time i feed them "a treat" I'll blend it up with a little worm chow.
Would that reduce the nutritional value, or increase the nutritional value because you’re technically more food minus the water?
how do you dry them?
Microwave egg shells 1 minute to sterilize and dry, the put into plastic zip lock bag and crunch until very small.
Great healthy option is to also add some ground up flax seeds for the worms. Great video, thank you... Also crickets & meal worms are a great addition & will fatten them up...
Just wanted to say you do a hell of a job. I've watched a few of your videos and they are very helpful. thank you so much.
Scott Ritchie thank you Scott! I'm glad you enjoy them!
For those who feel inclined to criticize, whole wheat, corn, and oats are easily grown organically and non-GMO. Sourcing the ingredients may take a bit more work but if you have land, just grow your own. I grow oats and wheat in my deer food plots every year.
Oyster or egg shells are easy to come by and can also be sourced to get high quality organic components. In my opinion, its easily possible to feed worms a completely natural dry food worm chow that you make yourself from organic ingredients.
This most certainly doesn't go against vermicomposting principles at all. If the worms were simply living in the soil on an organic farm they might easily have access to all of these ingredients every single day of their lives. How then is feeding worms in a bin the foods they would be able to enjoy naturally if they were free ranging a violation of vermicomposting? I don't see it to be!
I work my hives in both organic and chemical farms. What I've found is that the organic farms are full of worms. The chemical farms not so much. However, don't give the chemicals a bad name. Hives in the 'chemical' farms survive far better than on the organic farms. Management is the same and so are the treatments. But I get your point as to non-GMO consumption.
Haha, "I like to use yellow corn meal for some reason". Haha don't know why I do what I do but I do what do haha you made me laugh out loud. You're just so adorable.
I have a Canadian Crawler bin in the basement. I add Maple flavoring in a breakfast mix (grits), and since I have them inside...I use diatomaceous earth for any flying pests. The red wigglers and Canadian guys both seem to love it. Thank you for the information!
Hi Josh love your videos
They have been a great help in starting my bins.
sylvia majure I’m glad you enjoy them. 🙂
I absolutely love this video. The second you mentioned why you use the oyster shell or egg shell... I've heard the PH imbalance can be quite a problem. Heading to watch your other video now. Thanks so much!
Ctthank you I'm just getting started in worm farming! 👍💈
Robert Patrene Your welcome! Best of luck! If u have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
My theory is microbes/worms are little piglets or perhaps graze like a cow,lol, and it fattens them little buggers up, along with everything else we feed them. Thank you for your recipe.
Made this yesterday too, top man, thanks so much for your vids, really helpful.
Feldy66 I'm glad u like it. I will use it a lot of times as a supplement when I don't have enough food scrapes to feed them. I just give them a light dusting under the dry bedding ever couple days until I round up enough food scrapes to feed them.
Thanks I have seen some commercial grower state they have a booster mix just checking with a down to earth person like yourself.again thanks.
Your welcome Sylvia! The calcium in the dry worm food does seem to help them with reproduction and really helps to buffer the ph of the beds. Other then that I don't get to technical with them. They will live in a big pile of manure naturally and thrive so I don't think they are to picky. Haha.
I found something tonight at the store that I think will be good it’s called Maseca And it’s from the Mexican section but the ingredients are just cornfield with hydrated lime in public acid and they also had a version without folic acid but you don’t have to grind it up in a powder form already. Also I suggestion for egg shells is if you make eggs to put the shells in a hot pan when you’re done or in the oven for a second and it will dry up all day and make it easier to grind them up
Thank you for sharing this. It's great information.
Oh never mind you explained it thank you very very much I spoke to you soon
Use your oyster shell for a nutrient tea for your garden.
(tea)
Appreciate you doing this video, homie. Well done.
is the corn meal a necessity? i am feeding them on mainly tea bags i had some potato skins in but they dont degrade quick the carrot peeling seem to be better and there is plenty of shredded paper but i am going to use them for fishing aswell as using the worm tea and castings for a mini garden orchard i want to fatten them up i have some tiger worms and some dendrobina (euros) i might get some chickens later on aswell so i can use the egg shells for the worms and the worms to feed the chickens.
thanks
Matt
I fed my worms potatoe skins and they dont like it..come to find out potatoe and skins are not good for them. I took the skins out immediately and just gave them coffee grounds..corn meal is a food that they actually like..oats too but sprinkle water to moist it.
Josh do you think organic crustacean meal from Buildasoil would be ok instead of the Oyster shell? Great channel man love the info!
Adding all the cost of buying those ingredients...how much per pound does this mix cost. Thanks
Around $56. per pound. If you buy worm castings at $2.00 per pound it does not pay. Works out about $33.60 over 4 months and say you get 20 lbs. of castings not such a good deal. Of course with luck you will maybe double your worm count so that is worth $45 per pound of worms. I will try it and see.
can i replace the oyster shell for egg shell (by processing them like you do in your other video)? or do the two handle the ph differently? thanks! enjoy your vids
orblivious1 yeah. You can use them interchangeably or mix them. Just keep the same ratio.
Omg this is what id feed chickens
Chickens and worms are surprisingly similar
After your chickens eat it, I guess you can feed whatever comes out of your chickens to your worms. Reduce, reuse recycle
almightydawnthegreat that’s smart thanks!
Good video I just explained the reasons why you Are using each ingredient
Dose this worm chow help lower the mites population in the worm bin?
Worm farm master !!!
Hi,
What's the specific purpose of the oats? Why is this good for the worms?
It is just another food source. They seem to like the grains for some reason. I don’t give it to them on a regular basis now. Just food waste for the most part.
@@thelake31061 Hi Donna, i know this is a bit late and you may already have found an answer, but if not here is what i recommend. The only problem with feeding them dry food all the time is it doesn't give them the best balanced diet. The recipe in this video is great for fattening up worms, food high in protien is great for this. The easiest way to feed your worms would be to just buy some compost from a reputable producer in your local area. I would only lightly cover your worm farm with compost, then sprinkle some of the dry food on top. This will ensure that your worms come up to the top to feed, and while the are feeding have "fun" time and make caccoons. aim to feed them 2-3 times a week. feel free to message me if you have anymore questions.
I used this recipe and I've got 2 kg,s of it that sould list me at elastyczne 8 months thanks
You can buy unbleached all purpose flour. I use that in my sourdough.
Worm consume it's own weight daily. Meaning to say, the bigger your worm size, the more food scrap they eat. Adding protein into worm food is a good idea to increase their size.
thank you for sharing
Would you try kelp? I heard it has a crazy amount of nutrient density levels. And azomite I heard it helps with the bacteria and enzymes and mycos in the soils. And I also heard that biochar helps to revitalize
Sodium
Where do you find oyster shells? Wal mart and HEB IN TX NO GO...
Quinn Brown I order mine from Amazon.
Your local feed store should have them also
Sir. Thank very much for your sharing^^
I wanted to know this^_____^
josh, i just got my worms delivered today so thank you for your information. I put them in a bin as i was instructed and they keep trying to escape up the sides of the bin, help! How do i keep them in?
What kind of bedding did u use? Is it damp but not to wet? What kind of bin are they in? When u first start a bin they can go through a little bit of shock because or the traveling through the mail and different environment then they are use too. If everything is ideal conditions for them (right type of bedding, moister and ph) they should settle in in a few days. Keeping a layer of dry bedding on top and putting a light over them for a few days will help them stay down till they get use to their new home. Best of luck!
How often do you feed and how much for about 3000 red wiggles
HELEN PARKS I give my worms this dry food every time I feed them food waste. Anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup of this mix along with food waste would be a good amount to feed 3000 worms.
Hi John. Thoroughly enjoy your videos. Love that voice of yours. What part of the country do you hail from? A comment I seem to be hearing very often, "buffer the PH". What PH do composting worms thrive in ? What lowers the PH and, what raises it if need be?
Bee Rock I am from eastern Kentucky. 🙂 Red wigglers like a ph around 6.0-7.0. It is best to let the bed work out its own ph over time and add egg shells to help keep it constant. A fluctuating ph is sometimes worse for the worms then a steady slightly out of idea range ph. If it is a emergency and you have to alter the ph you can lower it by adding peatmoss or raise it by adding garden lime.
Ever think of adding springtails to your worm bins? They eat mold mildew, and such thatcan be bad for other friendly bugs
R. T. I haven't really thought about it. I have seen them in my bins before though. They tend to just show up after the bin has been set up for a while.
Down To Earth Company has a lot more boxes of fertilizer meals that would be a LOT more healthy for your worms and your castings/garden...
Diamond Dave Kung Fu School.
where do you buy the oyster shell
You can get that anywhere they sell chicken feed. You can also grind up egg shells instead.
Could you substitute calcium lime for the eggshells?
You want unbleached flour. The whole reason bleached flour was developed was because the rats were eating the unbleached flour. Once the flour was gassed with chlorine gas, the rats wouldn't touch it. And, neither should you.
Is it ok to use everything exept the corn meal
Beartiv it will be perfectly fine to leave out the corn meal. You could add a little more of the oats and flour to make up for leaving it out if you wanted but it would be fine without it.
is that natural ??
no added chemical ??
no added chemical lol ...!!
I'm wondering about using corn meal because I've heard most US corn is GMO roundup ready. The roundup (glyphosate) could be harmful to the bins bacteria. Here is a good YT video on the possible effects of glyphosate on our gut bacteria. " The Health Dangers of Roundup (glyphosate) Herbicide. Jeffrey Smith & Stephanie Seneff " It's the reason I'm into biomicrobial gardening anyway. Thanks for your videos.
Bill Wilson . Hello Bill, I have looked into glyphosate and I find it alarming!! I started using worms to produce my organic fertilizer but after hearing about glyphosate I am not sure I am doing the best for my organic food project!! What info do you have on this? How can I contact you?
@@brujoezln Let me direct you to this video. Tour of an excellent super organic worm farm.
ruclips.net/video/v8GfkAp95wc/видео.html
Possible affects isn't scientific. If you are looking at clinical studies don't trust them. Trust the scientific study groups. They're more reliable
Can worms be fed white flour?
PapillonOne it sure can.
Thank you. Made some tonight!!
How do you know when it's time to feed more if you're using a powder? Also, I read that it's good to mix into their bedding and food, some micronized rock dusts and using different products gives more access to a higher variety of nutrients. For example, Azomite has a good selection of trace minerals and Green Sand has other minerals not found in Azomite. Do you know anything about this?
Melissa RMT usually when feeding only powdered food you will sprinkle it on top of the bedding and feed them more when most of it is gone. As far as additives I occasionally add azomite and other things like bonemeal and granulated organic fertilizers to up the nutrient value of the casting. This is especially helpful when using the castings in a potting mix or seed starting mix.
I give my worms green sand as grit, it’s very good for the garden. Azomite is already in one of the other fertilizer meals I use. Down to earth has a lot of good products that would be awesome worm food and give you awesome castings for the garden. I use several different down to earth boxes of various meals and meal mixes...
For example, I have 2 worm factory 360s, one gets high nitrogen fertilizer meals like alfalfa, kelp, cottonseed, blood, fish, etc...the other gets high phosphorous fertilizer meals like bone, fish bone, seabird guano, bat guano, etc..then are all around fert meals that I give all my bins like crab, shrimp, azomite, kelp, green sand...
I make teas out of my castings, so it’s easy to make either a high nitrogen or high phosphorous or a mix of both...
Then I have bins that I just throw food scraps in, and bins that I just throw rotten leaves in, I use those castings in my outdoor raised beds...
They all get fairly fresh horse manure as bedding, and all get coffee grounds.
You can totally affect the output of worm bins by the input...
How do you check your ph and where can I find it?
Where do you find the Martha White yellow corn meal that is NOT self rising? Everywhere I look it is for corn muffin mix which IS self rising.
k ma I found that bag in the video at Foodcity if I remember correctly. The brand doesn't matter as long as it isn't self raising.
Plain Corn meal is in the baking section of your grocery store and it is not corn muffin mix.
k ma .
Op
Kroger sells it
Could you use dry coffee grounds instead of oyster shells??
Coffee grounds are acidic unless they have been brewed already. They can mess with the ph of the bedding if you use to much. They also don’t provide good grit like the oyster shells do. I would use egg shells if you want to use something besides the oyster shells.
@@robinettefamilyfarm3510 could you used bone ash or shell ash in place of oyster shell or egg shell. They’d be alkali and sterile?
Do you ever feed worms extra vitamins or grown h boosters
No. All I feed them is food scraps form our kitchen and my dry worm food. They get everything they need from it and their bedding.
Where do you find a box of ground oyster shells?
Who the hell is this?
Where did you get the ground oyster shells?
eBay is pretty cheap, but any agricultural supply places local to you will be even cheaper. It's used a lot in raising poultry, amongst other things.
An animal feed store was the cheapest place I found it, 50 lb. bag for ~$12 USD... if the same bag is at a store for gardening the price will likely be 4x that
I'm thinking about grinding wild bird seed do you think it will be fine for worm chow
I would say it will be just fine Sara. The shell fragments may take a little while to break down before the worms can process it but it would provide a slow release food source for them. I would be careful if the mix has sunflower seeds though. Sunflowers have allelopathic properties that will hinder plant growth. In small doses it won't really hurt but to much in a vermicompost seed starting mix could have some bad results.
+DownToTheRoots thank you for the reply. I didn't know that about sunflower seed. Thank you for the heads up
+Sara Chen
Your welcome! I use to grow sunflowers in my garden and wondered why the plants closest to them where half the size of the rest. After a little research I learnt that all parts of the plant was allelopathic. Now I just plant them next to the garden several feet from any other plants. Other plants such as walnut trees have the same properties.
From what I read it seems they are allelopathic in a way that interferes with seed germination (autotrophic growth stage) but not so much with already germinated plants so if you grow plants from seed then don't put sunflower plant in your compost and then use that in seed beds. For the same reason dont use eucalyptus, Black Walnut, Juniper etc in your compost.
Could you use corn flour instead of corn meal? Because in Thailand where I now live corn meal is quite expensive
yes you can it actually can be more benificial
I followed your recipe but my worms aren't eating it. It just sits at the top of the bin. Any idea why?
Does it sit on top dry
@@IAmHumanJake For the most part, yes it's dry. It only absorbs a little moisture from the soil.
@@johnterrance3075 try spraying top with water
@@IAmHumanJake OK. Will try that.
Why do you have to wash and clean the egg shells?
Salmonella, I just microwave them.
@@Robbievigil yeah but when you use them in your grounds those will be dead anyway..
@@woutervandenbosch8161 honestly I saw it on RUclips, I really don't know I just figured it was bad 😅
@@Robbievigil in my opinion, stop because you are killing a lot of bacteria what are supost to break them down.
You shouldn’t give the worms the egg white and any yolk. It could contain bacteria that could kill them. Just like I wash my egg shells before composting them.
I have the same feeding regimen as you are talking about. I was wondering if you have ever tried to take these worms that have been eating grain for a long period of time (1 year or more) and tried to incorporate them back into eating kitchen scraps, garden waste etc.? Thank you.
I grind my own wheat flour and the unused bit tends to go rancid quickly. Think the worms would mind rancid whole wheat flour?
Claudia Octavia they would love it Claudia! Just don't feed to much at one time so it doesn't get moldy before they can eat it all.
@@robinettefamilyfarm3510 Worms love moldy food.
Why didn't you just put the lid back on and shook everything
Watched a few of your videos... Looks like you have the most expensive worms in the world...
I'm gonna feed the worms if it's the last thing I do.
Will you avoid other bugs in your worm bin if you feed only with the worm chow you make ?
So why whole wheat flour? I have been to the grocery store 2 or 3 times a week and nothing. But I have 100% rye flour I use for baking bread. Could I substitute this?
I also asked you a few weeks back on another video about how you process egg shells if your microwaving egg shells is good enough to use egg shells instead of oyster shells. Or do I need to actually wash them first?
I would wash the eggshells 1st just to be extra safe
I bake mine at 350 for 20 minutes then grind. They love it
Feeding only this food will I only have worms in my bin no other bugs?
Thats_Ery_Day Life try this question on the Vermicultute subreddit, I bet they could help
Worm castings are supposed to be nutritious. You are growing them like a commercial style but using corn meal (over 90% of corn is gmo) and most of the other filler ingredients don't have much nutrition as well. I think this could work well if your a breeder or if you are using for fishing bait.
It's not the only thing he's feeding the worms. It's a part of the diet plan. Lighten up.
I bought magic worms food in fishing store it’s to make your worms healthy and big they have 32 essentials and protein don’t know it’s good idea🤷🏻♀️
Where did you get the oyster shells
Farm or feed supply store should have it for raising laying hens.
Picked up a 50-pound bag of oyster shell flour at my local feed store for $12... if you buy it from a gardening store you will only be able to get that 6-pound box that he has in this video for the same price
@@ambradley40216 Thanks for the information
@@TheRealHonestInquiry yeah I pay 17..00 for a 50lb oyster shell flower, or 4.50 for oyster shell scratch from tractor supply. both work. If you know a oyster restaurant near by I make deals to pick up bulk daily shells
5
just use cheap dog food,.
nutritionally complete,
vitamins, minerals.
costs 1/20th as much
no need to crush kibbles
or dick around as above.
papa al dog food is made for mammals. To high in fat for worms. If anything chicken feed would be a better alternative but I can't get my worms to eat it like they do the worm chow. 😀
Dad has used dog kibbles with great success for +20 years.
Broken bags from the feed store, $5 /48 lbs.
Lower fat content brand X , not Purina &c.
Maybe 11cents per lb.
Curious, what is the per pound price of your concoction?
Your worms must be real choosy if they be rejected dog food.
;-)
I have never tried dog food with my worms. They eat mostly food scrapes and other free stuff like yard waste. The dry worm food is more of a supplement or snack to give them the calcium and grit they need. As far as price per pound I have never been that concerned with price sense they only go thorough maybe a cup or so ever month. The majority of their food and bedding is absolutely free.
Yes they'll eat about anything.
But if one wants max yield,
they need nutritionally complete diet:
vitamins & minerals; carbs, fatty acids, amino acids.
Read the label and you will find expensive 'worm chow'
is about same ingredients as cheap dog food.
I understand this is inconsequential in your operation,
but maybe a serious cultivator could befit from this info.
DownToTheRoots my worms won't eat the chicken scratch
He said coon. Then corrected himself by saying cocoon. To me HE sounds like it would be some every day dialect. Thumbs down....
Are you stupid or something? Talk about racial/regional profiling… You realize that down South we call raccoons = coons. ZERO racial overtones in his in his presentation but you go ahead with with your crappy prejudice opinion which wrong. But keep jumping to conclusions and playing the victim. 🤣👉🏼🤡
You're a dumb ass!!