Composting Worms For Sale

So if you aren't the Messiah does that just make you a very naughty boy (to paraphrase a certain British classic)?

I have to confess that my worm farm was not great. I moved it to a much shadier spot about 3 months ago and had a friend give me a small handful of worms to kick start it again. I tossed some compost in 6 weeks ago and noted that there was very little action, but figured it was too cold for them to start breeding much. I had a good poke in it today and there is definite activity starting up again though. So I've tossed in a handful of weeds, some copra and covered it in wet newspaper and given them a few words of encouragement. Hopefully by Christmas it'll be humming along nicely.

 

eco... you made me giggle. I happen to love this particular classic.

I had a poke in my set-up yesterday... very gently... and there are some rather rotund worms in there. I only got Brian's worms on Thursday and it looks like they've setteled in nicely and are chomping away on the horse poo. Lucky they don't see the mound waiting to be processed .

Brian, I've attached a hose to the outlet of the bathtub, but at the moment I have it closed, ie nothing can run out. Would it be better to leave it open to allow for more air movement? After reading the document you gave us the link to, and reading about the need for air movement within the bedding, I am wondering if it would be better to leave the tap on the hose open all the time. I have the end of the hose sitting in one of my old horse tubs, a good 50cm below the worm farm.

 

Hmmm Eco cant you just pretend I am the Messiah. You need some horse manure to kick start it. That will get them breeding quickly. Be careful with the coprha and soak it first. Too much and too little worms and you can poison your worm farm. This is true with to much of any food. You would only need a small handful of wet coprha.

I saw the lady at the post office today who bought one of my farms after seeing them getting posted. She said she had so many she was giving them away.

Stubby how big is the hose? You would need 50mm I would think. I always think it is best to leave the tap open so it can always drain. Have the tap on your holding tank closed. You won't get air movement down there. You only need air movement over the top of the bed thats why I am not keen on those ones that are fully closed with tiny ventilation holes. When you water the bed use the water that has drained out of the manure. You can just continue to do this or use it on your plants
I only picked up your box today at the post office so don't panic lol. OK tea is ready, will check back in later

 

The hose is an ordinary green garden hose. I'll open it up so it can drain and use any liquid to keep the bed moist and to fertilise my paddocks and plants.

No panic here... The chookies will get what the worms won't, and they clean it all up and mix it with their manure and the soil they scratch in... I wonder ... can I add some of that to the wormfarm or will it be too rich in nitrogen?

 

No chook poo gets too hot and as you said too much nitrogen. It will put poisionous gases through your bedding if put on too thick. Best to leave it out. With your hose you will find as the tub gets full of castings it will clog up. I am trying to find S.O.P's pictures he put up yesterday. I saw them on my phone last night.His system is clogging from not enough water flushed through the system.You will need to flush out the castings with regular watering. Not yet though but as the numbers explode you will notice a big difference with the speed the manure gets chomped.

 

All looks a bit fancy. The idea behind it is to remove castings. In a commercial set up the worms work their way up to the top as they eat out all the available food. Then as food is added to the top the cable or bar at the bottom move back and forth to remove castings. So in effect you have a Flow Through System. The system we use is that we have to actually dig out the castings separate the worms and put them back into fresh bedding.

I have seen pictures of a Horozontal Flow Through System. You get a large box say 1.8 m (6ft) long and divide it into smaller sections. You fill one section with bedding. Then as the worms eat all of the bedding leaving just castings you then fill the next section and the worms migrate across. You keep going round and round. A windrow system is sort of similar where you start at one end with the worms. Then they work their way along the system as manure is added.

I did something similar on the weekend with my incubation beds. I needed to thin them out. So I just piled wet horse manure on top, the worms moved up and then next day I took it out again along with thousands of worms to their new bed. I did this twice on one bed and took probably 10,000 each time. There is still thousands more in there to extract. Once I get them mostly all out I will tip the castings out and set up the bed again.

Worm farming is easy as a back yard hobby but quite involved breeding for sale.

 

Well... I can attest to the 'easy as a hobby'. All I've done so far is provide a nice habitat, loads of healthy manure (I don't use chemical wormers) to which I introduced Brian's worms and they are just loving it. I just go every day and say 'hello', give a cuddle to a couple of worms and thank them for breaking my horses' manure into lovely worm compost.

I know that sounds weird... but I don't care.

 

It's not weird. I have it on good authority that Brian bathes in his worm farm. And he has a 'Worm Songs: Best Of' on itunes next year.

 

You can use Food Grade Diatomateous Earth as a wormer.

Stubby remember Worm Farming Rule No 1 " Dont fall in love with your worms"

 

S.O.P you are beginning to know me well lol.

I wanted to post some pictures of my new Worm Rack but my File Upload Manager says it is full and won't allow any more pictures. I can't seem to delete the old ones out either. They are supposed to auto delete after 1 hour but it has been a couple of years now. I will have to email if anyone is interested.

 

www.imgur.com

Upload file, paste link for BBCode here.

Create an account if you want to keep track of what you upload. For example, https://imgur.com/a/LGqVY

 

Is that what you mean? Remember I am not that smart lol. Hey it worked This gives you an idea of what I am doing. You can see the trays on the right and below that I use for breeding and growing. The bigger tubs I use for incubating the eggs

Thanks S.O.P

 

You know there could be a business idea in SOP's comment about you bathing in the worm farm.... "Brian's Worm Day Spa. Facial mud packs with fresh worm castings. We'll have you wriggling again in no time!"

 

Too late

 

I would have to test it on a couple of volunteers before I go commercial. I look good already.

 

I have just taken my fishing worms off the website. Had a run on orders so I need to hold some big worms as breeding stock. Still got millions of good size composting worms.

Just cant work the Africans out, very little signs of breeding. I think some more research is in order. I have a couple of lots away from the Reds to stop them co habitating and the Reds breeding in the Africans beds.

 

What do the big boys do? Have you been following Rule 2? Sing to them?

 

If they are African they might need a bit of soul music to get in the mood.

 

Ok you two cut it out. I am thinking of giving up on them as I need the tubs and the space for my Reds. I suppose I could sing lol.

I was told once to stick with the Africans but they must be sterile. One day it will just click lol

 

Hmmm it seems what I bought as Africans were not Africans at all. Having never seen them or found good clear photos it is a bit difficult to know what you are buying. I had bought two lots about 8 months apart and in the second lot there were about 20 really big worms. They seemed too big from what I had read about Africans so I put them aside in a small container. They did nothing for months then out of the blue started breeding.

Well it seems that these were my Africans I ordered, not the 200 I ordered but 20 as I got mostly Indian Blues and Red Wrigglers to make up the 200 worms. The Indians I hadn’t seen before either so I assumed that these were the Africans as they have the purple stripe up the sides and are 3 times bigger than the Reds. Too late to go back and complain. The very first lot I ordered were kept separate and I ended up with a tub of Red Wrigglers as the Indian Blues all jumped ship and left. Well we learn from our mistakes and get smarter I think from them. I did manage to find a clear in focus picture of Africans so I can confirm those big worms now breeding are the Africans.
Now I know what they are I am managing them differently from the Reds and have hundreds of young ones. They are all growing as has been described for Africans. I am hoping to offer some for sale in a couple of months.

I must admit if I wasn’t pointed in the right direction from an ex African Breeder, Brian’s Worms would not be as successful as it is now. It is still a hobby business but I am having some good turnover for my size operation. Good value for money, people friendly and worm management seems to be the key. You also get the worms you order and pay for and not substitutes. I continue to learn and share what I do know with others.