# Worm Farming



## BassAddict (May 31, 2008)

Today while doing yard work (well while shinerman did yard work, i just drank coffee and harassed him ) he found about 2 dozen 8" night crawlers and packed em away for our trip out to lake Ferguson tomorrow. This got us thinking about setting up a nice Lil worm farm. I know a few of yas do this so any advice you have would be greatly appreciated


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## Jim (May 31, 2008)

I'm all ears for this one! 

Esquired will have some tips, we talked about it before.


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## jkbirocz (May 31, 2008)

A good compost pile will produce plenty of worms. I have never personally made a farm, but my uncle did as a kid. I cannot quite remember everything he told me about it, but I know he fed them wet newspaper shreds.


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## Waterwings (May 31, 2008)

Hope you raise some bigguns! I knew a fellow who put used coffee grounds on his worm bed, and he said it worked well.


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## Captain Ahab (May 31, 2008)

Aye to raise the wormys that will catch ye a whale - ye needs to do thus:

A. Create a compost type pile and fill it with shredded leaves, coffee grounds and vegetable scraps - add little or no lawn clipping for the at least the 1st year (they do not have enough nitrogen and also might have weed killer - not good for worms; or

B. Get a whale sized tub and store thus in a cool damp location (like a celler) fill with fresh dug earth and worm - add coffee grounds and a few veggy scaps. Water sparingly to prevent mold. Make sure you give them eggs shells to balance the Ph level of the acidic coffee grounds


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## kentuckybassman (May 31, 2008)

Glance at this,it might also give you an idea or two.









PROGRAMS » Recycling » At School » Making a Worm Farm 

Making a Worm Farm 


Want to make a worm farm?
Worm farming is a simple way of turning vegetable and fruit scraps into a great potting soil or soil amendment for your garden or house plants. It can be done year round, by apartment dwellers and home owners. Worm farming is particularly useful for people who would like to compost their food scraps but do not have space for a backyard compost bin. 



Here is what you need to get started:
Container of wood or plastic. We use a sturdy plastic container that is about 7 inches deep, 9 inches wide and 14 inches long. The measurements are not real critical. This just happens to be an easy size for us to keep around the office and carry to presentations. If you are going to keep your worm farm inside, you will want it to be water tight. The worms are going to be happier when kept in the dark. (Kind of like some folks around here.) If your container is clear, wrap it with newsprint or place it in a cabinet or a opaque container to seal out the light. Make sure that the place you find to store the bin is away from vibrations. Worms will try to pack their bags and move to better digs if they are too near a source of vibration. 
Worms. We really suggest that you use red worms. They are also called red wrigglers or manure worms. Do not use earthworms or night crawlers. They just are not cut out to do this job.

Bedding material. Start with some shredded newspaper, moistened, not wet. Use the black and white pages. The classified ads are good, as are the stock market reports. Don't use the colored ad pages, it just makes the worms want to go shopping and you want them to stay in your box and convert the vegetable scraps. Add a couple of handfuls of garden soil, not potting soil, and a couple of crushed egg shells. Keep the bedding damp but not sopping. The moisture helps them to breathe, but too much water will drown them.

Food. You can feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps and starchy scraps, like bread, oatmeal, and pasta. You can even feed them grits if they are southern worms, like ours. Do not feed them too much acidic foods, like citric fruits, coffee ground and tea bags. They do best with a pH between 7 & 8. You can use egg shells to balance the effects of coffee grounds, orange and lemon peels. Make sure that the eggshells are cooked before adding them to the worm farm. If they are not from boiled eggs, you can cook them by putting them in a cup of water in the microwave. Never feed your worms meat, poultry, dairy products, or salty food , like potato chips. These will create odors and attract insects. Your worms will eat about half their body weight each day. Take this into consideration when you are deciding how much food to add to the bin.

Worms require oxygen so keep the lid partially open to allow air to circulate. You should also turn the bedding with a trowel periodically to improve air circulation in the farm.

Worms will function very well at room temperature. Keep the farm temperature between +40 degrees F and +85 degrees F. Remember that heat will build up quickly in the farm if it is left in the sunlight.

Red worms reproduce often. Small, oval shaped cocoons in the bedding indicate that nature is taking its course. Cocoons may contain several baby worms and will take several weeks to hatch. Watch for tiny white worms. Poultry egg shells added to the bedding will provide calcium the worms need to reproduce. Don't worry about red worms taking over the estate, their population is limited by the size of their environment.

Farming worms:
Place the damp shredded newspaper with the garden soil and crushed egg shell in the container. Don't pack it down. Add the worms to their new home. If you leave the lid off and the light on, it will encourage the worms to investigate the new digs. Don't forget to add some worm food before you move the bin into the dark. You know you can get real hungry after the lights go out. Don't worry if hard foods don't disappear right away. They will have to soften through natural decay before the worms can eat them. 
Do not over feed the worms. Overfeeding can lead to odor problems. As your worm population increases, you can add more food per day. Burying the food in the damp newspaper will keep mold from growing in the worm farm.

If your bedding is too wet, add some dry bedding, leave the cover off for a few days, or carefully drain the water off. If it is too dry, add some cool water and leave the farm loosely covered.

Soon you will notice an increase in the worm castings in your worm farm. This makes a great natural fertilizer. And all it cost you was a little time and some stuff that you were going to toss in the garbage.

When you see that bedding is no longer identifiable, you will want to harvest. Worms cannot survive in their own waste. Now if you are raising worms, you harvest the worms. We harvest the castings. The choice is yours.

Some folks sort the worms out of the castings and put the worms in fresh bedding. We have other things to do with our time and prefer a split harvest method. It helps if you have trained your worms ahead of time for this harvest method. To train your worms, you start feeding them at only one end of the bin. Do this for about a week. (Worms learn pretty fast.) Now take the bedding/castings out of the end of the farm where you were not feeding them and add it to your plants or garden. You will be removing about half to two thirds of the bedding/castings in this step. You will lose some worms, but those were the ones that were not very smart. Remember you trained the others. Place the remaining bedding/castings in a container while you scrub the bin and fix new bedding. Prepare this bedding the same way you did the first time, damp newspaper, crushed egg shells, and a handful of dirt. Now add the worms you trained, castings and all onto the fresh bedding. Feed and you are back in business. I have found that the worms will move out of the old bedding in a couple of days. If you want a cleaner farm, you can remove the old bedding in a few days.


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## Popeye (Jun 1, 2008)

What kind of temps do the worms need? I know the wife would have a coniption fit if I told her I was gonna raise worms in the house. We have no basement where I could get away with it. I do have a shed but in the summer time it can get pretty hot in there. Maybe a little thing in the back yard under the big Maple tree.


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## ACarbone624 (Jun 1, 2008)

My dad about 10 years ago had a large rubbermaid container in his basement that he bought the worm bedding for it. He used to go out in the evenings with a small flashlight and catch tons of night crawlers. There were a few summers I never bought any bait. He would have 50 to 60 in there at any given time.


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## kentuckybassman (Jun 1, 2008)

flounderhead59 said:


> What kind of temps do the worms need? I know the wife would have a coniption fit if I told her I was gonna raise worms in the house. We have no basement where I could get away with it. I do have a shed but in the summer time it can get pretty hot in there. Maybe a little thing in the back yard under the big Maple tree.


Worms will function very well at room temperature. Keep the farm temperature between +40 degrees F and +85 degrees F. Remember that heat will build up quickly in the farm if it is left in the sunlight


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## ejones1961 (Jun 9, 2008)

I have a 55 gallon drum that I cut in half and am using the top half, Drilled a couple of 2" holes along with the 2 bung holes I put 3 layers of screen mesh over them. Turned upside down with peat moss, I got a gallon ice cream bucket of mostly worms from my fathers worm bed (he uses just peat moss and peanut shells mixed) I have been feeding them just chicken layer crumbles and sprinkling them on top about every 5 days, I also wet down the peat moss about every 5 days. My worm population has grown tremendously. I would not recomend having the peat moss over about 10" deep it is just easier for them to work. They multiply fast. I also keep a low wattage light on them continously that keeps them from crawling out of the top. I started this during the colder part of the winter and I did keep them in the house until it warmed up, now they are in my shop. My father keeps them in his barn in south georgia and they get plenty of hot weather. When wetting the peat moss down he uses a hose and just adds water until it starts coming out on the bottom. After that it will continue to drain. so that the peat will not be to wet.


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## shamoo (Jun 9, 2008)

And on this farm he had some worms, E- I -E- I- O. The word of the day is WORMS, be it Tape, Heart, Rubber, or other, its WORMS. :wink: Good Luck on your new adventure my friend, I guess this will make you a worm herder. YeeHaaaaa!!!!!get along little wormy.


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## Jim (Jun 9, 2008)

shamoo said:


> And on this farm he had some worms, E- I -E- I- O. The word of the day is WORMS, be it Tape, Heart, Rubber, or other, its WORMS. :wink: Good Luck on your new adventure my friend, I guess this will make you a worm herder. YeeHaaaaa!!!!!get along little wormy.



I'm getting close too! I want/need some for the yard and garden anyway.....


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## BassAddict (Jun 9, 2008)

shamoo said:


> And on this farm he had some worms, E- I -E- I- O. The word of the day is WORMS, be it Tape, Heart, Rubber, or other, its WORMS. :wink: Good Luck on your new adventure my friend, I guess this will make you a worm herder. YeeHaaaaa!!!!!get along little wormy.




LMAO, shamoo your posts always make me chuckle :LOL22: Keep it up!!!!!!!!!!! And thanks for the well wishes for our new venture!!


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## ACarbone624 (Jun 9, 2008)

shamoo said:


> And on this farm he had some worms, E- I -E- I- O. The word of the day is WORMS, be it Tape, Heart, Rubber, or other, its WORMS. :wink: Good Luck on your new adventure my friend, I guess this will make you a worm herder. YeeHaaaaa!!!!!get along little wormy.



:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


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## caddyjosh (Jun 13, 2008)

I am a little late but I also have been thinking of doing this I have screwdriver with wire connected that you plug in a worm start poping up but my neibors look at me like I am crazy So to prove that worm farm sign out front would do the trick let us know how it turns out .


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## Jim (Jun 13, 2008)

caddyjosh said:


> I am a little late but I also have been thinking of doing this I have screwdriver with wire connected that you plug in a worm start poping up but my neibors look at me like I am crazy So to prove that worm farm sign out front would do the trick let us know how it turns out .



Does that work? Or are you kidding? :LOL2:


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## whj812 (Jul 29, 2008)

LOL!!! That one guy said Bung Hole..... Heh heh


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## The Grifter (Jul 30, 2008)

My buddy used a metal trough used for feed and filled it with compost. He used a couple of window screens as a lid. Let me add he had to place a couple of wieghts on top so the birds wouldn't tear the worms up. He feeds his a mixture of oatmeal and table scraps about twice a week. The trough is outside by his shed and is protected from the rain by an overhang. I think the reason we have so many worms is because the screens allow for a more natural environment. Let me say he is farming red wigglers but I am sure this would work either way. We use them down here in Florida for crappie and shellcracker. They put any store or tackle shop worms to shame. I have fished the same spot in a local lake with both kinds and these things catch 3 to 1. I am not smart enough to know why. It is great to walk out to the shed and grab a old butter dish full and go slam panfish whenever the bass bite dies. I will try and get buy his place and take some picks of the set-up and pictures of how many worms are in this thing. Two hand fulls of dirt gives you hundreds of worms.


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## Jim (Jul 30, 2008)

whj812 said:


> LOL!!! That one guy said Bung Hole..... Heh heh




candle, candle, candle!


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## Jim (Jul 30, 2008)

The Grifter said:


> My buddy used a metal trough used for feed and filled it with compost. He used a couple of window screens as a lid. Let me add he had to place a couple of wieghts on top so the birds wouldn't tear the worms up. He feeds his a mixture of oatmeal and table scraps about twice a week. The trough is outside by his shed and is protected from the rain by an overhang. I think the reason we have so many worms is because the screens allow for a more natural environment. Let me say he is farming red wigglers but I am sure this would work either way. We use them down here in Florida for crappie and shellcracker. They put any store or tackle shop worms to shame. I have fished the same spot in a local lake with both kinds and these things catch 3 to 1. I am not smart enough to know why. It is great to walk out to the shed and grab a old butter dish full and go slam panfish whenever the bass bite dies. I will try and get buy his place and take some picks of the set-up and pictures of how many worms are in this thing. Two hand fulls of dirt gives you hundreds of worms.




Get the pics if you can! :beer:

This worming thing is always in the back of my mind.


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## Nickk (Jul 30, 2008)

important to note that concerning table scraps to not use meat, you'll get maggots.


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## BassAddict (Jul 30, 2008)

Jim said:


> This worming thing is always in the back of my mind.



Always in the back of my mind too, just usually busy with the plastic kind.


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## Jim (Jul 30, 2008)

BassAddict said:


> Jim said:
> 
> 
> > This worming thing is always in the back of my mind.
> ...




It just seems like a no brainer. You set up the compost pile, Turn it now and then, recycle veggie and fruit scraps, and you have an endless supply of worms...and for me good gardening soil. Like everything else though, it just sits there on the back burner. :?


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## SlimeTime (Jul 30, 2008)

Years ago, Dad had an old 'fridge in the garage strictly for bait. The crisper drawers (if it even ever had any) were removed, as was the lower shelf. He made a "custom" box to fit into the bottom of the 'fridge, about 12" tall out of styrofoam (I think).

He had it lined with newspaper, filled with worm bedding, and additional newspaper covering it, which was kept slightly moist. We always went out at night during/after a rain & could pick-up as many crawlers as long as we could stand to stay-out. Usually always had at least a couple hundred in the fridge at any given time, more if a weekend camping trip was coming-up. 

The thermostat setting was raised, just to keep it roughly ground temp (55-60*), and the bottom of the 'fridge will be the coldest spot, so keep a thermometer in it. You can buy worm bedding & food, both work well.

I need to get my "garage fridge" cleaned-out & start doing this again myself......one of these days........ :mrgreen: 

ST


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## Captain Ahab (Jul 30, 2008)

That is awesome SlimeTime


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## KMixson (Jul 30, 2008)

I hope you have better luck at worm farming than these two did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLvtoKZfxY


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## SlimeTime (Jul 30, 2008)

lol.....Night Court used to be one of my favorite shows.....and Markie Post was a babe :wink: 

ST


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## dedawg1149 (Jul 31, 2008)

i have a old deep freeze that idrill holes in the bottom covered with screen filled with peat moss i installed a light in the lid.the light keeps them from crawling away at night.i water them about 2 times a week i feed them scraps from the garden cornmeal coffee grounds and egg sheels .they multiply fast


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## Popeye (Jul 31, 2008)

Was drawn into worm farming by the glamour of it. :lol: :lol: 
Failed at worm farming because the worms stampeded. :lol: :lol:


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