WORMS ANYONE?:-~)

[Kikiriki]

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Since you are adding worms to soil where they can leave freely, I would add something to convince them off the bat that their new home is the place to stay. My worms love cantaloupe the most. DH just got 2 for $5 yesterday at the grocery store so they must be coming in season now. I have seen people say the worms need time to settle before feeding them, but yours are not going to be in a container... Even they choose not to eat for a couple of days, they will know that food is there waiting for them when they feel like munching. Don't put in a whole rind, just some....

And, yes, do use your compost! It has a nice loose structure they will like, plus the worms will decompose it further. Also spread it around the tower and keep the area moistened for them... If your soil is still chilly, you can put a black plastic sheet over the compost to warm the area more quickly, plus it will help to retain moisture. You want them to feel like they are in a worm spa so they never want to leave!

We had many nights down into the 30's so I would take my bins out into the sun to warm their soil up. They responded well to it, becoming more active. Since you are in the north, it might be a good idea to have a thermometer to check to soil temps, if you do not already have one for the garden...

I didnt read your reply until today and I put my worms in their towers yesterday. Darn. I have some watermelon. I will run out there right now and put in some rind and a handful of compost.

I have yet another question. Everyone talks about checking on their worms! How the heck do I do at in a worm tower? They all retreated below the surface of the tower about one minutes after I put them in. I cant see them. I imagine I will answer my own question when I put the melon rind in above my bedding. I am assuming they will all flock to the top. Is that correct?

Kikiriki, I wish you lived next door to me, lol!

P.s. My baby chicks are shipping out TOMORROW!!!

P.s.s. I have a horse that I board. i want to start bringing home some of her manure and used bedding for composting. I will put it in my new to be started chicken/horse poo area, so I will eventually have aged manure! Never thought worms and poo would interest me!

Kortmom, I would happily kick out the neighbor to the north for you to move in! I just love the folks on the south: really good people!

I have never done a tower, but you will see the worms eating food. (edit for after thought: you will also start to see castings: thin longish trails of black on the sides, or little piles on the food you add...) You do want to do a layer of paper, leaves, or grass on top of the food to keep bugs out if the top is open: a fruitfly explosion can happen before you know it. The layer of uninteresting stuff will help keep that from happening. I don't know if people cap them, but I would at least put an old rag over the top, too, to inhibit breeding flies. And if you watch videos of people checking their bins, you can see the worms pretty much stay under stuff when there is light, or wiggle away from light quickly if the bin was dark...probably you could go out at night with a flashlight and use a stick to push the matter around to see if your worms are hanging around and looking healthy (meaty looking and active).

You do not have to pre compost horse manure if you only add a pucky or two at a time and the worms will love it! The down side is the possibility of seeds sprouting from what the horse has eaten, though. An alternative would be to soak a half a bucketful of the manure in water for a while, stirring occasionally, and let seeds sprout and die before adding to the worm tower: I would use the liquid from the bucket on the garden, and add the solids to the worm tower.

I had a neighbor promise me some manure from their horses and cows that they keep on a different property, but she has not followed through and I don't want to pester her. I did offer to collect it myself, but she declined, so I think I will just have to look for another source... Some folks down the road have horses on site, so I will probably ask them.

What kind of chicks did you order?

 

[Kikiriki]

Kortmom, I finally got some pictures loaded into an album about the things we chatted about:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/a/6448971/earthworms/

 

[kortmom]

Love the pictures! The baby worms are so small, they would be easy to miss. You are a pro handling them! I havent actually touched my worms yet. They still kind of freak me out, lol. I went out tonight and peaked inside and didnt see anyone. I didnt use a stick to look under the bedding, but I will in the morning. I have 2 raised beds that each contain 2 towers, so I would assume if the worms left the towers, they would be in the beds. One of my towers didnt get very many worms. I didnt want to touch them so I kind of held the bag as far away from my body as I could and dumped little bits in each one. One of the towers got a huge clump because they were balled together and I did go back and steal some of them with a fire pit tool before the rest disappeared under the bedding. I am sure nature will level out the numbers. I will get braver as I deal with them, but a giant mass of wiggly bodies makes me nervous.

My chicks will be 2 RIR, 2 buff orps and 2 easter eggers. My father will have my coop all built by the end of the week and then I can get to staining it. i will post pictures of my coop, my chicks,
and my worm towers in my raised beds in a few days.

 

[Kikiriki]

Love the pictures! The baby worms are so small, they would be easy to miss. You are a pro handling them! I havent actually touched my worms yet. They still kind of freak me out, lol. I went out tonight and peaked inside and didnt see anyone. I didnt use a stick to look under the bedding, but I will in the morning. I have 2 raised beds that each contain 2 towers, so I would assume if the worms left the towers, they would be in the beds. One of my towers didnt get very many worms. I didnt want to touch them so I kind of held the bag as far away from my body as I could and dumped little bits in each one. One of the towers got a huge clump because they were balled together and I did go back and steal some of them with a fire pit tool before the rest disappeared under the bedding. I am sure nature will level out the numbers. I will get braver as I deal with them, but a giant mass of wiggly bodies makes me nervous.

My chicks will be 2 RIR, 2 buff orps and 2 easter eggers. My father will have my coop all built by the end of the week and then I can get to staining it. i will post pictures of my coop, my chicks,
and my worm towers in my raised beds in a few days.

The thing that got me past being icked by the worms was the wonderful earthy clean smell of the bins after I had them a little while. I was kind of amazed that the smell we associate to rich soil is exactly the odor in the bin... Also, learning about how they so efficiently clean out harmful organisms by digesting them just made me flat out admire this amazing creature! I wore nitrile gloves for a few months, though, I confess!

Can't wait to see your pictures!

 

[Kikiriki]

Garden tower with worm tower:

http://gardentowerproject.com/

Just saw this on youtube and went to their site. This is a very cool idea! Combines the low square footage advantage and water conservation of a garden tower with the benefit of castings: wish I'd thought of it!

The only thing I would change is to add wheels and handles for mobility. In the north black would be better than white for spring planting, I think. The green of the plants would keep it cool once it grows out. The extra warmth from the heat absorbing black would also get the worms active sooner in the spring.

I bet some DIYers could figure out how to heat and melt a 50 gal food grade plastic drum to make a homemade version, too... It is around $300 dollars with reduced shipping cost (half of normal right now). I imagine the cost will come down a bit a they make sales and get on their feet. They started using the crowd source funding, which is something I like, too: the average folks sticking together... No, I didn't invest...i just get excited by good ideas!

I would like to know where the parts are made. I didn't see it on the website, but I also didn't look very hard. I have little hope of US manufactured for anything, anymore...

 

[Kikiriki]

After thought: I bet it could go right in a chicken run, too. Let the chickens have plants from down low, with replacements for them started in pots (sneak in at night and replant and throw the plant nubs from the tower into the compost tube) and the chickens could dine on any worms that crawl out!

 

[TulsaChick]

My husband does mealworms. We got them from eBay. Put them in a Rubbermaid container with chick starter feed and sliced potatoes. They cycle from worm to beetle. The girls love them. The worms leach onto the potatoes. Stick a fork in the potato and serve it to the hens. Then we put new potatoes in. Easy

 

[gaitngirl]

Garden tower with worm tower:

http://gardentowerproject.com/

Just saw this on youtube and went to their site. This is a very cool idea! Combines the low square footage advantage and water conservation of a garden tower with the benefit of castings: wish I'd thought of it!

The only thing I would change is to add wheels and handles for mobility. In the north black would be better than white for spring planting, I think. The green of the plants would keep it cool once it grows out. The extra warmth from the heat absorbing black would also get the worms active sooner in the spring.

I bet some DIYers could figure out how to heat and melt a 50 gal food grade plastic drum to make a homemade version, too... It is around $300 dollars with reduced shipping cost (half of normal right now). I imagine the cost will come down a bit a they make sales and get on their feet. They started using the crowd source funding, which is something I like, too: the average folks sticking together... No, I didn't invest...i just get excited by good ideas!

I would like to know where the parts are made. I didn't see it on the website, but I also didn't look very hard. I have little hope of US manufactured for anything, anymore...

I had seen that a while back and was trying to figure out how to make my own, lol. I showed it to my BIL to see if he could figure out what kind of tool could be used to melt and shape the openings . . . It reminds me of a giant strawberry pot of sorts. I wanted one as soon as I saw it but I'm not spending $300 dollars on one!!!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

My son-in-law and daughter lived by a lake for a while and loved to fish so I made them a worm bin. Took a very large nursery pot - the type that trees come in. A large black trash can lid fit right on top of it to keep the worms in. I put screen mesh in the bottom to keep soil and worms in. Filled it with compost, shredded newspaper, dirt. Then dug a hole the size of the pot in their backyard [the hardest part, had my son do it]. Put it in a spot that got afternoon shade. Put some small rocks in the bottom of the hole for drainage and then sunk the nursery pot into the hole. Went to the bait store and got several containers of bait worms and put them in the pot. A little oatmeal and garden trimmings were added and some water but not much. Put the top on and told them to "feed and water" the pot a few times a week.

Not scientific - I'd never done it before - and may not be the type of worms we'd want for chickens but it worked like a charm and he had bait worms all summer and fall. Don't know how they did over the winter as they moved from the house. Whoever moved in either had a great pot of compost or a bunch of worms sunk in the dirt!

 

[Kikiriki]

Garden tower with worm tower:

http://gardentowerproject.com/


Just saw this on youtube and went to their site. This is a very cool idea! Combines the low square footage advantage and water conservation of a garden tower with the benefit of castings: wish I'd thought of it!


The only thing I would change is to add wheels and handles for mobility. In the north black would be better than white for spring planting, I think. The green of the plants would keep it cool once it grows out. The extra warmth from the heat absorbing black would also get the worms active sooner in the spring.


I bet some DIYers could figure out how to heat and melt a 50 gal food grade plastic drum to make a homemade version, too... It is around $300 dollars with reduced shipping cost (half of normal right now). I imagine the cost will come down a bit a they make sales and get on their feet. They started using the crowd source funding, which is something I like, too: the average folks sticking together... No, I didn't invest...i just get excited by good ideas!


I would like to know where the parts are made. I didn't see it on the website, but I also didn't look very hard. I have little hope of US manufactured for anything, anymore...

I had seen that a while back and was trying to figure out how to make my own, lol. I showed it to my BIL to see if he could figure out what kind of tool could be used to melt and shape the openings . . . It reminds me of a giant strawberry pot of sorts. I wanted one as soon as I saw it but I'm not spending $300 dollars on one!!!

It is out of my price range, too. I would think a heated cast iron pan and/or a heat gun would soften the plastic so it could be cut and shaped, and use a metal or glass bowl to shape it. I have seen the drums on CL from free to $80 here... Pvc vent and waste tube is under $5, caps are a couple of $ each for 2, a catch bowl $1 at the dollar store, wheels find an old bed frame to get them from, rope for handles, wood for legs free from scrap, or even cut a bed frame... Support for pvc tube....hmmmm... No ideas here... Thin pvc, maybe... So could be made for well under $100 if one is resourceful....