Building your herd is easy as 1,2,3,4, A, B, C, D

[Jay Blair]

and can be done for no real money out your pocket if your patient . Plus the time you spend building the herd will give you the time you need for learning to be a worm farmer.

I will cover what I have learned by going through the "1,2,3,4,A,B,C,D sequence".

"1" is the start up, basically the first year into worm farming.

2 is the second year when you have evaluated your waste flows , established your predigestion, excess decomp systems and cultivated indigenous wild worms, purchased some stock or usedleft over bait worms.

3 is the year where your concentrating on deviding and expanding your herd and beginning your customer / business / use base.

4 is the last year of the sequence when your producing at least a usable biomass equal to your base "seed herd" volume and utilizing the " A, B, C, D " harvesting technique.

[Jay Blair]

Year 1, month 1, Step 1

Establish your first " specialized pieces of equipment "

These are a bucket , a 12 inch square cardboard box to use as a cubic foot form and dig a hole in a shady place of your yard near your outside water faucet if possible.

If you don't have access to a yard, then buy a couple 60 qt plastic bins and a 20 pound bag of cheap unscented kitty litter.

A recycled plastic one gallon ice creme bucket was my choice because of the no overhead cost

The last piece of equipment is a composition note book

[Jay Blair]

Year 1, Month 1 Step two

Place the ice creme bucket with lid in your kitchen to use as a slop jar to collect compostable wastes.

Even though at this time you don't have any worms, its advisable that you collect only the type of wastes that appeal to worms as this is the stage of progression during which you are evaluating your kitchen waste flow that will at least your initial nutrient stream for your worms when you begin actual worm farming.

You can keep the covered gallon bucket in the open or in the refrigerator to control odors and flies if opening a souring bucket will nauseate you.

If you have animals refrigerated storage is more logical.

[Jay Blair]

Year 1, Month 1 to Month 3, Step three

kitchen scrap collection and tally will occur during your first 8 to 10 weeks of developing your worm farm.

Add scraps such as fruits, vegetables, eggshells, cooked rice and pasta scraps , coffe grounds and tea bags with staples removed to the bucket.

It is advisable to chop all except tea bags into 1/4 inch dice as this gives you a better idea of food mass volume and when you get your worms this will assist in the prefeeding processing of the foodstuffs.

After you have your scrap bucket ready to go, start collecting the scraps and when the bucket is full, weigh the contents and dispose of the contents in the yard compost hole.

I prefer digging a 2 ft feep hole at a time and cover it with a bucket lid and cinder block to keep critters out.

Keep this up for a couple months at least to get an average of your waste productions and log it into your notebook.

[Jay Blair]

While you are computing your waste flow, you need to start constructing your bin.

Bins can be made from plastic totes, plastic bag lined cardboard boxes, 5 gallon buckets, old bath tubs or freezers and even Glad "flex force" garbage bags hung from a scrap lumber tripod as a continuous flow through system

There is no need to spend more than $6 for your first worm bin. Most definitely there is no need to purchase a commercially manufactured vermi-compost unit that can cost from $50 to over $200 plus shipping costs.

To learn more about available commercial bins and instructions on how to build your own and links to sites with free plans , check out our Worm bins category here at The Worms Turn.

[Jay Blair]

Year 1, Month 4

At this time you should have enough data to figure your waste output. Now comes the time to begin pre -composting wastes in a 5 gallon bucket digester and get the first bin ready.

Use a five gallon bucket with a snap on lid and add scraps slurry to it, but don't fill it too deep in case while the airborne yeasts and microbes are doing their thing the bucket "boils over" after the lid is on it.

After a week, it should be stirred to oxygenate and reduce anaerobic activity before adding to the aerobic worm bin environment.

Once the sludge is mixed into the bin as feed, the combination of worm consumption and normal bin tending will keep the anaerobic activity balanced.

Now on to the bin.

An easy first bin start is one built from a 60 quart plastic tote.

Punch some 1/8 to 1/4 inch drain holes in the bottom and set the top under it as a liquid catch tray.

Use some spacers to hold the bin a couple inches above the tray.

You wont need the lid to keep the worms in the bin. Light will keep them in the bin.

you can put pinhole sized hole patterns in the sides but its not necessary as long as the bedding isn't more than 12 inches deep in the tote.

A drill is the best way to put drain and vent holes in the bin. If you don't have a drill, an awl, icepick or coat hanger with a candle to heat the tip will work also.

If using a heat source, take precautions not to start an accidental fire as common sense would tell you

After the bin is modified or your bin is built using alternative methods, its bedding time.

Shredded junk mail or newspaper stripped by hand into thin strips so that the paper is loose packed to a depth of about 6 inches is all you need.

After the paper, add a depth of leaves such as oak, maple or elm from an outdoor pile. You might also find some indigenous worms.

Add the leaves to the paper and mix it up.

[tt]

I would like to disagree on the holes in the bottom of the tote. I never put holes in the bottom and only put holes in the sides and lid. I have found that if you dont over feed you wont have a fluid problem therefore you dont need drainage holes.

When i first started i followed the holes in the bottom theory and had nothing but trouble . I switched to top holes and have had no problems.

[Jay Blair]

tt said:

I would like to disagree on the holes in the bottom of the tote. I never put holes in the bottom and only put holes in the sides and lid. I have found that if you dont over feed you wont have a fluid problem therefore you dont need drainage holes.

When i first started i followed the holes in the bottom theory and had nothing but trouble . I switched to top holes and have had no problems.

I agree that as a grower becomes experienced, holes in the bottom of the bin are not necessary.

During the time I have instructed novice growers, I have found as much as 80% inadvertently overfeed and over water at least once until they harvest a couple times and learn "to feel" the bedding.
Bin bottom drain holes are an advantage to help preserve the limited amount of worms many begin herd cultivation with.

Proper drainage also eliminates the drowning risk completely and greatly reduces over moistening potentials.

As these instructions are geared to the novice, I maintain my position that they should utilize bottom drain holes.

As they gain experience and achieve larger herd masses, I agree with you that bin bottom drains are not that critical.

[Jay Blair]

Year 1 Month 5

Now that the bin is made and the dry bedding in place its time to start building that herd.

Some folks will go to the local bait store and buy a couple cups of bait worms . For about $6 in most areas that sell "red worm bait" you can get about 100 worms.

Generally the worms sold as "red worms" will fall into one of the two most common genus /species classifications from what I have read and heard in discussions. These are Eisenia fetida, Eisenia andrei and Lumbricus rubellus.

While many established growers find the night crawlers type of worm more desirable primarily for bait production and secondarily as composters, I personally do not advise beginning growers utilizing smaller quantities of worms to cultivate a start up herd until they have utilized the more hearty and active species I described above.

Regardless of what most all commercial suppliers say about the more expensive night crawler varieties of worms being as adaptable as the "red worms", I have been informed by more beginning growers that they find the crawlers harder to cultivate than the reds.

Most of the individual with whom I have had discussions with who initially failed at raising and cultivating night crawlers, succeeded in raising and cultivating the less expensive bait store red worms or indigenous wild harvest red worms.

Some after gaining experience in cultivation raising of reds have told me that they later progressed to raising night crawlers as they became more skilled at environmental control of their bins.

Next in this thread I will present what I ave learned of each type of worm that I have had experience with in setting up bins in my USDA hardness zone 7A /7B and 8A/8B setups.