My worms sure hate the "cold shoulder"

[Jay Blair]

But I sure do like the easy harvesting of the cheap "Big Chill Harvester' I made by putting a screen bottom in a salvaged steak cooler I received a shipment of Omaha Steaks in as a Christmas present (ain't no way I would pay that much for steaks and burgers myself )

This is a variation of the ice bottle migration castings harvest technique I shared here in the bin harvesting thread a few months back. Then I was just concerned with migrating the worms from the castings. Today my goal was to harvest worm mass for a local chicken farmer whom I barter with.

While I used a salvaged styrofoam cooler , any cheapo cooler or even plastic lined cardboard box will work with window screen as a bottom.

Today I harvested out the majority of the worms from a fished 60 qt tub in about 4 hours while watching TV.

I made the worms hibernate migrate by putting 6 or 7 inches of worms and finished castings in the screen bottomed cooler then I put 3 liter soda bottles of ice in on top of the castings and put the lid on.

I set the cooler over a collection bin and as the worms went down to avoid the cold, they fell into the collection bin.
After going through the contents of the bin, I had worms about 2 inches thick in the collection bin.

I added a bit of bait cup nutrient mix and vegetable water to maintain them as I will harvest two more finished bins tomorrow to trade for some slaughtered chickens.

So if you have a deep freezer, old styro cooler, some window screen and a few 3 liter bottles , you got a worm harvester.

[JudyA]

With small bins, your earlier suggestion of making a migratory bin that sits on top of the castiings and bedding, hoping to coax the worms up into the next level begins to look better and better.

I'm so lazy, I keep a small stool to save my back while working the bins, I still get it between the shoulder blades will sorting worms from castings and harvesting the bins all at once.

If I could use this chill method or the extra bin method to get most of them to move, it would be really nice.

I hope by next year I can have some outdoor bins and expand. Right now, I know they are too crowded in the bins, although they keep reproducing.

[Jay Blair]

Its always better to let the worms do the work.