I’ve recently moved the worm tub into the kitchen where I can keep a closer eye on it. I’ve been feeding them a nice supply of ground coffee beans, egg shells, carrot and potato peelings, apple cores and any other green leafy remains from the kitchen.
Upon my investigation this morning I found my tub teeming with the life. The little critters are thriving! …
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| As minhocas sao malucas! 🙂 |
They actually looked a little crowded in there!
Luckily I’ve been getting a little spot all ready for the migration of a new population wanting to be inspired by the great outdoors. I’ve set up an old bath tub (part of an exchange deal for those goats I had) just under the shade of some wattle trees where I hope that they will remain cool enough in summer …
The bath tub was not in great condition. It had some rust holes in the bottom of it which I put some wire mesh and cardboard over to stop the little fellows from falling out and with it being the way it is it won’t really be possible for me to harvest worm juice, however I’m considering setting up a small herb garden, and maybe also something like strawberries around the tub so that the plants can make use of the runoff.
The whole worm thing is still in experimental stages. I’ve been experimenting with putting them into the composting loo and seeing how well they can help to break that down. No clear results yet but the research is saying it’s a good move. I’ve also learnt that if your cat or dog is on a good diet and not taking any antibiotics then the worms will also appreciate some of theirs. Could be an option, but so far Jobi has been doing his business away from main traffic areas so that doesn’t seem to be anything that would work right now.
One thing that I do see in future is having a large scale set up that I can use to create a closed loop cycle with respects to feeding chickens, ducks and perhaps even fish in aqua culture ponds. They are very low maintenance and their population seems to adjust with respects to the food that is available. I thought that with temperatures getting as low as 0 here during winter that they would not be doing so well and that the population would have come down but as you can see from the pic above they are obviously finding strength (and warmth?) in numbers!
Some interesting facts on Red Wrigglers:
Red Wrigglers (Eisenia Andrei) are one of the most common composting worm in the world. They are prolific breeders, and can lay one egg (capsule) every 7 days. Each egg can contain between 4 to 10 worms. The eggs are like small green grape seeds when laid, and turn a brownish red colour before they hatch. They take 3 weeks to hatch. Once the worms hatch, they take 3 to 4 months to mature and begin the breeding cycle again. Red Wrigglers can live for 4 to 5 years.
Composting worms can eat up to their own weight in food each day. They actually eat the bacteria growing on the dead organic matter. Bacteria usually causes unpleasant odours but in a worm farm the worms keep it in check so there is no smell. The term Composting Worm relates to the fact that these particular worms only burrow down in the top 300mm of soil. They’re well suited for warmer climates.
They are an excellent worm in a bed of manure ensuring healthy happy worms in your worm farm. All worms have both male and female sexual organs. A healthy worm farm will have an abundance of insect life.
(Interesting facts courtesy of Brians Worms)
Grain recipe for fattening your worms for your fishes or chickens:
~2 cups of Oatbran
~1 cup of Pollenta (Corn Meal)
~1 hand full of Dolomite or 12 egg shells put through a blender till fine powder
Mix together and feed to your worms.Recipe courtesy of The Worm Expert.
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