Want To See 674 Worm Cocoons? Here They Are!
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- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- Hi! Ever wonder what 674 worm cocoons look like? In this video you get to see exactly what that looks like! I’ve decided to combine a few grow out bins for a couple of reasons. 1) Less bins are easier to manage and 2) I’ve set up several breeder bins recently and in the process greatly reduced the worm population in the grow out bins I took the worms from.
To combine bins I need to ‘get rid of’ a lot of the bedding that was in the bin that’s going away. So I’m sifting out the bedding and will put it in my garden. However there’s A LOT of cocoons in the sifted bedding and I am not willing to put those into the garden - I want those cocoons in my bins!
So I hand picked out cocoons to add back into the consolidated bin, effectively repopulating it without overflowing it with bedding from the bin I want to eliminate. You get to see the results of that cocoon hand picking - 674 cocoons!
Please comment below - does it look like there’s that many cocoons? Is the pile bigger or smaller than you expected? Would YOU ever pick out hundreds of cocoons? Where would you stop?
And of course, if you have any questions, ask away!
If you enjoy my videos, please like and subscribe! I would really appreciate it ❤️
Yours in the dirt,
Jayne
#redwigglers #vermicompost #worms #cocoons
LOL good sense of humor
Wow wow
Terribly cool that you shared this and to learn about that stage. Thanks for sharing!
Denae
I think it’s cool too ❤️. It’s both surprising and shocking to me that there’s that many cocoons in that sized pile.
If I get a chance to learn to edit (!!) I have pictures of 1,000 and 2,000 cocoons I’ve picked out of breeder bins in the last few months. Yep, I did that 😆
Oh wow, now that I see it that looks a lot harder than counting worms!!! Like you said we were probably counting at the same time!! I think I'd need reading glasses and a magnifying glass!!! Excellent video!!🪱🪱🪱
Reading glasses are enough for me and my eyes are getting worse by the day it seems. Older age sucks 🤣
It’s actually not hard just a bit time consuming. A bright light is just as important as the glasses!
Thanks for watching it. I appreciate you taking the time ❤️
Hi Jayne. I was just wondering if a straw cut in a bevel will help pick out these cocoons without squeezing them. Just a thought. I will try it out one of the days and let you know. Thanks for sharing the video. Take care and stay blessed. ❤
Another youtuber noticed for their breeder bins, cocoons hatched sooner/grew quicker when they added a couple adolescents and adults to all their cocoons. Sort of like a small group of caretakers lol.
Since at first their strategy/idea was to have all the cocoons into 1 bin and keep adding cocoons to that 1 bin. They noticed the later ones hatching a lot quicker.
Hello! Yes exactly! I mention that I do the same thing - leave several worms in the cocoon/nursery bin when I take the breeders out. Here’s the link:
ReSetting Breeder Bin - New Method of Separating the Adults from the Cocoons
ua-cam.com/video/VSvR4esqFK8/v-deo.html
Excellent Video 👍👍
To know that you have 674 cocoons I am assuming you hand-picked them, I know what that is like.
Great point about the larger worms producing larger cocoons and the ease of siftings larger cocoons. Also, larger cocoons have more hatchlings emerge from them than smaller cocoons. Did you know that when a hatchling comes out of its cocoon it usually takes about 15 minutes after the hatch to pick up its pigment, it rarely takes more than 2 hours. Also Did you know that cocoons are laid green and in the case of RWs and ENCs it takes about 24 hours for them to turn yellow. The ANCs it can take up to 72 hours before they turn yellow. After yellow they turn orange up until hatch, then after hatch they turn black. Another thing to mention about cocoons is that if they are collected when yellow or orange and stored in dried bedding or dry castings, they can turn to a teal color and look like a fertilizer ball. The teal cocoons still hatch once introduced back into the right environment.
Enjoy worms and have a wonderful Day!
I love all the info you are sharing! If you’re able to share links or reference material names that would be even awesome-er! 😂. I’ve read quite a few research papers to learn more about worms and am eager to read some more.
On average 2-3 worms emerge per cocoon. Ann @Plant Obsessed - definitely check her videos out as she shares a lot of researched information which I love - puts some of her near to hatch cocoons under the microscope. She’s said on her channel that the bigger cocoons can hatch out 4-5 babies!
I am still wondering how to harvest cocoons on a larger scale. Hand picking thousands might serve as a good meditation, though.
Hi! Welcome to the Castings Crew! There’s a couple of ways to tackle cocoon collection. The deciding factor for me is how many cocoons do I want to ‘save’. By that I mean collect them as cocoons and place or keep in a cocoon bin. Any cocoons not ‘saved’ either stay in a grow out bin or get out with castings into a castings bucket to be added to the garden or to be collected later out of the castings bucket when they’ve hatched and gown into bigger worms.
It should be noted that there’s no way to ‘save’ or ‘pick out’ every cocoon. It’s a matter of pulling out 75% vs 85% vs 95%. The more time you spend on separating cocoons out the more you’ll have in a collection. The trade off is personal choice.
If I have the time, I enjoy picking cocoons. It is zen. It’s also very cool to see how many are actually on a breeder or grow out bin. It’s a good way to gauge the health of a bin too. You’ll save the most cocoons this way, especially after you get your eye trained to see them 😊. You’ll miss some as noted before, but not many.
The next way is to sift them out. The majority of cocoons (we are talking red wigglers and ENCs) will be caught by a combination of sifting thru a 1/8” mesh screen over a 1/12” mesh screen. However there will also be a lot of castings caught too, especially by the 1/8” screen. So you can dry the castings down quite a lot and therefore sift out more of the castings, leaving behind the cocoons. Cocoons are very resilient and can take the dry down.
You can of course do a combo, which is what I do most often. I sift using the 2 screens then pick out cocoons from the castings caught between the 2 screens. The few cocoons that go thru the 1/12” screen I don’t worry about 😊. The cocoon free castings are then added to the castings let headed to the garden along with the 1/12” sifted castings.
I haven’t found a better way to separate cocoons from castings gs yet but I’m sure open for any suggestions!! I hope this gave you some ideas ❤️🪱👍
Awesome. That was a mountain of cocoons. ❤❤❤
I think so too! It took me a few hours to pick them all out 😳
Thanks for watching and commenting!
So how long will it take for them to grow out?
@@CrackerFL It’s more of a range of dates. The cocoons take a minimum of 23 days, many hatch in 4-6 weeks from date laid, but some can take months or survive a winter and hatch when the temps warm back up.
Red wigglers are considered to be juveniles once hatched. Any a few days old are often called wisps. It can take 60-100 days for a juvenile to reach sexually maturity although a few sites report 40 days to maturity - which is how ‘doubling in 60 days’ happens. Bin temperature, moisture levels and food availability effects every stage of their life cycle. Obviously the more ideal the conditions, the more worms will mature at peak rates. I think it’s more realistic to home conditions to expect a 3-4 month range for hatching to maturity to laying cocoons. I haven’t done an experiment to see that for myself but I believe AV has.
Your video inspired me to collect some data on my first breeding setup: 100 mature red wigglers spent 21 days in a 1.6 gallon container (originally held fresh spinage). Bedding consisted of Coco coir, shredded cardboard, some coffee grounds (not precomposed). Sprinkled homemade worm chow. Added Banana peel. Took out the mature worms at about 21 days and made an inventory of results this weekend, counted 610 cocoons.
They are now in a nursery bin, will do an inventory in a few weeks to see the rate of hatching.
Thanks for all the great videos you make providing lots of tips and inspiration, the sifting pans you recommended are a great tool.
My next project is the making of pre-composted bedding.
Malin
Hi Malin! That’s is fantastic! Your reproduction rate leaves mine in the dust! You got over 2 cocoons per worm per week and I got just over 1. You used a 1.6 gallon container - how much bedding did you actually use in there? I assume is wasn’t filled to the brim…? Do you have plans to scale up the number of breeders in the bin space to see where it begins to taper off?
You’ve provided great data for everyone to use to manage their worm population growth - thank you!! It also goes to show that bigger (more breeders per bin) isn’t necessarily the way to get the most cocoons per worm. I always did suspect that was the case, which is one reason I don’t use the 1,000 breeders per square foot of surface area method. Of course, less density also means more bins and more time needed to manage the bins and that’s a trade off individuals, and even more so commercial entities, need to balance.
But having the base data and knowledge allows for a more informed decision to be made. Again, excellent information you’ve provided! 🪱❤️🪱
Did you get the sifting pans from CAL Ranch? Just curious 🤨. I’m eager to see how your worms like the pre-compost when you get there 😎.
I think the surface area may be a factor, the footprint of the container is smaller than any typical bin. The container is slightly tapered, at the top the inside is 10 3/4" by 6.5". Bedding depth about 3.5.
I covered bedding with paper (wet) and a piece of plastic bag similar to your method. Stored in basement which is humid this time of year, sp after all the rain.
Yes ordered from Cals ranch.
@@malgood9624 If my math is right you have just under 1/2 square foot of surface area. The base starting point for worm keeping is 200 worms per square foot of surface area so you’re just a bit over that with 100 worms with slightly under 1/2 sq ft. of surface area.
For my bins that would mean about 500 worms. I’ve gone higher density with an average of 850 worms per bin.
And that circles back to trade offs. More cocoons per worm vs more cocoons per space/bin.
Here’s the other - or I should another - factor to consider. How easy is it to separate out cocoons if there is a need or desire to have maximum cocoons in a nursery bin. There’s a need for me to do that since my space available is on the small side. I needed to be able to combine cocoons from several breeder bins into one bin. I don’t have the ability to add 3 new cocoon bins every 3 weeks to my set up. That’s what drove me to improve my bedding so I can sift out 1/3 of the breeder bin bedding directly into a castings bucket. An additional 1/3 sifts into a bin where I can easily pick out cocoons. The last 1/3 of bedding is what has the majority of cocoons and under processed or clumpy bedding/castings and goes into the nursery bin. With this sifting I can combine 3 breeder bin cocoon results into just one nursery bin. Huge space savings.
I’m going to post this and start a new response to continue :)
OMG! That cocoon at 5:20 was hatching in your hand! The most upper left one on the screen. How cool is that!
You have the patience of a saint to be able to hand-pick and count that many cocoons. I also have no life outside of my worms, but can't imagine the tedium of going through that. Pretty amazing that you did that. 👏👏
Hi Evelyn! Thanks for pointing out the hatching! I hope others will see it too❤. I’ve had many a cocoon hatch in my hand. It is very cool indeed! If I can ever put together an hour to learn basic editing I’ll be able to show clips of hatching cocoons I have from my bins.
I do alot in the evenings when I’m winding down from the busy day. Shred cardboard, make paper planting cups, make seed tape, pick out cocoons. I’m not good at just sitting idle 😂
I have pics of 1,000 and 2,000 cocoons I’ve picked out from my breeder bins! I was seeing how the breeders were producing so I could judge if my new bedding ‘formula’ was worm approved. Once I learn to edit I’ll be sharing those pics as well.
Lastly, if I’m enjoying what I’m doing - shredding cardboard or counting worms while relaxing with hubby at the end of the day - that’s enough life for me! ❤
Thanks for watching and commenting - it helps me a lot in getting established - and I hope to hear from you again soon! Take care!
I saw that too and was about to write that but saw your time stamp! I also noticed that there were a few whisps, right above the area where you pulled the 2nd cocoon from.
Jane you don’t have to apologize about enjoying your hobby! There are folks that gamble for 5 hrs straight or knit all day or watch UA-cam all night. I figure worm wrangling is a pretty safe and therapeutic hobby. Also, you could have just flipped that napkin over and called it done, those baby worms would have found their way off it 😅
@@marlenen6130 Hi Marlene! I’m so glad all of you are catching activity in the bins that I can’t while filming. It makes me smile that you’re watching and probably yelling ‘There! Right there Jayne!” while I’m searching for a worm or cocoon or whatever to show you 😆. At one point in the video I’m looking for a cocoon and there’s like 3 stuck to my glove! Too funny! I realized I could have simply turned over the napkin just like you say - afterward. 🙄. Maybe next time I’ll remember that 🤣!
Oh, I’m not apologizing as I know you know ❤️. People need to make themselves happy in good ways and this happens to be my way - and yours too! - for right now. Good on us!
I saw that too! How cool!
🌹🪱🙏❤🥀
You can say you have a farm with hundred of employees. Lol!
🤣👍
@@RockinWorms I guess they would be 1099's for tax purposes
@@CrackerFL Independent contractors. They know their job and the best thing to do it let them do it.
That was so neat seeing all those cocoons! I bet it took awhile to pick all those out. I started my first worm bin late January. I just tried to see if I could find a cocoon yesterday. I have trouble seeing them apparently. But luckily my daughter had the eyes to spy them. She saw one in my hand before I did 😂. It was pretty exciting seeing them for the first time.
It did! But I put on a movie I already know by heart and listen vs watching and pick away. It’s oddly satisfying 😂
Oh how exciting for you!! Congratulations 🎉. Get yourself a bright light and a pair of reading glasses - totally necessary tools. Look for the sheen on the cocoons. That’ll help too. You’ll get better with practice!
I'm guessing these were red wigglers? I sorted cocoons from my European nightcrawlers last weekend and the younger ones were green. As a beginner, I wish the pros would acknowledge which breed they were discussing and mention the life cycle, food preference and physiological differences of each. Do all cocoons hatch on the same time cycle or are some slower to emerge? Well, I guess it doesn't really matter as long as they are doing their jobs. Thanks for sharing your practices. It's good to learn from you.
Hello! You’re absolutely right - I should be more aware of specifically saying what worm species I’m talking about. I’m going to try much harder to do so. I only have red wigglers so tend to forget people may not know that. My bad🙁. Thanks for pointing that lapse out.
I’m afraid you’re going to have to watch multiple videos to get all the information you need and want. Otherwise videos would be hours long! And while some videos certainly are that long, most of us try to keep them under 25 minutes in order to respect the time viewers have to devote to watching a single video.
I’m glad to hear what kind of information you are looking for! I often take ideas from what people comment and make videos to address those topics. I’m particularly interested in the topics that new people want to know. While I love watching the videos of worm farmers much more experienced than I am, I do think that sometimes it’s forgotten that not everyone has base knowledge yet. I’d like to fill that gap in a bit.
Thanks so much for watching and giving me valuable feedback!
You’re asking some great questions! Red wigglers and European nightcrawlers are genetic cousins and are in the same species. This is relatively new information based on DNA analysis- they were previously thought to be different species hence the very different common names. So these 2 types of worms, being the same species, share many traits - food and environmental preferences, same cocoon gestation period (23-27 days up to over a year), life span, etc.
Indian blues and African nightcrawlers are 2 other common composting worms and both are different species from red wigglers and each other. I only have general knowledge about them and suggest other worm video makers would be better sources of information on them.
There’s so much to learn about compost worms! Taking it in manageable amounts is probably best 😊.
Thanks again for watching! I hope to hear more from you ❤️
@@RockinWorms I just watched your recent video about "worm terms." Great job. Thanks for all the information you share. I enjoy watching and learning from you.
Is it better to have a worm bin with mixed ages or all the same age?
Hi! Thanks for your question! I’d say that age of the worms isn’t as important as how developed they are. What I mean is, you can start with worms all being hatched on the same day or even during a 7 day period for example. They’re the same age, right? BUT they will develop at different speeds. They are individuals. Each has its own unique genetic code guiding its growth, ultimate size, personality (yep! They have personalities!), etc.
Then you add in things like where in the bin are they. Is this worm right next to food and can eat without expending energy that can now go into growth? Or is that worm having to forage a bit more for food and this have that small amount of energy not available for growth? Was the worm in a moist environment and breathing easy? Or in a drier section and not getting quite as much oxygen? While these factors might seem minimal, we’re talking about very small animals. Small differences can have big impacts. That’s why we want to focus more on providing optimal care to our worms - the right amount of food and water, appropriate space to live in, etc - than what the age of the worms in a bin are. Fortunately red wiggler worms peacefully coexist (some worms are territorial) across all age categories so it’s one thing you don’t have to worry about. Which is not the case with other animals, such as my mealworms.
I hope this answers your question! If not, let me know and I’ll try again 😊
That depends on what you are doing with your worms and what your personal expectations are.
For me I have worm bins that are bed-run. The bed-run bins are of mixed ages and produce worms that are smaller because of very large populations with occasional larger worms. The bed-run bins I have no idea of the age of the worms (they raise themselves).
I also grow worms in buckets, in the buckets there are breeder buckets, hatching buckets and grow out buckets. The worms in buckets are all sized from cocoon. The advantage is I can grab a bucket and have a good idea of how old the worms are, and the worms are all generally the same length in each bucket. With the ANCs and ENCs being used for fishing or the enjoyment of having large worms it allows one to grow them to their maximum size in gith and length. Encs max out at 6" and get as fat as a ball point pen at its largest part. ANCs max out at 17" in length. The ANCs are rarely grown larger than 12" most commonly grown to 6" to 8" in length untrenched and as big in circumference as the smaller Crayola markers.
If you goal is to have large worms nothing beats aging and sizing them from cocoon, it does however require a lot of worm bins for the different stages of growth/life cycle of the worms. The area to grow the worms can actually be quite small when buckets are used. The space to hold yards of compost or peat (reed sedge) and tons of castings is larger than the area to grow the worms.
If you are interested in growing large worms on a small scale, I would suggest growing them bed-run and hand picking out 100 worms 3.5' to 4" long per gallon to start out. If you want to start out on a larger scale right from cocoons, I suggest the UNCO method. Here is a link with some information about the UNCO method. vermiculture.com/business-startup/the-unco-system/
Enjoy worms and have a great Day!
Wow! That’s some great information! Thanks so much for sharing! Even those of us doing worms on a much smaller scale that what you’re doing can learn a thing or two and apply it to our worms bins. Thanks again for sharing all of that 😊
The different worms lay diff sizes of eggs?
Hi! Yes they do, most noticeably when you change species. My understanding is that Indian blues lay very awry small cocoons. African nightcrawlers cocoons will be generally bigger than cocoons from the esenia (red wigglers and euros) family of worms.
Additionally within species the bigger fatter worms will have bigger cocoons. I’d like to try selective breeding at some point in the future to see if I can gets bins of bigger red wigglers laying bigger cocoons so that sifting them out will be much easier.
Excellent question! 👍🪱❤️
@@RockinWorms thanks is something we did not know
It is now almost 2 years that I have a worm bin but I never got cocoons, any tips?
Hello! Let me ask you 2 questions first to help me gauge what’s happening. Does your worm bin have worms in it now? Have you added any worms to it after your initial worm set up 2 years ago?
We’ll figure this out!
@@RockinWorms yes I have initially started with about 100 worms, I have added 2000 more worms in January. Thanks for the reply back
@@atraderdiary hi again. Since you added new worms in relativity recently it’s not as easy to answer - we have to be detectives! If you hadn’t added worms but still had some worms, they would have to had been breeding during the 2 years even if you never saw a cocoon. And maybe you did see worms still in the bin before you added the 2,000?
But let’s assume the original worms died off. You’ve got a new batch and want to be sure they’re breeding. It’s going to take some time and a little effort on your part but nothing crazy. Gather a few supplies to make this easier on yourself: a bright light that you can shine right over your work space. I use a bright table top lamp. Others use those headlamps things that you wear on your… head 😂. Next get a pair of magnifying glasses. Depending on your base eyesight - mine stinks - get at least 2x magnification but go higher as needed. A pair of decent tweezers and a small flat bowl rounds out the equipment. If you don’t have tweezers then a matchstick or chop stick or even a pencil will work. You get the idea 😊
Now:
1) do you have adult worms. Can’t have cocoons without them. Go thru your bin and pick out a handful of the bigger worms you see. Put them in the flat bowl and give them a good looking at with your glasses and light on them. Do you see clitellum? You didn’t say - and I forgot to ask - what kind of worms do you have? I’m most familiar with red wigglers that have easy to see bulgy clitellum when breeding age. Other types of worms with also have a visible clitellum when mature but may be smooth to the body and harder to see. That’s why the glasses and light helps a lot.
2) let’s assume you have mature worms. If they aren’t then you won’t have cocoons - yet. Check back in a few weeks. But we’re assuming you do 😊. Put the worms back in the bin. 3) Now scoop out a handful of the bin bedding and place in the flat bowl. Using the tweezers gently pick or swirl thru the bedding looking for cocoons. Cocoons will be clean looking and usually have a slight sheen or shine to them - they will reflect some of that bright light you’re using back to your eyes. The bedding won’t. 2,000 worms is a good amount of worms. If they’re mature you’ll find cocoons after a scoop or 2. Give this a try. Let me know how it goes. If you don’t find any cocoons this way, we’ll move on to plan B - sifting. Fingers crossed for you!
@@RockinWorms thank you so much for the extensive guidance and answer. Answering few of your questions, yes I was still having some worm before adding, I have red wiggle. I will keep you posted.
@@RockinWorms so I took your advise and I went to look with magnifying glasses and not only I can confirm that I have adults but also that I have seen some cocoons some were on the dark side as you showed in the video. I am not sure how many they are but overall I am extremely happy 😊 - thank you!