want to grow worms like the professionals? I have personally taking this course and I wouldn’t recommend it unless I know it works. My affiliate link is below. The creator also allowed me to give you guys a 20% off coupon. Code is JoVee gardenlady--thebluewormbin.thrivecart.com/ewb-checkout/
coconut coir is a false sustainability. they process it in some terribly saline conditions and its pH is different to peat coir. maybe the pH is the reason for the less eggs issue
I don’t want to become a professional worm wrangler. I enjoyed your channel as interesting. Answering questions keeps the viewers, which keeps that UA-cam $ rolling in…
Hi V. I have been binging your videos for a couple of weeks now. I watch Donnie Laws too. I work for the City of KCMO and retirement is around the corner. I wanna be a worm farmer. I have a worm bin that I have managed to keep going since 2014. I'm trying to increase their numbers right now.
I have come to the same conclusions for cocoon production using coco choir vs peat moss. If you use Peat vs Peat Moss, you will find double the production with peat vs peat moss. If you have aged and sifted horse manure, you can double the cocoon production using peat moss by using 1 cup horse manure to 2 1/2-gal peat moss. If you can get to a local landscaper supplier, pick up some compost or peat for breeding and your cocoon numbers will double compared to using peat moss. The thing is if using compost or peat you absolutely have to use BTI (in the water) when setting up your breeder bins. Have a wonderful Day!
Thank you that is very very good advice! The problem is with my situation I don’t bring manure inside my house because my worm room is a finished room in my basement. If I ever decide to go outside with windroves or a shed or even my garage I will definitely do that. We live in a country and we are surrounded by farms.
Worms for life, your posts are my favorite non channel producer posts on UA-cam. What is the difference between peat and peat moss in your reply above. I assumed peat was short for peat moss. Also have you experimented with breeding increases using rabbit manure?
@@ericcarve4476 The are some differences between peat and peat moss. For one difference, out in the bog, peat moss is what is on top usually green to brown, light and fluffy with a small number of worms. Down deeper in the bog is peat, which is dark black in color, heavy and even has an oily appearance, it is actually ancient peatmoss that has been composting for 100s to 1000s of years. In the bog when you get down to the peat the worms are at very great numbers. For breeding purposes, the biggest difference is one is alive and the other is dead. Peat moss is baked in an oven compressed into bales and sold in box stores; it is void of life as it has to be for shipping purposes. Peat comes from local landscape suppliers and is alive with indigenous microorganisms. The living peat is what allows for healthier worms which is what gives a greater amount of cocoon production. The biggest benefit of using peat is the 100% conversion to worm castings in the allotted time for breeding using ANCs or ENCs. The ANCs are done at 14-day cycles and the ENCs are done at 21-day cycles. When breeding with peat moss in the 14-21-day time frame it is hard to get more than 50% conversion. In buckets with peat moss, one only gets the top 1" to 1 1/2" of pure castings and of course there are castings throughout the rest of the bedding that get sifted out. The thing is with peat moss and breeding to collect cocoons before they hatch there is not going to be a total conversion to castings and if one waits for total conversion there will be hatchlings to small juvenal's in the sifted castings which defeats the purpose of breeding. The purpose of breeding is to collect the cocoons before they hatch, that way the worms can be grown together and sized together from birth. Have you ever bought worms at a bait shop or gas station and noticed the worms are all the same size? They do not hand pick them; they grow them together from birth. These methods are actually raising worms, with these methods one can grab a bin or bucket and know when the worms were born, give or take a week for hatching, the birthdays are referenced as the sift date. Me personally, I do not breed red wigglers. They raise themselves I just manipulate their population doing splits. Concerning the rabbit manure, no I have not yet done any experiments with it. I know it is a cold manure, so it probably does not have to be aged, just dried out and pulverized/shredded and or sifted then remoistened after it is mixed with peat, peatmoss or compost. The reason it has to be dried and sifted is for it to be evenly mixed throughout the bedding. Compost works just as good as Peat for breeding worms and getting 100% conversion to castings. Some people may say that 100% casting conversion is not possible when breeding worms, well it is. One just has to use finely ground compost, peat or aged manures and ANCs or ENCs at the correct sized, numbers of worms to the correct amount of bedding for the correct amount of time. You can also use red wigglers at the ratio of 1lb worms to 1 gal bedding at 10-14-day intervals for pure castings and get a lot of cocoons but that is done more for knowing how many worms are on hand (inventory). Have a Great Day!
@@wormsforlife7352 I learn a lot from your replies. Thank you for the deep informative write up. You are in tune to worm logistics. You’ve been doing it long?
By contrast, you do the worm thing for a living or I guess at least sell them, but I do it just for fun. I have never in 20 or 25 years harvested cocoons or really even thought about it much. When I'm digging around the feed box and see there are a gazillion worms, I just grab a handful and start a new colony in a new tower and when that one gets full, I either start another new one or I put the worms out in the garden or introduce them to the chickens. 🤣
Exactly I separate the cocoons so I could put them in a special nursery to hatch and grow out for business purposes. But I also do what you do and just grab a fistful and put it in a container if I’m short on time. In January it will be 21 years I am worm farming but this is my second year as a business. I wish I could have chickens but I don’t have the time to take care of them. Maybe someday when I retire😂
I wonder if the difference in worm population in coco choir and peat moss could be due to the water retention of each medium. I've found that worms consume more but lay fewer cocoons in wet vs dry environments, so for instance if peat has greater water retention than coco choir then worms will eat more and reproduce less. I haven't run that experiment because although I used to use peat or choir when I start worm bins, I no longer do so. I just include some castings from the original source and use whatever brown is available, usually torn newspaper (not cut!). It's been a long time since I've used peat... It's gotten extraordinarily expensive and is a non-renewable resource so shouldn't be used frivolously. Choir is also more expense than I generally want to pay in setting up a worm bin, so wouldn't use it unless there was a good reason to do so.
I’ve had worms give me more cocoons in a wetter peat. Not so much in coconut coir. I also reuse bedding if it’s not finished. There are a lot of details I’ve learned and do in the wormery.
Thanks for sharing your operation. I generally don't separate cocoons and so price in the fact that any sales will likely be that much more beneficial to the buyer. But, I can definitely imagine scenarios where a greater priority has to be placed on long term accelerated growth of the herd, so there can be a purpose for separating and keeping cocoons, even if the worms from each cocoon might not have a measurable impact on production for a couple months(It takes time for the cocoon to hatch and the baby worm grows enough to consume enough to be noticeable). I wonder if separating cocoons is economically justifiable... That needs to be studied. This is because at least based on my personal observations worms consume more in a wetter environment. I speculate that when the mouths of worms are so tiny, they can't eat chunks of food directly, instead their main diet is likely the microorganisms that feast on spoiling food and the soupy nutrients that is the result of decomposition. The feces of worms in turn enhances the environment for the microorganisms which is the basis for the worm symbiosis with the microbiota. If you believe this is what is happening, then you'd think a wetter environment makes worms happier by making nutrients more available and possibly more comfortable for their sensitive skin. So, does a wetter worm bin that might enhance worm consumption offset the slightly lower population growth of a drier bin that might be necessary for using a machine like Harvey? Something to think about.
Trust me I retrieve the cocoons for a purpose. I’ve learned how the wall bin system function. Worms breed better in a wetter environment but watched closely . Worms don’t actually eat the food themselves they eat the micro organisms. I’ve observed different worms show different behaviors. I love worm farming I just do what works for me at the moment.
do you mean the yellow forks hanging on the racks? if so i don't use them often because they are too pinchy. I've switched to wooden spurtles. I have them for sale on my website. TheGardenAndWormLady.com
I've never seen so many bins in my life!! What a set up !!Awesomeness!! Super new but love it :) I wonder if it has anything to do with the different PH between cocco coir and peat ? Although it should probably be ph balanced after the worms have had it. Can see the differences between the material aswell. Again excellent set up !! Cheers from Victoria Canada Jason and Colleen 🌱🪱🌱
Because you're doing this commercially you really should use a CFT worm bin, doing it this way is very very slow and way to much labour used in hrs per return on product. Remove all your shelves and small tote bins and put in 2 CFT's 1 on each wall you'll do heaps more heaps faster👍
Oh gosh I’ve invested so much on these shelves I’m afraid they are staying😂 What I do want to do is hopefully expand into my garage. In the garage I would definitely have the space. As far as labor it’s not that bad because I stay on top of it. But with any job you got to give it your all. The biggest part of this is the mess😂
ua-cam.com/video/6f8-c1H87n0/v-deo.html In this video I talk about it we don’t have exact plans we just built it like we thought it would work. It works great but the Castings need to be on the dry side
Do you have a video on “Harvey”? I’m very interested in constructing my own harvester and have seen people use saws-alls to power it but was wondering if a concrete shaker would work better? What did y’all end up using? Thanks for sharing. 🪱 💐
want to grow worms like the professionals? I have personally taking this course and I wouldn’t recommend it unless I know it works. My affiliate link is below. The creator also allowed me to give you guys a 20% off coupon. Code is JoVee
gardenlady--thebluewormbin.thrivecart.com/ewb-checkout/
coconut coir is a false sustainability. they process it in some terribly saline conditions and its pH is different to peat coir. maybe the pH is the reason for the less eggs issue
I don’t want to become a professional worm wrangler. I enjoyed your channel as interesting. Answering questions keeps the viewers, which keeps that UA-cam $ rolling in…
adds to my knowledge of composting worms..thanks.....
Joe, Joe, Joe 💙 We ladies all wish we had a Joe Doll, like you do 💓😁💓😁 He really is a great guy 👍
He’s my BFF, I love him to pieces 😻
@@TheGardenAndWormLady I can tell you adore each other 💓💙💓
Vee’s my BFFL! 🥰
@@josephcolantonio5133 Hi Joe, You are a very fortunate man. Vee is a treasure 💓
You are adorable, worm lady.
Sifting made easy 👍🏻
Your shop looks great. 🙂
Hi V. I have been binging your videos for a couple of weeks now. I watch Donnie Laws too. I work for the City of KCMO and retirement is around the corner. I wanna be a worm farmer. I have a worm bin that I have managed to keep going since 2014. I'm trying to increase their numbers right now.
Oh my gosh that’s amazing I love it!!!
His videos are so soothing
I have come to the same conclusions for cocoon production using coco choir vs peat moss. If you use Peat vs Peat Moss, you will find double the production with peat vs peat moss. If you have aged and sifted horse manure, you can double the cocoon production using peat moss by using 1 cup horse manure to 2 1/2-gal peat moss.
If you can get to a local landscaper supplier, pick up some compost or peat for breeding and your cocoon numbers will double compared to using peat moss. The thing is if using compost or peat you absolutely have to use BTI (in the water) when setting up your breeder bins.
Have a wonderful Day!
Thank you that is very very good advice! The problem is with my situation I don’t bring manure inside my house because my worm room is a finished room in my basement. If I ever decide to go outside with windroves or a shed or even my garage I will definitely do that. We live in a country and we are surrounded by farms.
Worms for life, your posts are my favorite non channel producer posts on UA-cam. What is the difference between peat and peat moss in your reply above. I assumed peat was short for peat moss.
Also have you experimented with breeding increases using rabbit manure?
@@ericcarve4476 The are some differences between peat and peat moss. For one difference, out in the bog, peat moss is what is on top usually green to brown, light and fluffy with a small number of worms. Down deeper in the bog is peat, which is dark black in color, heavy and even has an oily appearance, it is actually ancient peatmoss that has been composting for 100s to 1000s of years. In the bog when you get down to the peat the worms are at very great numbers.
For breeding purposes, the biggest difference is one is alive and the other is dead. Peat moss is baked in an oven compressed into bales and sold in box stores; it is void of life as it has to be for shipping purposes. Peat comes from local landscape suppliers and is alive with indigenous microorganisms. The living peat is what allows for healthier worms which is what gives a greater amount of cocoon production. The biggest benefit of using peat is the 100% conversion to worm castings in the allotted time for breeding using ANCs or ENCs. The ANCs are done at 14-day cycles and the ENCs are done at 21-day cycles. When breeding with peat moss in the 14-21-day time frame it is hard to get more than 50% conversion. In buckets with peat moss, one only gets the top 1" to 1 1/2" of pure castings and of course there are castings throughout the rest of the bedding that get sifted out.
The thing is with peat moss and breeding to collect cocoons before they hatch there is not going to be a total conversion to castings and if one waits for total conversion there will be hatchlings to small juvenal's in the sifted castings which defeats the purpose of breeding.
The purpose of breeding is to collect the cocoons before they hatch, that way the worms can be grown together and sized together from birth. Have you ever bought worms at a bait shop or gas station and noticed the worms are all the same size? They do not hand pick them; they grow them together from birth. These methods are actually raising worms, with these methods one can grab a bin or bucket and know when the worms were born, give or take a week for hatching, the birthdays are referenced as the sift date.
Me personally, I do not breed red wigglers. They raise themselves I just manipulate their population doing splits.
Concerning the rabbit manure, no I have not yet done any experiments with it. I know it is a cold manure, so it probably does not have to be aged, just dried out and pulverized/shredded and or sifted then remoistened after it is mixed with peat, peatmoss or compost. The reason it has to be dried and sifted is for it to be evenly mixed throughout the bedding.
Compost works just as good as Peat for breeding worms and getting 100% conversion to castings.
Some people may say that 100% casting conversion is not possible when breeding worms, well it is. One just has to use finely ground compost, peat or aged manures and ANCs or ENCs at the correct sized, numbers of worms to the correct amount of bedding for the correct amount of time. You can also use red wigglers at the ratio of 1lb worms to 1 gal bedding at 10-14-day intervals for pure castings and get a lot of cocoons but that is done more for knowing how many worms are on hand (inventory).
Have a Great Day!
@@wormsforlife7352 I learn a lot from your replies. Thank you for the deep informative write up. You are in tune to worm logistics. You’ve been doing it long?
@@wormsforlife7352 also, got a social media address? I’d love a way for me to bounce some things off you. Have a great day too!
Interesting observation about the cocoons in peat moss vs coconut coir. I’ve mixed the two early on but now, I only use a little peat moss.
I like your setup. The worms look great! I am going to try some peat moss with leaves. Thanks for sharing.
I can’t wait till the leaves start flying here. My Worms go absolutely crazy. People go on my website and purchase them😊
By contrast, you do the worm thing for a living or I guess at least sell them, but I do it just for fun.
I have never in 20 or 25 years harvested cocoons or really even thought about it much.
When I'm digging around the feed box and see there are a gazillion worms, I just grab a handful and start a new colony in a new tower and when that one gets full, I either start another new one or I put the worms out in the garden or introduce them to the chickens. 🤣
Exactly I separate the cocoons so I could put them in a special nursery to hatch and grow out for business purposes. But I also do what you do and just grab a fistful and put it in a container if I’m short on time. In January it will be 21 years I am worm farming but this is my second year as a business. I wish I could have chickens but I don’t have the time to take care of them.
Maybe someday when I retire😂
I wonder if the difference in worm population in coco choir and peat moss could be due to the water retention of each medium.
I've found that worms consume more but lay fewer cocoons in wet vs dry environments, so for instance if peat has greater water retention than coco choir then worms will eat more and reproduce less.
I haven't run that experiment because although I used to use peat or choir when I start worm bins, I no longer do so. I just include some castings from the original source and use whatever brown is available, usually torn newspaper (not cut!). It's been a long time since I've used peat... It's gotten extraordinarily expensive and is a non-renewable resource so shouldn't be used frivolously. Choir is also more expense than I generally want to pay in setting up a worm bin, so wouldn't use it unless there was a good reason to do so.
I’ve had worms give me more cocoons in a wetter peat. Not so much in coconut coir. I also reuse bedding if it’s not finished. There are a lot of details I’ve learned and do in the wormery.
Thanks for sharing your operation.
I generally don't separate cocoons and so price in the fact that any sales will likely be that much more beneficial to the buyer.
But, I can definitely imagine scenarios where a greater priority has to be placed on long term accelerated growth of the herd, so there can be a purpose for separating and keeping cocoons, even if the worms from each cocoon might not have a measurable impact on production for a couple months(It takes time for the cocoon to hatch and the baby worm grows enough to consume enough to be noticeable).
I wonder if separating cocoons is economically justifiable... That needs to be studied. This is because at least based on my personal observations worms consume more in a wetter environment. I speculate that when the mouths of worms are so tiny, they can't eat chunks of food directly, instead their main diet is likely the microorganisms that feast on spoiling food and the soupy nutrients that is the result of decomposition. The feces of worms in turn enhances the environment for the microorganisms which is the basis for the worm symbiosis with the microbiota. If you believe this is what is happening, then you'd think a wetter environment makes worms happier by making nutrients more available and possibly more comfortable for their sensitive skin.
So, does a wetter worm bin that might enhance worm consumption offset the slightly lower population growth of a drier bin that might be necessary for using a machine like Harvey?
Something to think about.
Trust me I retrieve the cocoons for a purpose. I’ve learned how the wall bin system function. Worms breed better in a wetter environment but watched closely . Worms don’t actually eat the food themselves they eat the micro organisms. I’ve observed different worms show different behaviors. I love worm farming I just do what works for me at the moment.
Where did you get those forks, JoVee?
do you mean the yellow forks hanging on the racks? if so i don't use them often because they are too pinchy. I've switched to wooden spurtles. I have them for sale on my website. TheGardenAndWormLady.com
Thanks JoVee
I've never seen so many bins in my life!! What a set up !!Awesomeness!! Super new but love it :)
I wonder if it has anything to do with the different PH between cocco coir and peat ? Although it should probably be ph balanced after the worms have had it. Can see the differences between the material aswell.
Again excellent set up !!
Cheers from Victoria Canada
Jason and Colleen 🌱🪱🌱
Thank you so much I really appreciate that! You’re probably right about the pH. Ideal pH should be 7
@@TheGardenAndWormLady oh cool!! I know Peat has a low PH but balances quickly !!
We love Frank !!
How do you clean Harvey between species?
The sink, hot water, Dawn soap and a brush
@@TheGardenAndWormLady I wish I had a sink in the basement. Maybe someday.
Because you're doing this commercially you really should use a CFT worm bin, doing it this way is very very slow and way to much labour used in hrs per return on product.
Remove all your shelves and small tote bins and put in 2 CFT's 1 on each wall you'll do heaps more heaps faster👍
Oh gosh I’ve invested so much on these shelves I’m afraid they are staying😂
What I do want to do is hopefully expand into my garage. In the garage I would definitely have the space. As far as labor it’s not that bad because I stay on top of it. But with any job you got to give it your all. The biggest part of this is the mess😂
I love your videos! Check out Capt. Matt's breeder buckets for breeding.
I love his channel I’ve watched his videos many times😄
Yeah I too have found that peat moss is better for breeding
You know what though the coconut coir was easier to sift out 😅 but I’m gonna stick with the peat
Peat is much more nutritious as compared to cococoir, wonder if that is the reason.
What light does not bother the worms?
Red light
Is there a build a Harvy video?
ua-cam.com/video/6f8-c1H87n0/v-deo.html in this one I talk about it
@@TheGardenAndWormLady THANKS!!
Do you have plans for Harvey?
ua-cam.com/video/6f8-c1H87n0/v-deo.html In this video I talk about it we don’t have exact plans we just built it like we thought it would work. It works great but the Castings need to be on the dry side
I did my first worm castings harvesting my name is kenneth
That’s awesome!!!!
Why bother sorting the cocoons?
Because I have to set them up for separate hatching to sell
Do you have a video on “Harvey”? I’m very interested in constructing my own harvester and have seen people use saws-alls to power it but was wondering if a concrete shaker would work better? What did y’all end up using? Thanks for sharing. 🪱 💐
I was just talking to Joe about that today we are going to film a video and Joe is going to talk about Harvey and details about it😄
@@TheGardenAndWormLady that’s awesome, thanks! I’ll look forward to it. 👍🏻🪱💐
I was just looking at your video list for a Harvey video too!