I'm having a particularly crappy time with life lately, so I've had to pull back on a lot of things that I wanted to do with my worms. I do still want maybe a 55 gallon barrel worm bin at least, but it's hard for me to call it my goal for 2024 since my life is still quite crappy. For now, I'm just happy I still have my worms to go play out with while I'm on the struggle bus!
Hi Evelyn! I’d say happy new year but it doesn’t sound like you’re off to the best start 😢. I’m sorry to hear that 😞. I do like the term struggle bus though. It makes the hard time a limited trip and we’re getting off the bus at some point. I don’t know what you’re dealing with but wish you good thoughts and hope ‘playing with the worms’ continues to bring you some joy during the crappy times. 🤗🪱
If you've ever stored finished castings for longer periods, it will give you an idea of how long the bedding can actually go before harvesting. The castings will continue to compost long after the worms have been removed and after all, it's the biology the worms consume. The study that one of your subscribers posted the other day was interesting on actual time in the bedding. At some point, the bedding will no longer effectively nourish the worms and cause weight loss, but that point is much longer than many think. Yes, foraging is always a good idea for clean-up right before crossing that finish line with the castings. Another good video and thanks for posting.
Happy New Year Jayne and all the worm people here. My worm goal is to continue to grow my worm herd and put those little guys to work producing more castings🎉
Hi Marva! Happy new year to you too 🥰. You’re off to a good start on your goals with those cocoons from me 👍😍. I hope you’ll keep us updated on how they’re doing! 🪱🪱🪱
That’s a great idea! I’ve read about a school that has a zero waste goal. Classrooms have worm bins. They soak to soften cardboard and the kids rip it up as an activity. Kids being given ‘time outs’ also rip cardboard during that time. The child remains engaged, productive and it’s not a punitive action. The school feels they’re having great success. 👍😎🪱
That’s a great example of how to implement some classroom worms. I love it. Hoping as a school bus driver I’ll have a little bit of an in and can create some interest. Of course I’d better start learning how to breed so I can help get them started
Hi Jayne and crew. Thank you for another good informative video. I don't consciously use foraging as a management technique. I sort of do by default. Although at the moment I'm so absorbed in building up good, strong worm stocks I'm not really focusing on removing castings. I'm just feeding up frantically and dividing and multiplying willy-nilly into more and more containers. Resolution: to make a new video and publish it. I've tried and failed three times to make a new video so this is really well overdue.
Hey! Happy new year! Are you mostly settled into the new house/property? Haha! You’ll get to foraging more actively at some point I bet. Lots of bins means it takes more time to circle back and worms can go longer between feeds and castings harvesting. It’s nice to know that the worms will be just fine during extended periods of benign neglect 👍. Ooh I hope the new video happens soon! 👍🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms Happy New Year! We are more than half way there with the move. We have literally a truckload of rubbish still to remove from the new place, and lots more furniture and belongings to move here, but we can actually see the way forward, and it feels like we are winning. It is amazingly good being able to live in the new place. The worms are loving it. I keep shovelling food at them and they keep making new worms. The food balance is way out of whack but I just keep trying to chase my tail to make it right, and I keep the hydration level quite high, and the worms keep munching forwards. I will try again soon to do another video. I may just have to follow your lead and bring in the tech crew! Love to you all at your place and all your channel followers.
@@fattworms Happy new year! I’m so glad for you in the new place! It was such touch and go for quite a while and to have it work out is fantastic!! It’s a lot of work as you say, setting up a new household but so worth it. I’m glad the worms are cooperating by being good little munchers 🥰. Feed them as you can, they’ll hang in there if they have to forage for several weeks. I could feed mine more frequently than I get the chance to and they manage ok 😊. Having someone to help making or managing the video side of things is incredibly helpful. My tech team did most of the work on the sales website as well. Watch what they charge you though - mine keep demanding pay in the form of chocolate chip cheesecake, jambalaya, etc. 🤣🥰. I look forward to your triumphant return 👍❤️🪱
Hi Jayne hope your well. Great video as always chick. Some fab tips … I do let my worms 🪱 forage about a month before I sift.I find you get much finer castings.
Did not know there was a term for it, lol. When I decide to harvest castings from a tote or grow bag, I just stop feeding them for a couple weeks or so to get them hungry. Because I do a downward migration, I even remove the paper and plastic top layer to let it dry out a bit. When I prepare a fresh moist bin loaded with compost, leaves and food, they do not hesitate in moving into the lower bin. Usually after a week the vast majority of worms are in the lower bin. Have a Great Year! Stay Well!!!
Yep! That’s what the kids are calling these days 🤣🤣 You’re an expert already 👍🪱 I’ve got an experiment in mind regarding downward migration. Nothing ground breaking, just more of me doing it with some stuff I have on hand that might make it work better for me. I’m all in on worms working and not me! 🤣😆👍🪱
@@RockinWorms I am the farthest thing from an expert, believe me, lol. That is a beautiful thing about raising worms, you can do a lot with them, or just let them do their own thing. Just finished starting my continuous flow through bin made from a 55 gal drum. I made up some beautiful bedding. Leaf mold, compost and bedding (plus some worms) from all of my bins, let it sit for 4 days or so. The worms, were a collection from my bins as well, probably a thousand or more. Will add more worms as I fill the bin. Trying organic chicken crumble as worm chow, want to keep the worms breaking down the bedding not some celery. I made a video of the bin, hopefully my friend can reclaim my channel. Stay Well!!!
@@brianseybert192 Exactly! Give them the basics of what they need and they’ll take care of themselves to a large degree. But being more hands on with worms is so much fun! 😆. I’d love to see that video once you get your account un-hacked so let us know 👍🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms Exactly!!! That is why I am trying organic chicken feed for a worm chow. To be honest, I have not used worm chow unless something went south in the cupboard. Now that my worms are in the basement, I am keeping them super moist< go figure, fruit flies. Trying BTi to combat them. Love my worms. Stay Well !!!
@@brianseybert192 Chicken layer feed is a good worm chow food/ingredient. I’m in favor of using anything that’s made for moms or babies. Or high performance animals. Those feeds tend to have more nutrients packed into them. The trick is finding them for a good price. The carbs work to make worms bigger and as a seller, that’s what my customers want. Although I like the bigger worms too 🥰. Makes cocoon harvesting easier as well 👍. Thanks for sharing what you’re doing with the Crew 🪱🪱🪱
Due to family circumstances waaay beyond my control, I've had my worms over a year and the castings have never been harvested. 😮 I have increased their available real estate but i really must get the castings harvested soon! Problem is, idk what I'll do with them since I won't have another garden until this family situation of unknown duration has been resolved. 😢 And meanwhile, the kitchen scraps have to be used. It's a conundrum. But happy wormy new year anyway, and thanks for making your happy videos! 😊
Hi Juanita! I’m sorry you’re in such a family crisis mode 🥲. Unfortunate and unexpected circumstances do arise all too often 😡. As for the excess castings, could you give them away to a garden club or community center or even on the lawn of a friend or family member? Your worms would benefit from fresh bedding for sure! I wonder how sticky the castings will be. They can get sticky and very clumpy when reprocessed many times by the worms. I wish you a peaceful resolution to your family situation 🥰
@@LarryWileyWormFarm-ey8lp Yes but easier said than done especially when you have to be focused elsewhere. Giving the castings away might be the best action in the short term. Unless they can be stored for later use. 👍🪱
@@RockinWorms how long and by what means could they be stored? I only have about 3 hours a week, max, that can be devoted to caring for and feeding the 7 worm bins, and a pre-compost tub which needs a companion real soon.
@@juanitanoble3190 You’ve got pre-compost that’s ready to be used (not cooking anymore)? Quick and dirty, move all the worms and castings/bedding toward one end and set up migrations zones at the other/working end of the bins with the pre-compost and whatever worm food you have handy (food scraps, worm chow, etc). If you don’t have anything on hand don’t sweat it. The pre-compost will act as food and bedding well enough. This will lure the vast majority of the worms to the feed zone within 4-5 days. From there you can scoop out the mostly worm-less castings from the non food/non-working end of the bin. Castings can go into any bucket, bin, tote, etc. If it has a lid that’s best as it’ll keep the moisture in longer. Now your worms will be fed and in better bedding for several weeks. As for the castjngs, just check once every couple weeks to aerate and make sure still moist. Worms that are in there or hatch from cocoons will move to the top and you can scoop them out when you see them and put back into a regular bin. You may use all/most of your pre-compost refreshing the bins doing this but that’s what it’s for! Once the worm bins are half refreshed you can take some time you have and start more pre-compost. This will get a new batch ready and when it is repeat the refresh again, setting up a new food zone to lure the worms out of the half they first migrated into. Ping pong them! If you find the time, make some worm chow out of what you have on hand to be able to feed the worms while waiting for the pre-compost to finish up. Remember you can use one cycle pre-compost and it’ll act as slower food which will help you stretch things out. Oh, if you have access to leaves you can use them too as slow food and bedding. The whole point here is to keep things alive during a time crisis and don’t sweat the details. Anything that’s not perfect can be dealt with later on. Ok? 👍🪱❤️
am putting my worms up for sale and their castings. I've had so many people ask me when am i going to start saleing. So 2024 is the year. I started feb. 2023 with 100 worms
@RockinWorms I live in ohio. My worms are in a 20 gallon grow bag right now. I'm doing a worm count or weigh at the end of February wich will be 1 year since I started. I started a small travel size tote Jan 1st and put 10 worms in it for a customer. There picking it up March 1st.
@@brendawick Good for you! That’s wonderful 😍. Do you need to keep the grow bag inside at all? Garage or shed or in the house? I’d be very interested- as well as other Crews - to learn how your populous grown over the last year. Please share when the time comes 👍🪱❤️
@RockinWorms when I started it I kept it outside under a tree. Then when the temperature dropped under 40 I put them in our basement (full basement stays around 67°) then they will go back outside when it worms up. I'll let you know the weight. I got the idea from another worm UA-camr. He has one outside year round. He loves in Florida
@@brendawick I was thinking of Patrick as he keeps his outdoor worms in grow bags too. You’re lucky to have a full basement! In south Florida we’d call it an indoor swimming pool 🤣🤣🪱
Hi Brenda! Welcome! I use layer feed in my worm chow. Crumble or pellet doesn’t matter if you grind it up. If you want to use crumbles ‘as is’ it’ll take longer for the worms to get into it. You would then need to keep more of an eye on it for heating up, packing into a crusty impermeable layer, or fermenting too much. Otherwise, chicken layer feed can be a good supplemental food for worms 👍🪱🪱
Hi Jayne. Happy New Year to you and the rest of the worm people or the worm farming family out there. Thanks for sharing the video. Informative and useful tips. My goal is to continue to oder more red wigglers. To set up more bins and grow my herd. I actually aim to have enough worm castings to use in my vegetable garden. I hope it will improve the quality of my crops and keep the pests and diseases away. Have you got any information on how to treat pests and diseases. Thanks Jayne.
Hi Bobby! Happy new year to you too! Do you have quality worm sellers in South Africa? I know from my own experience experience with the garden that the one-two pinch of worm castings and insect frass (mealworms in my case) have been amazingly effective in keeping pests and disease away from my veggie plants. The plants are bigger and healthier. The production of food is impressive. Plants are living and producing well beyond their ‘best by’ dates. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Absolutely use worm castings generously. If you can find a source for insect frass- or start raising a few bins of insects- the cost to start is very reasonable/low and the payback is immense. That’s really what I recommend to look into/do. 🪱🪱👍
@RockinWorms Hi Jayne. Thanks again for the invaluable information. My knowledge of insect frass is very, very limited. Will have to do more research on this topic from UA-cam. I saw some black soldier fly larvae in one of my worm bins. I didn't know what they were initially. I saw a video on UA-cam and the person said that she feeds these to her chickens. Are they still OK in the worm bin or should I remove them. As far as suppliers of red wiggler worms, I found one which I'm using for now. I don't think there are so many out her. I paid R300 for 1000 worms. I started off with 2000. I ordered another 4000 this morning. I'm using those big blue plastic drums cut lengthwise. How many worms can I grow in one half of these bins? Thanks Jayne.
@@brgovender8879 Hi Bobby! Chickens love black soldier fly larvae. I’d pick them out of your worm bin. If you don’t have any chickens or pet reptiles you can place them outside and the wildlife will take care of them! Alternatively you can raise them as well. There’s videos on that too, of course 🙄😊. Insect frass isn’t as well known and mainstream as castings are but as plant pesticide usage decreases, frass will become more common to use. You can easily keep several thousands of worms in a half blue barrel cut lengthwise. Probably 8-10 thousand. At that point I’d give density a good look and decide then whether to add more worms or not. What you want to accomplish also comes into play when deciding on optimal density. What are you using your worms primarily for? 🪱🪱🪱
@RockinWorms Hi Jayne. Thanks for the update. For now, my primary goal is to make as much castings as I can to use out into the garden. I have a 4 hectare property. But farming one hectare. Mostly veggies with some fruit trees. I do have some free range chickens. I'm also trying to make the normal compost using grass, wood chips, some chicken manure and leaves. I'm sure that all this combined should make a whole lot of difference to the quality of the crops. Thanks Jayne.
@@brgovender8879 Nice! That’s almost 10 acres. I have 6.35 acres. Most of it is pasture for the cows. Our garden is relatively small. So far! All that organic material you’re making will definitely make an impact on your crops!! Is those lovely worm castings 👍🪱🪱❤️
Do I use foraging? Yes, but not the way you describe it. When I saw "foraging" I thought the video was going to be about us foraging in nature for wild worms. The way I forage for wild mushrooms or berries. My original collection of worms was hand-picked from under rocks and logs around my property and at a local forested park. 3:30 looks like a tea bag to me.
Hi Linda! Happy new year! Ah yes, not that kind of foraging although the worms might think it is 😆. That’s a cool way to start your worm bins if you’re certain they’re composting worms. The vast majority of earthworms don’t do so well in captivity. Wild berries are fantastic. Wild mushrooms scare me. I don’t know enough to be safe. Lucky you to have that knowledge 👍😍
I'm having a particularly crappy time with life lately, so I've had to pull back on a lot of things that I wanted to do with my worms. I do still want maybe a 55 gallon barrel worm bin at least, but it's hard for me to call it my goal for 2024 since my life is still quite crappy. For now, I'm just happy I still have my worms to go play out with while I'm on the struggle bus!
Hi Evelyn! I’d say happy new year but it doesn’t sound like you’re off to the best start 😢. I’m sorry to hear that 😞. I do like the term struggle bus though. It makes the hard time a limited trip and we’re getting off the bus at some point.
I don’t know what you’re dealing with but wish you good thoughts and hope ‘playing with the worms’ continues to bring you some joy during the crappy times. 🤗🪱
I do like the idea of having your worms be a bit hungry to help kickstart the horizontal migration. Definitely going to experiment with that!
Hello! Yes it does seem to make them move a bit faster out of the old castings. There’s always stragglers of course 🙄😎
If you've ever stored finished castings for longer periods, it will give you an idea of how long the bedding can actually go before harvesting. The castings will continue to compost long after the worms have been removed and after all, it's the biology the worms consume. The study that one of your subscribers posted the other day was interesting on actual time in the bedding. At some point, the bedding will no longer effectively nourish the worms and cause weight loss, but that point is much longer than many think. Yes, foraging is always a good idea for clean-up right before crossing that finish line with the castings. Another good video and thanks for posting.
Brilliant Video Jane Flower 👏👏👏♥️♥️♥️
Thanks! ❤️👍🪱
Happy New Year Jayne and all the worm people here. My worm goal is to continue to grow my worm herd and put those little guys to work producing more castings🎉
Hi Marva! Happy new year to you too 🥰. You’re off to a good start on your goals with those cocoons from me 👍😍. I hope you’ll keep us updated on how they’re doing! 🪱🪱🪱
Wow! Jayne, Great information 👍
I do similar methods, but my reason is because I get lazy and say, "Eat what you have, kids!"😂
❤Peggy❤
Hahaha! Yep! Worms can be part of the Clean Plate Club!
You’re not being lazy, you’re being efficient 🤗. 🪱🪱
To encourage / help more people to start their own bins. I’d also like to get into classrooms and start bins there
That’s a great idea! I’ve read about a school that has a zero waste goal. Classrooms have worm bins. They soak to soften cardboard and the kids rip it up as an activity. Kids being given ‘time outs’ also rip cardboard during that time. The child remains engaged, productive and it’s not a punitive action. The school feels they’re having great success. 👍😎🪱
That’s a great example of how to implement some classroom worms. I love it. Hoping as a school bus driver I’ll have a little bit of an in and can create some interest. Of course I’d better start learning how to breed so I can help get them started
@@monicawallace9582 I thought I was a really good program too 👍. Don’t forget I have a little playlist on breeding red wigglers ❤️🪱.
lol, I actually just started it today. What good timing you have
@@monicawallace9582 I’m psychic! 😆🪱
Hi Jayne and crew. Thank you for another good informative video.
I don't consciously use foraging as a management technique. I sort of do by default. Although at the moment I'm so absorbed in building up good, strong worm stocks I'm not really focusing on removing castings. I'm just feeding up frantically and dividing and multiplying willy-nilly into more and more containers.
Resolution: to make a new video and publish it. I've tried and failed three times to make a new video so this is really well overdue.
Hey! Happy new year! Are you mostly settled into the new house/property?
Haha! You’ll get to foraging more actively at some point I bet. Lots of bins means it takes more time to circle back and worms can go longer between feeds and castings harvesting. It’s nice to know that the worms will be just fine during extended periods of benign neglect 👍.
Ooh I hope the new video happens soon! 👍🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms Happy New Year!
We are more than half way there with the move. We have literally a truckload of rubbish still to remove from the new place, and lots more furniture and belongings to move here, but we can actually see the way forward, and it feels like we are winning.
It is amazingly good being able to live in the new place. The worms are loving it. I keep shovelling food at them and they keep making new worms. The food balance is way out of whack but I just keep trying to chase my tail to make it right, and I keep the hydration level quite high, and the worms keep munching forwards.
I will try again soon to do another video. I may just have to follow your lead and bring in the tech crew!
Love to you all at your place and all your channel followers.
@@fattworms Happy new year! I’m so glad for you in the new place! It was such touch and go for quite a while and to have it work out is fantastic!! It’s a lot of work as you say, setting up a new household but so worth it.
I’m glad the worms are cooperating by being good little munchers 🥰. Feed them as you can, they’ll hang in there if they have to forage for several weeks. I could feed mine more frequently than I get the chance to and they manage ok 😊.
Having someone to help making or managing the video side of things is incredibly helpful. My tech team did most of the work on the sales website as well. Watch what they charge you though - mine keep demanding pay in the form of chocolate chip cheesecake, jambalaya, etc. 🤣🥰. I look forward to your triumphant return 👍❤️🪱
Hi Jayne hope your well. Great video as always chick. Some fab tips … I do let my worms 🪱 forage about a month before I sift.I find you get much finer castings.
Don’t think the finer castings are from the worms reprocessing the castings or from there being less non castings mixed in? 😎
Did not know there was a term for it, lol. When I decide to harvest castings from a tote or grow bag, I just stop feeding them for a couple weeks or so to get them hungry. Because I do a downward migration, I even remove the paper and plastic top layer to let it dry out a bit. When I prepare a fresh moist bin loaded with compost, leaves and food, they do not hesitate in moving into the lower bin. Usually after a week the vast majority of worms are in the lower bin.
Have a Great Year!
Stay Well!!!
Yep! That’s what the kids are calling these days 🤣🤣
You’re an expert already 👍🪱
I’ve got an experiment in mind regarding downward migration. Nothing ground breaking, just more of me doing it with some stuff I have on hand that might make it work better for me. I’m all in on worms working and not me! 🤣😆👍🪱
@@RockinWorms I am the farthest thing from an expert, believe me, lol.
That is a beautiful thing about raising worms, you can do a lot with them, or just let them do their own thing.
Just finished starting my continuous flow through bin made from a 55 gal drum.
I made up some beautiful bedding. Leaf mold, compost and bedding (plus some worms) from all of my bins, let it sit for 4 days or so. The worms, were a collection from my bins as well, probably a thousand or more.
Will add more worms as I fill the bin.
Trying organic chicken crumble as worm chow, want to keep the worms breaking down the bedding not some celery.
I made a video of the bin, hopefully my friend can reclaim my channel.
Stay Well!!!
@@brianseybert192 Exactly! Give them the basics of what they need and they’ll take care of themselves to a large degree. But being more hands on with worms is so much fun! 😆.
I’d love to see that video once you get your account un-hacked so let us know 👍🪱🪱
@@RockinWorms Exactly!!!
That is why I am trying organic chicken feed for a worm chow. To be honest, I have not used worm chow unless something went south in the cupboard.
Now that my worms are in the basement, I am keeping them super moist< go figure, fruit flies. Trying BTi to combat them.
Love my worms.
Stay Well !!!
@@brianseybert192 Chicken layer feed is a good worm chow food/ingredient. I’m in favor of using anything that’s made for moms or babies. Or high performance animals. Those feeds tend to have more nutrients packed into them. The trick is finding them for a good price. The carbs work to make worms bigger and as a seller, that’s what my customers want. Although I like the bigger worms too 🥰. Makes cocoon harvesting easier as well 👍. Thanks for sharing what you’re doing with the Crew 🪱🪱🪱
I learned by accident my bins did not have enough moisrure. Now they are exploding with growth.
Hillary! Happy new year! They love it very moist. The challenge comes with separating out the castings when the bins are so very wet. 🪱
Due to family circumstances waaay beyond my control, I've had my worms over a year and the castings have never been harvested. 😮 I have increased their available real estate but i really must get the castings harvested soon! Problem is, idk what I'll do with them since I won't have another garden until this family situation of unknown duration has been resolved. 😢 And meanwhile, the kitchen scraps have to be used. It's a conundrum. But happy wormy new year anyway, and thanks for making your happy videos! 😊
Hi Juanita! I’m sorry you’re in such a family crisis mode 🥲. Unfortunate and unexpected circumstances do arise all too often 😡.
As for the excess castings, could you give them away to a garden club or community center or even on the lawn of a friend or family member?
Your worms would benefit from fresh bedding for sure! I wonder how sticky the castings will be. They can get sticky and very clumpy when reprocessed many times by the worms.
I wish you a peaceful resolution to your family situation 🥰
Sell the castings.
@@LarryWileyWormFarm-ey8lp Yes but easier said than done especially when you have to be focused elsewhere. Giving the castings away might be the best action in the short term. Unless they can be stored for later use. 👍🪱
@@RockinWorms how long and by what means could they be stored? I only have about 3 hours a week, max, that can be devoted to caring for and feeding the 7 worm bins, and a pre-compost tub which needs a companion real soon.
@@juanitanoble3190 You’ve got pre-compost that’s ready to be used (not cooking anymore)?
Quick and dirty, move all the worms and castings/bedding toward one end and set up migrations zones at the other/working end of the bins with the pre-compost and whatever worm food you have handy (food scraps, worm chow, etc). If you don’t have anything on hand don’t sweat it. The pre-compost will act as food and bedding well enough. This will lure the vast majority of the worms to the feed zone within 4-5 days. From there you can scoop out the mostly worm-less castings from the non food/non-working end of the bin. Castings can go into any bucket, bin, tote, etc. If it has a lid that’s best as it’ll keep the moisture in longer.
Now your worms will be fed and in better bedding for several weeks. As for the castjngs, just check once every couple weeks to aerate and make sure still moist. Worms that are in there or hatch from cocoons will move to the top and you can scoop them out when you see them and put back into a regular bin.
You may use all/most of your pre-compost refreshing the bins doing this but that’s what it’s for! Once the worm bins are half refreshed you can take some time you have and start more pre-compost. This will get a new batch ready and when it is repeat the refresh again, setting up a new food zone to lure the worms out of the half they first migrated into. Ping pong them! If you find the time, make some worm chow out of what you have on hand to be able to feed the worms while waiting for the pre-compost to finish up. Remember you can use one cycle pre-compost and it’ll act as slower food which will help you stretch things out. Oh, if you have access to leaves you can use them too as slow food and bedding. The whole point here is to keep things alive during a time crisis and don’t sweat the details. Anything that’s not perfect can be dealt with later on. Ok? 👍🪱❤️
am putting my worms up for sale and their castings. I've had so many people ask me when am i going to start saleing. So 2024 is the year. I started feb. 2023 with 100 worms
Hi Brenda! Welcome! Lucky you to have ready customers! Where do you live? How many worms do you think you have now? 🪱❤️
@RockinWorms I live in ohio. My worms are in a 20 gallon grow bag right now. I'm doing a worm count or weigh at the end of February wich will be 1 year since I started. I started a small travel size tote Jan 1st and put 10 worms in it for a customer. There picking it up March 1st.
@@brendawick Good for you! That’s wonderful 😍. Do you need to keep the grow bag inside at all? Garage or shed or in the house?
I’d be very interested- as well as other Crews - to learn how your populous grown over the last year. Please share when the time comes 👍🪱❤️
@RockinWorms when I started it I kept it outside under a tree. Then when the temperature dropped under 40 I put them in our basement (full basement stays around 67°) then they will go back outside when it worms up. I'll let you know the weight. I got the idea from another worm UA-camr. He has one outside year round. He loves in Florida
@@brendawick I was thinking of Patrick as he keeps his outdoor worms in grow bags too. You’re lucky to have a full basement! In south Florida we’d call it an indoor swimming pool 🤣🤣🪱
Anyone ever used chicken crumble feed to feed the worms?
Hi Brenda! Welcome! I use layer feed in my worm chow. Crumble or pellet doesn’t matter if you grind it up. If you want to use crumbles ‘as is’ it’ll take longer for the worms to get into it. You would then need to keep more of an eye on it for heating up, packing into a crusty impermeable layer, or fermenting too much. Otherwise, chicken layer feed can be a good supplemental food for worms 👍🪱🪱
I plan to get chicken pellets this week.
Hi Jayne. Happy New Year to you and the rest of the worm people or the worm farming family out there. Thanks for sharing the video. Informative and useful tips. My goal is to continue to oder more red wigglers. To set up more bins and grow my herd. I actually aim to have enough worm castings to use in my vegetable garden. I hope it will improve the quality of my crops and keep the pests and diseases away. Have you got any information on how to treat pests and diseases. Thanks Jayne.
Hi Bobby! Happy new year to you too! Do you have quality worm sellers in South Africa?
I know from my own experience experience with the garden that the one-two pinch of worm castings and insect frass (mealworms in my case) have been amazingly effective in keeping pests and disease away from my veggie plants. The plants are bigger and healthier. The production of food is impressive. Plants are living and producing well beyond their ‘best by’ dates. I couldn’t be happier with the results.
Absolutely use worm castings generously. If you can find a source for insect frass- or start raising a few bins of insects- the cost to start is very reasonable/low and the payback is immense. That’s really what I recommend to look into/do. 🪱🪱👍
@RockinWorms Hi Jayne. Thanks again for the invaluable information. My knowledge of insect frass is very, very limited. Will have to do more research on this topic from UA-cam. I saw some black soldier fly larvae in one of my worm bins. I didn't know what they were initially. I saw a video on UA-cam and the person said that she feeds these to her chickens. Are they still OK in the worm bin or should I remove them. As far as suppliers of red wiggler worms, I found one which I'm using for now. I don't think there are so many out her. I paid R300 for 1000 worms. I started off with 2000. I ordered another 4000 this morning. I'm using those big blue plastic drums cut lengthwise. How many worms can I grow in one half of these bins? Thanks Jayne.
@@brgovender8879 Hi Bobby! Chickens love black soldier fly larvae. I’d pick them out of your worm bin. If you don’t have any chickens or pet reptiles you can place them outside and the wildlife will take care of them! Alternatively you can raise them as well. There’s videos on that too, of course 🙄😊.
Insect frass isn’t as well known and mainstream as castings are but as plant pesticide usage decreases, frass will become more common to use.
You can easily keep several thousands of worms in a half blue barrel cut lengthwise. Probably 8-10 thousand. At that point I’d give density a good look and decide then whether to add more worms or not. What you want to accomplish also comes into play when deciding on optimal density. What are you using your worms primarily for? 🪱🪱🪱
@RockinWorms Hi Jayne. Thanks for the update. For now, my primary goal is to make as much castings as I can to use out into the garden. I have a 4 hectare property. But farming one hectare. Mostly veggies with some fruit trees. I do have some free range chickens. I'm also trying to make the normal compost using grass, wood chips, some chicken manure and leaves. I'm sure that all this combined should make a whole lot of difference to the quality of the crops. Thanks Jayne.
@@brgovender8879 Nice! That’s almost 10 acres. I have 6.35 acres. Most of it is pasture for the cows. Our garden is relatively small. So far!
All that organic material you’re making will definitely make an impact on your crops!! Is those lovely worm castings 👍🪱🪱❤️
Do I use foraging? Yes, but not the way you describe it. When I saw "foraging" I thought the video was going to be about us foraging in nature for wild worms. The way I forage for wild mushrooms or berries. My original collection of worms was hand-picked from under rocks and logs around my property and at a local forested park.
3:30 looks like a tea bag to me.
Hi Linda! Happy new year! Ah yes, not that kind of foraging although the worms might think it is 😆.
That’s a cool way to start your worm bins if you’re certain they’re composting worms. The vast majority of earthworms don’t do so well in captivity.
Wild berries are fantastic. Wild mushrooms scare me. I don’t know enough to be safe. Lucky you to have that knowledge 👍😍
I checked the bin and that bin hasn’t had any tea leaves added so it can’t be a tea bag. But it does look like it could have been! ❤️🪱🪱
Xxx