Worm_Farmer

I added some 3" soffit vent's along the side's. I may need to add some more vents but right now I think all is ok. It was getting steamy in there and the worms all ran to the bottom of the bin. I found as long as I keep the top just a little moist the worms stay toward the middle and come up to the top in the night hours. Other then that I have not giving them much more care besides feeding and feeding them. I keep getting the top almost full and it drops down pretty quickly but of the amount of food I have been putting in I am getting a very small amount out.

Here are some updated pictures:

This is just looking down into the bin you can see what the are currently working on. What you can notice is that one side is lower than the other side. What I have been doing is feeding is quadrant's. I am not starting over where you see the head of lettuce, I will put more kitchen scraps in the corner then cover in shredded paper and move down right below it and do the same thing.


Here is what the bottom of the lower half looks like now, Where the grid I made out of EMT pipe is. You can now see most of the cardboard barrier I started with has broken down and open up allowed castings to fall through.


Here is what my finished compost is looking like right now, A lot of wood chips are falling through now. I did add a larger bag of untreated ceder wood shavings I picked up from a job site. I will no be adding them ever again as they are turning out to be a big mess and takes WAY to long to break down. How ever the worms have made a nice nest in the wood shavings layer and seem to be producing lots of babys. Its just a pain to have to filter them all out.


Here is whats left of my finished product after the 1st sifting. I need to screen it again with a much smaller screen to get the little bit of wood shavings out. Other wise I just used a hole bunch just like it is now. I sprinkled about a shove full around each plant before adding mulch and manure. Once the bin really picks up speed I will have to make something to screen the castings faster. Keep in mind I am only using 1/4 screen right now so a lot of stuff is able to make it through.


I figured by winter the bin will be real active, for winter my plan is to wrap the bin in bubble wrap and blankets and use a 60watt shop light to keep the top warm. If you notice I have removed the bottom door, I did this because as the temp got warmer the bottom stayed steaming and moist so the worms were just falling down also. After taking the door off and waiting about a week for it to dry out some more the problem was solved and no more worms have been dropping down.