Starting up a Second Wormery

[WillyWorm]

There is no realistic way of counting worms but but if you can weigh your worms with very little bedding then 1lb/500g equals approx 1000 worms. But for our purpose a guesstimate is good enough.
Good luck with the new bin

Willy

[Red]

Just as an update. Both wormeries are doing well. No escapees that I can see. Both are taking food so it’s been a success. Now for building up the populations in them. Thanks for the advice, Red.

[WillyWorm]

Good news, good too hear. Thanks for the update.

Willy

[Red]

Another update. Having had some reasonably warm temperatures recently I decided to destack both wormeries and give all of the trays a fluff up and restack them. I am pleased to say that all is as I expected with good population of worms in both.

Some observations to share. Since August/September I have been using a mixture of bedding materials. Corrugated cardboard, egg boxes, toilet roll inners - all cut up into approximately inch square pieces (quite a chore, took me ages but doable a tray at a time), shredded paper and shredded newspaper, some straw, some spent compost. All of this mixed together and dampened with rain water. Looking at the trays as I destacked them, the bottom tray being nearly ready to harvest and the top feeding tray just starting the process with the ones in between being at the different levels of decomposition. I see that the cardboard degrades by far the quickest. The shredded paper and news paper seems to mat together when damp and is difficult to separate and doesn’t seem to start degrading until the 3rd tray down. The straw seems to take the longest and looks to take ages to decompose.

Based on this I am wondering if I should just use the cut up cardboard as bedding?

Regards, Red.

[WillyWorm]

Hi Red, thanks for your update, everything seems to be going along swell. You have a wide diversity of bedding materials in use, which I think is a good thing. Many people look for diversity when feeding their worms but miss the opportunity to introduce more diversity in the form of bedding.
I agree shredded paper does seem to mat together very easily in a worm bin. I tend to use it when feeding. I bury the food by pulling some bedding/castings to one side and placing some shredded paper in the bottom then put some food on that then more paper finish it off with the stuff I had taken from the hole. This helps keep the flies out and prevents the bin getting too wet. The liquid which would have gone down to the the sump remains in the paper and encourages the worms to eat the paper.
I like corrugated cardboard and so does the worms, I think it’s the glue that attracts them, it’s a vegetable glue that holds the three layers together which they go wild for. I also like corrugated cardboard in winter it’s good to fill the top tray with it, leave it dry and it provides some insulation. At other times if I’m going away for a few weeks if wetted the worms will feed on it if they run short on food. I shred my corrugated cardboard. Egg boxes I tear into approx 6 or 7 pieces. Toilet paper I tear or cut in half. These products, being of irregular shape hold air in the bin and help avoid anaerobic pockets developing, and saves me work.
You mentioned using straw. Be careful if using straw or hay, there are a lot of problems with persistent herbicides in the grass family, this problem can last for years, if you do a search on YouTube you will find a lot of good info on this problem.
Congratulations on a good job
Willy

[Lilwriggler]

I put empty toilet rolls and egg boxes in dry and whole, within a couple of weeks they are damp at which point i start the process of tearing them up a bit. I try and keep one relatively dry egg box covering each corner, which makes it nice and easy to feed. Stays dark too, when damp and misshapen i break it up and replace

[WillyWorm]

The second one is normally easier than the first. Good luck
Willy