June 10, 2009

50 Cocoon Challenge – Update #1

50 cocoon challenge bin

Hi Everyone – just thought I would provide a VERY quick update given the fact that it’s been a couple of weeks now since starting the 50 Cocoon Challenge. I know that some of you are eager to learn if anything new and exciting has happened in the bin (i.e. worms have hatched).

When I opened up the bin I was greeted by what looked like a scene straight out of a science fiction movie – like some sort of alien planet landscape.
😆

The fungi have continued to thrive, as has the rest of the ecosystem sans worms. Well, ok – I don’t know for sure that there are no worms. As expected, I am having a very hard time trying to locate babies (assuming there are any yet). I saw lots of white worms, but not baby red worms yet. I will most likely have to wait until they are larger before being able to spot them.

As such, we won’t likely have anything more than a rough guess of how long it took them to hatch, and unless I start finding them at a very young age, our juvenile-to-adult maturation time might not be all that accurate either. Nevertheless, I am still very interested to see how long it takes for the worms to go from cocoon to adult in this system. I hope to replicate the experiment with the ‘ultimate’ food/habitat – horse manure with bedding. This should provide an interesting comparison in terms of how different foods can affect maturation time.

One other thing to mention – the contents of the bin were looking a little drier than what I consider to be ‘ideal’ so I added some water.

Ok – that’s all for now. Hope to provide another update in a couple weeks or so.
8)

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