Mixed up, moistened and ready to brew some more!
Crazy week, but I just wanted to provide a quick update on my new “Four Worm Reproduction Experiment“. I decided to open up the bin today to see how things were looking so far.
This has been a really important reminder of the fact that the one KEY piece of information I left out of my two “setting up a worm bin” YouTube videos revolves around what to do with the bin during the aging period. I’m sure a lot of people have just assumed that simply leaving it be will be the best thing to do – and this helps to explain why I’ve received so many emails about excess mold growth and really stinky bins during this time!
Anyway, unless your plan is to leave the bin sitting for months without worms, I would strongly recommend opening it up at least a couple of times before the worms arrive. This will be a good opportunity to mix everything up and spray it down as well (again making sure never to add some much water that it ends up pooling in the bottom). This way you are helping to create a more homogeneous habitat, adding more oxygen into the mix, and your helping to create a more evenly moist environment.
I’ve decided to really take my time with this bin, so I will likely just do the same thing next week (open, mix and moisten), although I may also add some new bedding at that time as well). The week after that will likely be my worm-stocking week. There’s no rush here, and I really want to make sure the habitat is in good shape!
The bin smelled pretty bad when I first opened it up, due to the fact that there was a lot of water-rich waste materials concentrated in certain parts of the bin. With things spread out more, and my weekly mixing, I’m sure it won’t be quite so ripe by the time the worms are added.
Anyway – that’s basically it for now!
I’ll keep you posted!
8)
Mark,
Another great video. I have mine set up as a winrow of horse manure. It is anywhere from a few months old to today. It amazes me sometimes how they can stand it so hot. It seems like they are all over the pile if I peel some of the newer stuff back I will pick up steaming hot stuff with a lot of worms. Keep up the good work I always look forward to the next installment.
Rick from Arizona
Thanks Rick,
How big is that winrow and how do you maintain something big like that?
Mark,
Somehow this ended up on the wrong thread and I just saw it. Right now it is about 8X15x3 high. As far as maintaining it that is the easy part. I started off with a good size pile of aged manure added the worms then started adding the daily droppings to the other end. and started to heat them up. Somewhere in between the 2 extremes is the worms perfect temp.I figure it will take another 3 or 4 months before I can harvest as the worms move down. I should end up with tons of compost once things get rolling real good.
Rick