worm farm

Anyone had success keeping a worm farm? I saw some videos on youtube and they look pretty easy. I'm wondering if I keep it indoors at 70 degrees winter, 80 in summer, will it be cool enough for the worms to thrive?

Worm farm..... just sounds nasty. Worm farm...pretty much is.

I think the idea is really cool, and wanted to get into it. I remember something I learned got me to change my mind, but I don't remember what it was.

I tried it in containers but outside in the shade was still too much heat for them. My next venture will be in a container sunk into the ground. Probably have a bunch of escapees but hopefully enough will stay around to have a steady supply to fish with

My father kept a couple of worm beds when I was a kid. He raised red worms in it. The beds were approx 4' x 8' and a foot tall. It had a shed roof over it. We filled the bed with a mix of soil, sand and a mix of straw and horse manure from our horses.
Where we lived in Calif summer time temps regularly were in the 100 degree range but it usually cooled into the 60s at night. He had misters and fans set up to cool them. You had to dig to the bottom to find them when it was hot but we always had plenty of worms.
We threw most of our table scraps in the beds. They were basically compost beds.
Good luck.

Digging the fencing??

My grandpa turned a broken deep freezer into working worm farm. was great.

I used to keep them underneath the sink in a styrofoam ice chest.

My Father raised thousands of nightcrawlers and sold them to a lake consessioneer. 70 deg. would be about right. Need to keep them moist and fed. Also they will excape their home bed when a weather front passes the area due to berometric pressure changes.

And what do I tell my wife what is in there??

Thanks for all the advice.

finger eating worms that can only be moved with a radiation suit?

I had them when I was a kid. Through all non greasy table scraps in the beds. To keep the worms from crawling out use a 12 volt door bell transformer to keep them in. You will run two very small wires about 1/2 inch apart along the top. Hook one wire to + side and the other to - side of transformer. The worm will not crawl across the two wires. be sure to get the wore in the corners good as that is where most of the worms will make the great excape.

You ought to try catching some grasshoppers and putting them in the freezer for the next spring. Now that will really take some explaining.

Dad did the same with wires around the top edge of the bed boxes.
He fed the worms cornmeal sprinkeled on top of the beds. He used a mix of peat moss and sawdust for the worm bed. He got the sawdust from a sawmill in Hutchison Ks that only cut cottonwood trees. The cottonwood tree was the only tree whose sap would not poison the worms. He drove to the sawmill from Pampa Tx and would get a pickup load of sawdust for free.

My Gpaw had a worm farm for years. He kept them in "drawers" in "the worm shed" he had African Nightcralers when it would storm they wanted to travel so he ran low voltage wires around the top of the drawer. He made ghis own blend of peatmoss and fed them cornmeal. When it came time to pull out the big ones He'd pull a drawer and put it on a bench with a bright light shining on half of the drawer they would all move to the cool side.

Hey Grandad NICE POST LOL

your Gpaw and my dad musta gone to the same worm farming school.
Haa.

Hey Woolybugger,

I have raised worms for the last two years and can give some advise if you like. I personally have Red Wigglers and European Night crawlers.

First question: What do you plan to use them for? (Composting, castings, fishing, to sell, etc.)

Second Question: What kind of container do you plan on keeping them in. (Homemade bin, flow-thru, a purchased system like a Worm Factory) The system you chose can make a difference in your plans for raising them.

Keeping them in 70-80 degree temps is perfect. This is their prime temp to eat and breed.

How many are you looking to start off with? You can start with 1-2 lbs (about 1000-2000) and within a year (under perfect conditions) you could easily double to quadruple your worms.

If you want, I have several link to places with good info on the worms and a couple link on how to build different type of bins. I personally have a Worm Factory 360, 6 rubbermaid type bins 5-14 gals (I also gave away (4) 5gal bins with about 250-400 worms each) and I have a 55gal drum I've made into a flow-thru which has about 5-6lbs (5000-6000) worms in it.

I keep all my worms in the house except a 55gal FT and a bin in the greenhouse. They will not smell, and if they do smell, SOMETHING IS WRONG. Most of the time when there is smell, it's because they have been over fed.
For every pound of worms, they can eat about a pound of food a week.

Let me know if I can help with any questions.

I almost forgot about this topic and I meant to get back with some links.
Here is a great web site with tons of various info.

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/

Worm farm...Uuuggghhhhh

I have raised red wigglers two, no problem with worms crawing out, had a rabbit pen above the worm bed to feed them. Also fed them chicken mash. Lots of fun!

New project for me.

I might have to start looking in to this. I just think it would be to hot down here.

I have a tub of them going year round . I feed them with the commercial bedding you can buy at Bass-Pro or Cabellas and supplement with scraps. This time of year they stay in a back bedroom. No smell ever. Momma says nothing......at least they aren't in the refrigerator. I like having big fat healthy worms for fishing on demand. I really would like to try and raise some of the local worms that I dig over at my mother-in-laws place just east of Rockwall. These guys are huge! Big and fat and many over a foot long. Very powerful too. They put up quite a fight when you try to extract them from the soil.

We had a wooded spot by our house that had those huge worms when I was a kid. They were at least twice as thick as a night crawler and over a foot long. We called them river worms, anyone know the true name? I'd love to find some now..