I finally got DH to frame in underneath my rabbit cages so I can start growing worms and have finished worm castings. The rabbit business is going well so now the next step is to utilize the droppings for 2 more possible income sources, worms and compost. The beds are 3 ftx10ftx12 inches. I have rabbit droppings, hay, and whatever feed was scattered on to the ground. I also thew in a few pitchforks of composted horse manure. I have plenty of worms[red wigglers?] living in my garden area that has aged horse manure in it. I believe these worms will work for the beds. My question is how many worms for each bed? Most sell by the lb but I dont want to buy them if I dont have to. I want to have enogh worms in each bed for maximum production. Any one done this?

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), April 21, 2002

Answers

Tracy , you may want to email Jay .You can get his addy fom a old post here or go to a country single tree .He is the worm guy and should be able to help you out.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002.

Might look at this Canadian site by Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture: City Farmer, http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html#wormcompost

The two types of earthworm best suited to worm composting are the redworms: Eisenia foetida (commonly known as red wiggler, brandling, or manure worm) and Lumbricus rubellus They are often found in aged manure and compost heaps. Please do not use dew-worms (large size worms found in soil and compost) as they are not likely to survive.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 21, 2002.

Thanks Patty, I cross posted this. This is what I found. 1 lb of worms for every sq ft or for my bed which would be 30 sq ft or 30 lbs of worms. 1 lb of worms are aprox 1,000 so I would need 30,000 worms? I dont think I can find that many worms and they are expensive to buy. Any other suggestions?

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), April 21, 2002.

I might add that is only one bed. I have 6 other beds to start.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), April 21, 2002.

Tracy , ty the barter board or country families someone there was sending worms out to people to get started .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002.

If you add worms as you find them it doesn't take long for them to multipy, as long as the water and food are right the worms will trive, to harvest them from your garden soil, you can put a piece of wet carpet pile side down with a board on top to block light and keep it moist, [after a heavy rain works well] or just dig some out and toss the soil onto a screen over the worm beds, as the soil dries the worms move to the beds and if you want to try any kind of worm, you can if they aren't happy they will crawl out and back to the soil. They don't often die if they can escape. Of course this doesn't work on indoor worm bins.

-- Thumper/inOKC (slrldr@yahoo.com), April 21, 2002.