For awhile now I have been making Worm Bins, and making sure they work!! and guess what! they work great. The 2 bins I am going to talk about are both plastic worm composting bins, A small apartment size and a 58 L bin great for a small family. And YES they are both FOR SALE here at Friendly Worm Guy.
First we will talk about my nice little Apartment Size bin.
This nice bin is great for the starters and kids out there.this nice little bin is made with a vent in the lid,comes with enough bedding to start the bin,how to take care of the bin paper and a Worms at Work sticker. this bin should be started with 1/2 lb of worms.
This bin sells for $29.99 (without worms) and $45.00 with 1/2 pound of composting worms. (Shipping is extra)
Second we will talk about my 58 Litre bin, Great for a small family.
These bigger bins always have problems with a lack of air making it to the bottom and middle of the bin causing smells in the bin. I have made this bin to correct this problem. I have made this bin with an AIR VENT TUBE through the middle of the bin. No More lack of air making it to the middle of the bin, and great composting at all times….
I have a little vent on each end of the bin, connected to the air vent that passes from one end of the bin to the other.
Here is a picture of the Air vent Tube that runs from one end of the bin to the other, and YES this air tube is VERY Strong, it would be very hard to break the air tube, I think the bin would break first.
This bin sells for $39.99 (without worms) and $79.99 with 1 lb of composting worms
(Shipping is extra)
Yes each bin comes with Bedding to start bin and how to take care of the bin, paper.
Written by Jeff on September 8th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on About Earthworms and Composting with composting worms and Friendly Worm Guy Store and News and Pet Food and Worm Stories and worm bins.
Taking Care of Your Friendly Worm Guy Worm Bin
Taking care of a Friendly Worm Guy worm bin is not as difficult as you may think. There are just a few things that you should know about them and what I feel we should avoid. First I will tell you what kind of foods that do well in a bin. Then I will give you a list of foods I feel we should stay away from.
NOTE: The food must first start to rot and turn into bacteria before the worms can ingest it.
So cutting the food into smaller pieces will speed up the decomposing process.
That will help the worms to eat the food up faster.
Be careful if you try using the blender to cut up food (called a slurry), this can make your bin wet. Small amounts are fine, each week.You would have to experiment with small amounts at a time. However large amounts will make the bin to wet. I do not advise experimenting with this until you are used to feeding worms for a good while. First you should get the feel of what works well and the moisture level they seem to like best. European Nightcrawlers like more moisture then Red Wigglers. If worried just stay away from using slurries, as they are the trickiest to feed with. Researching about this type of feeding is advisable before attempting this method.
Foods that work well in Worm bins
-Coffee grounds and coffee filters
(I believe you can actually use all the coffee/tea grounds that you get, they love it!)
-Finely shredded paper/newspaper (no shiney, waxy paper)
-Dried leaves (in fall)
-Fruit- bananas and their peels or any other fruit and their peels,apples and their cores,celery,pears,peaches,etc.
-Vegitables - Potato peelings,carrot peelings, left over peas, green beans, lettuce,cucumber,etc.
-Bins do well with left over watermellon, cantelope and honey dew mellons (caution- these types of fruit have lots of water and will add more moisture to your bin)
even the seeds can start growing in it, this is good in the bin as well.
-Plain Maccaronni,(I won’t put anything spicy)(remember no hamburger or meat)
-Dried Bread crumbled.
-Egg shells are most important as they neutralize the PH of your worm bin and add grit for the worms to digest the food in their gizzard (keep all egg shells and crush up fine for the bin after they are completely dried out).
Smaller amounts and different kinds of food waste is the best type of feeding. It makes more variety of nutrients and a very healthy environment within an inside home bin. The breakdown of foods will be at different time intervals when variety is given. Also, alot more nutrients are availiable to the worms. This also will be good for your castings(worm poop)-100% Natural fertilizer(with no chemicals added). Keep the bin decomposing the foods but try not to fill it faster than the worms can possibly eat it. Over feeding could cause problems in the bin. Thus making the bin too wet and could make it stinky. Remember, if the bin is in good working order the bin will not stink as long as you always bury all the food that you are putting in your bin. Then the smell of decomposition will not escape. My tip, START SLOW, don’t feed excessively and take your time. Experiment on what they enjoy to eat and how slow or fast they are at eating certain foods. Experimenting with smaller amounts with new foods is safe when watching carefully and taking your time. You will then understand how and what you want to feed them. Healthy FRIENDLY WORM GUY WORMS are very hardy and are good keepers. Just take good care of your bin weekly. Let them have enough time to do their work. In time, you will have a good idea how much food scraps to put in and the correct moisture level by the appearance of your worms and soil in your bin. When bin is getting to dry you can moisten it with a fine water mist from a water sprayer. I have balanced the moisture level in the bin at times with adding dry shreaded paper/cardboard when I find it too wet. I like to move all the bedding around once every few weeks or so to aerate the environment. I also add a bunch of moist shreaded paper/cardboard on top to stop any odors from arising in/out of the bin.
Foods to KEEP OUT of your worm bin
-No Bones
-No Onions/Garlic
-No Oranges,tomatoes,lemons (no acidic fruit)(more experienced bin owners can or will get away with small amounts of these added)
-No Meat or poultry
-No Milk or milk products,don’t forget about yogurt and cheese products being a milk product
You may see warning signs as a problem in your bin, eg. if the worms seem to be trying to get out. Most often worms are just exploreing in a new bin or just exploreing their space and all is fine. They also will crawl around on the inside lid and around the sides just before it rains. I would not worry just watch how the bin is acting and you will get a good idea what is happening. Alow worms in a new worm bin to get used to it’s new environment. You may take the lid off and have the bin under a house light to get them down into their new space at first. KEEP OUT OF SUNLIGHT, they are too fragile to be in the sun. Worms need it dark and moist. Later you can put the lid back on. Make sure your bin has enough air vents to breath or buy one of our FRIENDLY WORM BINS already to go.
Think about the latest things you fed them, is there lots of noise around them or vibrations,is barometric pressure dropping? If the worms think it is going to rain they are going to head out of bedding.They will do that if it is damp and going to rain soon.The worms like the bedding just damp to very moist(not wet). (Again, European Nightcrawlers like the moisture more then the Reds.) Remember, it is good if you can squeeze the bedding and get only about one or two drops out of it, this is the safe zone! . If bedding conditions, temperature/barometric pressure or sound and vibrations are not the reason it “could” possibly be they just don’t like that particular new food you introduced.
Having a worm bin can be great fun!! Experimenting can be the best part and the majority of kids love it too!! They can get dirty in the dirt, even in the winter and hold the worms. They also learn about worms and their habitat!
Note : Grandparents also will find this hobby fun with the grandchildren! We have two children of our own and we see it is fun for all. When we show them, they really like to check out the worms. Our oldest likes to help feed them too! He asks lots of questions and he likes childrens books made about them. We bought our own children books on worms but your local library could do just fine too!
The bins can make you your own castings which is the best ever fertilizer that nature intended!! Also, when you want to go fishing, the worms are always around. Easy to get worms out and take with you,fresh and wiggly,even during the very early morning hours!! If taking care of worms properly, you can have plump juicey worms and never have to buy worms again. Not to mention another bin can be started on your own or you can even add a percentage of worms each year into your garden. The worms can aerate the soil and make the castings in your garden as your own personal garden workers. You could add an outside compost bin and slowly start to put worms in it as your worms reproduce more worms in your indoor bin. I believe an outdoor bin can also be a necessity as the excess food scapes that you can’t use indoors may be put outdoors in that bin. Literally,no waste of excess food scrape in your home. Food gets recycled, we can use the worms for our gardens and fishing, the worm fertilizer to improve our plant growth and soil and it is a neat and inexpensive hobby once established.
The bin must be harvested about every 4-6 months or so, the worms can survive in their own waste once it is overtaking the bin. The castings(worm poop) is no longer food for the worms to consume. The waste is no longer good to the worms but for us it is odour free and the complete nutrients needed for our plants to grow to their potential. Castings make the ideal thing to use in starting garden seeds. Scientists have tested this in the past with great results. It has proven itself as the best out of many different ways for starting seedlings.
We have had several customers who commented on how the castings worked so well on their plants and that it works better than any fertilizer method they have ever used. I am also worry free about the health of my vegitables I eat from my garden because I know it is healthy. Summer is a healthier eating for us all, at our home. Worm castings is a nice reward for our efforts!! The indoor bin can be fun for many people, it might not seem good for some though. If it is not fun, those people may benifit by having an outdoor compost bin and just buying their worms and castings from a local worm and vermicultural business. This keeps us in business too!!
The biggest complaint about an indoor bin is if you get fruit flies in your bin. With a CAREFUL,WATCHFUL EYE this will NOT HAPPEN. Excessive amounts of food or food not carefully burried may cause this. Neglecting the bin could also cause this to happen. If it does happen a homemade trap can be made to rid them or a sticky fly box can be bought at a local hardware store to trap them. Then note what went wrong and avoid the problem from re-occuring. Also burying your food under the bedding or shedded paper bedding should stop flies from hatching and keep down the smell of decomposition.Note: I have had a bin in my kitchen for food scapes for a long time. With a watchful eye, the bin did not give off odours. I burry all food and when they finally get eating then I add more to the bin. We also have an outdoor compost bin we use in the summer (so far without worms in it), with the outdoor bin there is no need to be so watchful. I have enjoyed our bin, still learning(always learning), only tried slurry once.I am confident that if I can do a worm bin then anyone can. Just take your time and experiment slowly.
HAVE FUN WITH YOUR FRIENDLY WORM GUY WORM BIN!! THANKS FOR RECYCLING!!
Advice by -The Friendly Worm Guy and his Wife (the one who feeds the worms in the indoor worm bins)
Written by Jeff on September 7th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on About Earthworms and Composting with composting worms and Friendly Worm Guy Store and News and Worm Stories and worm bins.
