First I will talk about wooden worm bins, Wood worm bins keep worms much cooler then the plastic bins in summer temps.
In my last post, I wrote about my Wood Worm Bin I made for our local Schools, These Bins are Not For Sale, These bins are for a GREAT program I have started in our local schools only, and they are working great! I am also going to post some pics of putting the bin together in steps 1 to the last step, (anyone out there that has woodworking skills will be able to build their own).

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5 Complete..

There is also a great post about fighting summer heat over at www.redwormcomposting.com.
Here is the link http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-composting/help-your-worms-beat-the-heat/

Thanks
The Friendly Worm Guy

This is a picture with 1 tray added. I will also say, I am not a person that is very good with woodworking, I know how to raise worms! I know what kind of environment the worm needs to live and compost well. so I was able to get a friend of mine to help me build these bins. I told him the way we needed to build it and he did.
First of all my trays are 6″ high, not 3″ or 4″ high. This gives us a whole 2″ higher, yes it doesn’t sound like much but it really is. 2″ is a great deal to bury that food waste properly

This is a picture of the bin complete, with all trays added. I made these bins to put them into our local school board’s classrooms, The reason I added the 2″ to each tray is to make sure these bins will not produce fruit flies, The main concern of the School Board is the fruit flies, These bins will not produce fruit flies, if all food waste is buried properly. In the short future I hope to have one of these bins in all our local schools. if all goes well!!!

These great little muslin/cotton bags are used by us at FWG and by great gardeners.
We fill these little bags with worm castings and we drop the bag into a watering can or pail of water, to make liquid organic fertilizer,CALLED WORM TEA!! to add to your plants in regular watering times.
Watch your plants grow like never before!

These large muslin/cotton bags are used by us at FWG as very large worm tea bags.they work great in a 45 gallon container. But for the most part here, We use them to ship our worms out in.
A pound of worms along with a pound of bedding goes in this bag wonderful, and the worms can breathe through them great.
If you compost this bag after you get your worms,it is composted in a matter of weeks.(not years)

OH!! we can’t forget about my great little tool I made to bag my 1 pound bags of worm castings, this very handy 2 litre pop bottle with a soup can typed to it, makes bagging my worm castings an ease!! isn’t this tool recycling at its best!! haha.

1 more thing! we can’t forget about the way that I ship my worms and products across Canada! every box I use for shipping is recycled, from local stores.

Jeff The Friendly Worm Guy

WOW! I sure wish I hadn’t fertilized my huge 400′ X 100′ front yard, with Worm Castings, now that I am waiting for parts to repair my riding lawnmower.
If anyone that is reading this post is looking for a Great Organic fertilizer, too make there lawns grow like never before!! There will be NO greener lawn on the block!!

There is places in the lawn that haven’t been fertilized with Worm Castings for the past 3 years, and the grass is still growing great in those areas. These Worm Castings last for years!!

WOW!! This is a topic we could talk about all day!! Every region of this Great earth of ours has a different predator of the Earthworm!

First of all Man is most likely the greatest predator. Just thing about that for a moment.
Examples!
1. Farmers kill Billions of earthworms plowing their fields
2. Then the Farmer comes along and sprays pesticides and Chemical fertilizer to kill the rest of the worms that the plow missed.
3. That is why they need to spray chemical fertilizer so their crop will grow.

OK enough said about the farmers, I am one as well, On my farm there has been no pesticides or chemical fertilizer used for at least 8 years. All plans on my farm is to be organic, example: fertilize with worm tea, and worm castings

We can’t forget about the Fisherman! HaHa! I guess I wouldn’t have much of a business without them!

Even some cultures eat the worms, Of all things. Yuk!
Enough talking about man being a predator, but we sure are a big one!!

Now on to other Predators of the Earthworm.
1. Snakes,birds,
2. Rodents, such as, chipmunks,moles,rats,skunks, racoons, and on and on!
3. A very big number of insects as well..We could go on for ever!!!!

Oh yes! There is even a little worm out there called a Flat worm! They eat earthworms as well.

The reason being is the earthworm is loaded with protein, so it makes the earthworm a very well sought after creature! By all its predators…

The Friendly Worm Guy

They sure like to be handled,

After a few days of having the little guys,it was time to clean their cages, so where would I think of putting the contents that you find in the bottom of a Guinea cage, but into the worm beds of course, These guys eat about the same as a rabbit does. Not saying you can feed your Guinea pigs rabbit pellets,because you can’t. You have to buy Guinea Pig food, So I was sure I could put this stuff into the worm beds.

Oh Boy!! was I right! The worms LOVE this stuff. So any of you Guinea Pig keepers out there, I can help you out, A worm bin is a great way to get rid of your Guinea Pigs poo poo!!(haha)

The Friendly Worm Guy

It has been over a month since the last post about the composting in the 1/2 classroom.

This past Monday was a big day for the students and I, Our bin is in great shape!! We now have alot of baby worms, and alot of egg cocoons as well.

We were able to see 5 BABY European n/c hatch out of 1 COCOON!!
(sorry I wasn’t able to get pics)

We are sure doing a great job, and our worms are very happy! We know we are taking great care of them, because on average we should be getting about 2 baby euros out of 1 cocoon not 5

ontil next update!!! The Friendly Worm Guy

Vermicompost is 100% organic fertilizer.Harvesting vermicompost is a very time consuming job, using various sizes of screens to bag the final product. I am still trying to get the little baby worms and the egg capsules out of it. This is why I am calling it Vermicompost instead of worm castings. Worm castings are free of worms and egg capsules, and completely composted. Vermicompost is about 75% composted material , with some little worms and some egg capsules, never the less these little worms and future worms(egg capsules) are great for any soil you use the Vermicompost in. A gardener will tell you how important it is to have worms in your garden.
I have 50 lbs of European Nightcrawlers working for me, making about 500 - 750 litres of vermicompost every 10-14 days. The vermicompost can be added to your soil at a ratio 1 litre vermicompost to 3-4 litres of your soil or potting soil, and you can top dress your flower beds, gardens etc. every 30 days to keep the plants nutrients at their very best. The vermicompost will retain alot of water too! so in the summer your beds will stay moist for a longer period of time.
The next thing that I am planning on is to educate some elementary classes in Massey, at S.Geiger Public school and St. Mary Catholic School before the end of the school year. So far, I have a worm observatory at S.Geiger School in the grade 2 & 3 classroom. The students are watching the worms work the soil. It is my goal to keep the students enthusiastic about the science in our Natural world. See ya till next time.
The friendly worm guy.

The Old Vault Restaurant in Webbwood Ontario (Canada). Makes alot of great coffee and fantastic food. As a result there is alot of organic waste that will feed my worms. I pick up the coffee grounds and filters, along with potato peels, by the pail full.
All my readers don’t need to find a restaurant to feed your worms, with a home vermicomposting bin, you have all the food waste you need to feed your bin. Because I feed alot if worms (hundreds of thousands), I am greatful to find all this organic waste from the Old Vault to feed my worms

The older farmers in my area sure gave me some funny looks when I started asking them If they had an Old Fanning Mill hanging around their farms. “What in the world would I want a thing like that for”? . They had not used them since the 1950’s. I heard the story from each, about cranking those old things all day, just to clean that grain so they could plant that years crop. Those machines were hard work, what are you going to do with something like that.

I told them, I was going to try and harvest worm castings with one. I had not even seen one before, but had only heard of them. After harvesting all my worm casting by this point by hand, with a little 1/8″ screen all night to get ready for a garden show the following day, I was ready to try anything.

The Orange one on the left came from the farmer next to me, It was made between 1913-1915, by the Young Brothers of Almonte Ontario,Yes that makes this machine about 95 years old. This unit is the first one I got, it is still operated with the hand crank on the side of the machine.

The red one on the right is one I got at a farm sale, the farmer had sold his farm. When I went and looked at it I was very happy to see what I saw. Someone had put an electic motor on it.
Even though the orange one had a crank on it,and made harvesting the castings much easier. If my hands could be free to handle all the used up bedding I was putting through this machine, I could make alot more finished worm castings in a shorter time. After a few adjustments it works great.

I have made a video of the red one in action! Harvesting Worm Castings