Worms Working For A Living

Our NEW Worm Composting Bin- Day 3

Good day and welcome to Day 3.

So this is our new website and we're new at this. Not so new at being earth smart and environmentally friendly- been doing that for years, but new to the e-commerce business and selling products online. So far we're having fun with it and it's always fun to learn something new. As an integral part of our product offerings, we sell the 'Worm Farm 360' self-contained worm composting system and had to buy one for general product knowledge. Talk about your learning...this is right up there with my science fair exhibit in 6th grade. I think this is going be a great hobby.

We took delivery of 1000 red wrigglers on Thursday... oh there are pictures. My partner (the wife character) squirmed and somewhat recoiled at the site of them on the dining room table. Yes, they were still in the bag. After preparing the worm farm as directed, to a strict formula of bedding, moisture, starter food and some decomposing brown leaves from last year to kick off the composting process, we're ready to do the vermaculture.

We gently pour the worms into the bedding made from shredded newspaper, sand, pumice, a hand-full of potting soil, some dead leaves ala. 2012, and a couple scraps of lettuce in the corners... they have to go out and find it I'm told. Thus the acclimation process for the worms begin. This is kind of boring- you set it and forget it. The book says put the cover on and leave them alone for 3 days while they get used to their new digs. I gave them a half day.

They seem to be well integrated into the bedding and crawling around the lettuce scraps, boiled potato pieces and coffee grounds I added this morning. I pulled out some more perfectly good lettuce from the refrigerator to feed them because we didn't have any food scraps in the hopper. I talked my wife into scrambled eggs just so i can feed them the shells. It's going pretty well so far even after a couple of cool nights. I covered them with a sleeping bag to be sure, but you could bring them inside if it drops below 40 degrees. I had permission for that strangely enough.Temperature consistency is pretty important- their limits are 40-80 degrees. Once we get the composting crushing machine up to speed they should be eating about 2-3 lbs of garbage a week. No rolling, tumbling or fumbling required for the compost- the worms drill thousands of holes in between the food trays and oxygenate the compost nicely, without smelling funny. Fresh strawberry tops were added an hour ago, we'll see how they like them.

Talk to you Day 7.