The worm experiment update 2

The 3 bins on top of the flow through crate

A few weeks back, I have started the experiment suggested by Bentley compost guy. The basic idea, is to take 2 juvenile worms, and let then grow and reproduce in a small container.
Since I have started the experiment, I set up 3 bins, 1 with 2 juveniles, 1 with one juvenile (some worms may be able to auto reproduce) and 1 with a mature worm (mature worm may be fertilized, so we should be able to see population growth there).  The mini bins have been checked every 10 days, and until yesterdays check, I have not seen any cocoons.

Cocoon, right in the center

This time I have found 4 cocoons, and 3 worms in the 2 juvenile bin! That mean that I have missed at least one cocoon in the last 2 checks, as a cocoon should take around 20 days to hatch depending on temperature and other condition. On the right is the picture of one of the cocoon I found, next time Ill use an actual camera to get a better picture. The yellow dot in the middle is the cocoon, the colour of a cocoon is an indication of its development stage: yellow is newly layer, brown is close to hatch. All 4 cocoon I fond were yellow, expect this one that was brown on one side, but yellow on the other side (I have taken the picture showing mostly the yellow side otherwise the phone camera does not show it.)

For the 1 worm bins, I have not seen any cocoons, But I will see if worms "appear" as it is pretty difficult to see the cocoons. I have noticed that when I make compost tea, the cocoons have tendency to float on the top, maybe I should drawn the mini-bins to get a more accurate cocoon counts. 

Overall the worms were rather sitting in the bottom of the bins, where it is quite soggy, it is a bit different form the worm crate, where they are dispersed throughout all of it, but I suspect that the population density has something to do with it, in the worm crate the "sweet" spot would rather be overcrowded, forcing the worms to use all of the available space.

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