Worm Farm Renovations

I went to feed the Worms the other day & found the Farm to be very sodden & with a slight, for the want of a better word, whiffy odour.... Worms were attempting escape & had congregated around the lip under the lid of the Worm box...
We have had this problem before & thought we had rectified it by leaving the tap open allowing the Worm "Juice" to drain into a small bucket that sat below it....
Unfortunately we hadnt allowed for blockages when bits of the castings fall through the grate & then block the tap.... This slowed the flow of the liquid to only a drip which in turn caused the base the first tray to flood.... There were many a worm casualty but the majority of our "Squirm" (Apparently, this is the collective noun) of Worms were rescued...

 The Sloppy casting soup from the base & bottom tray were scooped into an old pair of stockings which was then suspended over a bucket to allow all the excess liquid to drain out leaving only nutrient rich castings & a few Worms that are probably very happy they didnt drown...

The castings will be used in the garden to line holes/trenches that plants/seeds will be planted/sown into... We have had great success with this method of planting with the only draw back being that we now class the hundreds of Tomato seedlings that pop up as weeds.... Bit sad but you can only give away so many...

  As for the Worm Farm, I removed its rickety legs & have placed it on an old Cockatoo cage we "inherited" from curb side clean up...  A dry clean tray was lined with some moist Sugar cane mulch... The remaining Worms along with the castings, newspaper & food from the top tray, were emptied on top of the mulch & covered with some damp newspaper.... Between the tray & the base I have placed some 90% shade cloth in the hope that any castings or worms that all through the grating will get caught.... Hopefully this will fix the blockage problems for good...

I checked this morning to find the smell has gone, the trays have returned to being just moist & the worms are happily devouring the food, newspaper scraps & cane Mulch...
The worms get feed mainly scraps from the kitchen that we Blitz in the food processor with some water... The dont put in Onions, Citrus, & meat...  I know worms will eat meat but we choose dont add it so as not to encourage any large hairy rodents to our property... We have found that by Chopping their food up that it gets eaten faster & we get castings faster... Well worth the few minutes  to chop it in the possessor I think... One thing we did see on a clip from a Worm breeder was that they love bread & tend to go into a feeding/breeding frenzy under a slice of bread left on top of the food... We have tried this & have found a huge "ball" of worms writhing under the slice.... I cant verify the breeding claim as my eyesight just isnt that good....

Did you know worms,

are Hermaphrodites
have no eyes or ears
are very sensitive to light but are vibrations
worms have 5 hearts
can eat half its body weight every day
live for up to 10 years


Have a Great one All...

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