Vermicomposting

Someone mentioned that in another thread - Kyah? I believe.

I've been interested in starting that, but how do you deal with the winters? Do you keep the worms inside the house? How much cold can they survive?

Inquiring minds want to know!

I mentioned in another thread that I have six worm bins going in the basement right now. They grow very well in the basement even though it's pretty cool down there.

I don't think a worm bin would do very well outside in the winter. I think worms in the ground outside burrow down past the frost line and go dormant for the winter.

I'm hoping to get the bins going well enough to start selling worms and vermicompost. Redworms sell for $40/lb online. I bought mine from a lady in Bradford along with a worm bin. I use rubbermaid totes now with holes drilled in them.

Hmmm, I think if I put worm bins in the basement, the dogs would get into them. :?

Is there a market for worms in the winter?

I kept my worms in the basement last winter and will start up a new batch again this winter (i simply had earth worms from the variety store so I dumped them and their castings into my new compost in the spring to kick start it all

I keep worms for the castings

but I suspect if you are anywhere around where ice fishers are they might want live bait in the winter .. the ice fisher folks are nuts around us

There's a niche market for aquarists too. When I had my puffer fish, the local fish dealer set me up with a worm farmer contact, and I'd pick some up from him at least once a month. It's fairly common with people that keep larger/predatory fish, both fresh and marine.

One might even have some luck selling them online for this purpose.

mine winter over outside. but then again...my composters stay hot enough all winter that they never freeze all the way through.

Dogs shouldn't get into them. One way you keep them from crawling out is hot sauce around the rim of the buckets (I used to keep a bucket in the house). My dog took one sniff and said "NATCH!"

I know this is not about worms fftopic: but- Love your avatar image David and love the site- :thankyou: for all your work. :typing:
B~

Happy to. Thanks for the kind words.

I guess I'm a Johnny -come lately to the thread... I can't seem to find any computer time here lately. However, if you guys are talkin' worms, count me in, lol.
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've been interested in starting that, but how do you deal with the winters? Do you keep the worms inside the house? How much cold can they survive?

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I keep the bulk of my fellas inside during winter, that way I'm able to make VC all year round and I have plenty of worms to go fishing with and to sell. They can tolerate the cool weather, they slow down all their little worm activities around 5 Celcius,but once the mercury dips down below freezing, they must have protection.

You can still vermicompost outside though, despite our Canadian winters. All you need is a good in-ground bin. Through the winter, some of the adults will die off, but some will burrow below the frost line too. In the springtime, you'll see a good number of adults, and the hatching cocoons will help to repopulate the bin/bed. I have a wooden box that I use, and late in the fall, I give it a good thick layer of rabbit manure, about a foot deep, all over the top. In the spring, that box has some of the biggest red worms I've ever seen.

Is there a market for worms in the winter?

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Yeah there is, depending to an extent to where you live though. Most worm farmers ship their worms, but they cannot ship when the weather is too cold or too hot. So if people need worms in your area and cannot have them shipped because of the weather, you would see an opportunity where the "worm needer" sees a problem.
If you live in an area where there are lots of fishermen, that's even better, especially ice fishermen who seem to really love live bait worms. In my area, ice fishing season is just gearing up, and I already have an order for 4 Lbs. I sell my worms for $30/lb, mostly advertise on kijiji, but word of mouth is good too...

There are a few other folks who want worms in the winter for vermicomposting too. Some want them for reptile/fish food, etc, One lady wrote me last year wanted the worms to feed the wild birds with, another lady bought 5 lbs to start a vermicomposting project for her school. So there's a lot of different markets.

Want to start a thread on how to set up a bin with worms using rabbit manure? I'm actually doing that today, and I might even be able to post some pics?

-Kyah

Kyah, I would be interested in hearing about your rabbit manure worm bin. I now have seven worm bins going in the basement (started a new one since the beginning of this thread!) and quite successfully using kitchen scraps and shredded newspaper. However, the one bin that I started with just rabbit manure wasn't successful, the worms died after only one day so I would be interested in any input you would have. Like most of you here, I have a sizeable manure output, I produce about one 50lb feed bag of manure a week, so if I was able to use all of that for worm bins I should be able to produce about a bazillion (is that a word? ) pounds of worms a year and maybe actually make a living off it!

I do empty my poo pans onto a screen and let it drain for a day or two before putting it in the feed bag but I still have urine and possible ammonia concerns regarding putting manure in with the worms.

okay. starting a new thread.....this is facinating, and the new thread could end up a sticky with instructions, ideas, thoughts.....

On the third two of you said you would start a new thread. Did that ever get started? I would really like more information on how to start VC, markets for selling, bagging tips, etc. I just started fostering bunnies and will be starting a BEW program soon. So I intend to have a lot of droppings in the near future lol.

As an aquarium enthusiast I can attest to feeding live worms to my fish. They love them and go nuts over them!

Some one please let me know when another thread is started with all the information needed to set up a worm bin

Shawnee&Trevor, this is the thread you are looking for:
vermicomposting-worm-beds-using-rabbitpoo-t122.html

Thank you MaggieJ, I did not think that was the instructional post, sorry I missed it