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.
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?
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?
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
