So I peaked in my top bin today and decided to start the process of harvesting the castings. I started this particular bin the year before (2009) by splitting my original bin of worms and slowly breeding them. It wasn't until 2010 that I really started feeding these guys and now this will be the first time I will be collecting castings from them. My second bin below, which houses my original worms will be ready for this process in a couple of weeks give or take.
So my process, which there are several ways is to just push the worms and the castings to one side of the bin. Add new bedding material to the clean side and eventually add their favorite food, rotten banana peels. The worms eventually move to the clean side with the food. Once most of the worms move over the next step begins! Stay tuned! Happy Wrangling y'all!
Those castings look awesome! I'm curious, do you think pushing everything to the side is better than putting a second bin on top and having the worms migrate upward?
ReplyDeleteFor me it was better. It's quicker than putting a second bin on top. I usually just wait a couple of days before adding the rotting bananas and within a week or so, most of the worms are on the new bedding side. The second bin method takes 4-ever!! I think it sometimes takes up to a month for the worms to move to the new bin. If you have even less patience, the "dumping" method is even faster!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that's a long time. I will definitely stick to the side push method!
ReplyDeleteWhen you do the side push method, make sure to starve the worms a bit. I actually stopped adding food to the bin about 2 weeks ago to make sure they finish eating any leftover food. When they get pissed and hungry- they usually start climbing up the walls of your bin and trying to escape- put the food on the clean side. They'll move over real quick!
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