Worm Castings

My little worm experiment continues to work out well. I actually have two bins going now because it's easier when it comes to harvesting the castings. I've found out that with castings, a little goes a long way; it shouldn't be anymore than 10% of a mix. I think I'll use the castings as top dressing for seeds and seedlings.

Those worms are pretty prolific. I have one and a half feed bags of castings and I will be harvesting castings again before I start planting. I have changed my harvest technique a bit since I can't be dumping the bin out in the snow. I take some of the contents and put them on a cardboard. Then I put a spot light on the contents. In about 15 minutes, all the worms go to the bottom of the pile and I take the castings. I continue until all I have is a bunch of worms left. They go back into a nice clean bin with bedding and food.

I honestly have no idea how many worms I have now. I have been feeding them regularly to my chickens and it doesn't seem to make much of a dent in the population. The worms do go through food fairly fast. Apparently a pound of worms can eat half a pound of food a day. I figure I put in at least a pound every two days or so. (When it comes to poo, rabbits are about as prolific as worms.) Now all I have to do is figure out how many worms it takes to make a pound and I'll have an idea of how many worms I have. But that's really not on my to-do list. The worms are thriving, the rabbit manure is manageable, I have beautiful castings for my garden, that's all that counts.