Vermiculture, anyone?

[madhen]

Otherwise known as worm-farming. I do this on a very small scale. I have a six-tiered worm bin with about 1,000 red worms in it. I use it for personal use, both the castings and the "worm tea," mostly on my garden and on my house plants. But I do see that the actual worms and their castings sell for a LOT of money, and I was curious as to whether anyone here has attempted to make a business out of it.

I'd also looking for someone who can discuss vermiculture knowledgeably, because I can't seem to get my little worm farm balanced. Lots of worms, but lots of other little critters, too, despite my following all the cautionary rules about not putting meat and such in there. And not much worm breeding going on, from what I can tell, although the adults seem really fat and happy.

[Darlene]

Lol, Don't have any answers for you but think what your doing is neat & interesting. Good luck with your farm! Maybe someone at our sister site www.homesteadgarden.com can help you more.
Wanted to read more & found this link~
http://www.newfarm.org/features/0903/worms/index.shtml

[madhen]

Is that site up and running? I tried it the other day, with no success, and was told it was down.

[madhen]

Thank you!! I checked out the link, and it was really interesting! I need to clean up my little six-tier bin and see what is going on in there. I started with 500 red wigglers about two years ago, and I've seen *some* babies, but not as many as I had hoped. Also, you can kind of gauge how many worms you have by how fast they consume the scraps. 1,000 worms should consume approx 1/2 lb. of scraps daily, and they aren't doing that yet. :-(