My First Worm Bin

Yesterday I ran across a discussion here and saw this link:

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

I can't find that discussion again, so here I'll say thanks to the person that linked it in the first place.  So last night I went and got all my supplies except for the worms.  I had to do some research on where to buy some in my home town.  I found a place and later today I'll be getting some nice juicy redworms.

So I'm all set on my very first attempt at a worm bin.  We live in a duplex that we rent and can't do anything with the yard so this is a perfect solution for us, I believe.  Wish me luck.

good luck! my daughter told me she wanted a "worm farm" at our new house and we will be putting one together at some point in the near future too. there are lots of things you can do even though you rent. grow things in pots, compost your kitchen scraps, collect water.

Congratulations on your new endeavor!

I dug my in-ground worm bin last week, and added shredded leaves, rabbit manure, and some kitchen waste, and dumped the several handfuls of worms I collected from my composter into the middle.  We shall see how that goes.

Sue

I kept a wormbin in my studio apartment in Seattle, and can think of tons of little tips.

The biggest is: sometimes it takes awhile for the wormbin's ecosystem to kick in. Once it does, it isn't smelly (except for corn stalks for some reason, they always make it smelly). Until the ecosystem starts working well though, when in doubt, when things smell, just keep topping off with shredded paper (NYTimes is best, less color) and loads of coffee grounds. You can effectively cover up the smell with coffee grounds. And it Will work out its own kinks, just give it time.

Make sure your air holes are small enough so fruit flies can't go in and out, but numerous enough so the worms can breathe.

And in the summer, think of your darkest, coldest spot. In my sunlit kitchen I was constantly trying to make my worms comfortable. They'd get so hot they'd crawl out and then crisp up on the floor. A sad sight to come home too.

Thanks for the tips.  I had to order my worms online because no one here in town is going to have any until March (I live in KS).  We have a basement and I am going to keep the bins down by the washer and dryer.  It stays a fairly constant temp all year round.

My real concern right now is that the worms will crawl out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the bin and run all over the basement floor.  Does this not happen?

maybe you could line the bin with window screen to keep from having escapees. I plan to house mine on the north side of the house in a partially buried bin. they still might get too hot...we'll see.

I'd have a bin within a bin.

In the apartment, I used a rubbermaid-type bin inside of one exactly the same size, stacked. That way there's a few inches of space for the compost to drain. Some worms will get into that, but the compost itself is really much more attractive to them.

Or if outside and in a wooden box, I'll have some kind of tray to catch the compost drippings. It's great fertilizer. In that case, you won't really care if worms get out. They reproduce really fast and you'll have a lot inside.