My silent workers toiling away in the darkness of the worm bin have been overjoyed of late! My daughter Ashleigh asked me “ Dad, how do you know that they are overjoyed?”
“It’s simple, they wiggle more!”, was my knowing response.
There is a little more to it than that. The red composting worms I use, (Eisenia fetida or Eisenia andrei), are surface or near surface feeders. For most of the summer, up until two weeks ago, they weren’t wiggling much at all. In fact they either stayed buried deeply in the bins or, possibly succumbed to the brutal heat. During the weather change I took some groceries out to the little guys. Not much sign of activity. I was afraid that this long hot summer had been too much for them. I spread the meal out, put the lid on and hoped for the best.
Two days later I took another bowl if groceries out and on the surface, especially on the strawberry trimmings, it was swirling with red wrigglers.
Yes they were overjoyed!
A bowl of yummy worm food
My overjoyed workers wiggling, waving and eating!
TTFN
Bishop
From My Backyard 
Nov 17, 2013 @ 02:48:38
I love reading about your worms Not many people share this enthusiasm.
My little red wigglers are more spoiled than yours! Because I live alone, and tend to cook for myself sporadically in large batches to freeze, my supply of scraps for them is not steady, but more feast-or-famine. So after I’ve had an orgy of peeling, coring, trimming, etc. I save the scraps in a 2-quart plastic container in my freezer. When the container is full I remove it, let it defrost, then dump it into my blender in batches. It ends up the consistency of applesauce, with eggshell chips. I then refreeze it in 1-cup plastic containers. I defrost a cup at a time as needed, and my little guys love it. They get quite fat and active.
One year I happened to have lunch with a lady who was giving a lecture on vermiculture at the San Francisco Flower Show. I told her about this process, she said it was ideal They get all the nutrients they need without having to work so hard.
Another advantage is that the freezing kills off any kind of insect larvae that might have been lingering on the peelings, being potentially viable in the warm, moist atmosphere of my worm tower.
This makes life easier for me. Plus, if I’m travelling, it’s easier on the “pet” sitter, just defrost-and-dump. Nothing is too good for my little guys.
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Nov 17, 2013 @ 03:30:05
What a great system to manage the feeding. I have some time off next week, unless I am selected for a jury panel! I need to harvest the casting in several of the lower bins. They are a hardy and hard working bunch. Thanks again.
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Nov 17, 2013 @ 20:18:16
SOME OF THEIR FOOD LOOKS PRETTY GOO. HOPE YOU’LL HAVE STRAWBERRIES IN A WEEK OR SO,,I’LL BE THERE YOU KNOW!! XOXOXOXMOM
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Nov 17, 2013 @ 22:14:36
No strawberries but I do have lots of strawberry jam!
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Nov 20, 2013 @ 02:40:20
I just sat in on a workshop facilitated by Maurice Small, self-proclaimed worm-whisperer. He had a novel approach to feeding his worms. He takes the day’s produce scrap and wraps it in yesterday’s newspaper like a burrito and places the burritos in his garden beds. The worms crawl up and devour the microorganisms munching on the decaying materials. Typical input materials, atypical method but he does get good results with this.
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Nov 20, 2013 @ 03:10:52
That sounds like a great way to recycle newspaper and build healthier soil. I have also seen some articles on trench composting. Dig a trench the length of the garden bed. Fill and cover as you go to keep the flies and others at bay.
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Jul 01, 2015 @ 19:25:17
I do accept as true with all the concepts you
have presented to your post. They’re really convincing and can certainly work.
Still, the posts are too short for newbies. May you please extend them a little from subsequent time?
Thank you for the post.
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