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Post by elaine on Mar 29, 2021 22:11:57 GMT
So, amongst the various shortages right now, apparently there is a worm shortage. My neighbor, whom I fish with, and I have been discussing starting a worm farm for a couple of years now, so that we would always have bait on hand. Well, the worm shortage was the kick in the pants we needed. We ordered a Worm Farm and a pound of worms. Everything arrived - the worms just made it in from Ohio - and we set up our farm. My neighbor has a 7 year old son who will help wrangle and feed the worms. 🪱🪱🪱 It will give him a great experience to write a report about in the Fall when back in school. We have magnets on our fridges outlining what is good worm food and what to not feed them. Hopefully within a couple of months, we will be able to compost 1/2 pound of kitchen scraps per day. The also eat paper and cardboard - they are nature’s little recyclers!  |
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The Birdhouse Lady
Drama Llama
Moose. It's what's for dinner.
Posts: 7,165
Location: Alaska -The Last Frontier
Jun 30, 2014 17:15:19 GMT
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Post by The Birdhouse Lady on Mar 29, 2021 22:17:52 GMT
Haha! This cracks me up!  What are you going to do with all the worms??? |
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georgiapea
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,846 
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Post by georgiapea on Mar 29, 2021 22:27:56 GMT
That's great, congratulations on your new entrepreneurial venture.
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Post by Delta Dawn on Mar 29, 2021 22:30:59 GMT
You are the coolest person I have ever heard of!
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Montannie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,486
Location: Big Sky Country
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Post by Montannie on Mar 29, 2021 22:31:11 GMT
You knew this week's full moon is the Worm Moon, right? Very good sign for your new venture!
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Post by femalebusiness on Mar 29, 2021 22:36:29 GMT
My brother-in-law had a raised bed in his yard, that was 10’ x 4’. He farmed worms for fishing. That soil in the bed grew the most incredible vegetables that I have ever seen.
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craftykitten
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,304
Jun 26, 2014 7:39:32 GMT
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Post by craftykitten on Mar 29, 2021 22:47:22 GMT
Brilliant! I once bought a packet of worms through the post, to add to my compost bin. Those suckers bred like mad and we had worms EVERYWHERE.
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Post by elaine on Mar 29, 2021 23:15:03 GMT
Haha! This cracks me up!  What are you going to do with all the worms??? We have investors in the farm. 💵 (my neighbor’s father and friend) They are allowed a weekly allotment of worms for fishing. 😀 We will also help keep the population under control ourselves because we prefer to fish on worms (and so do the fish). |
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Post by elaine on Mar 29, 2021 23:16:27 GMT
Brilliant! I once bought a packet of worms through the post, to add to my compost bin. Those suckers bred like mad and we had worms EVERYWHERE. ❤️ They are great for the environment! They keep the soil in tip top shape and make excellent bird food. 🥰 |
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Post by withapea on Mar 29, 2021 23:22:31 GMT
We’ve has a bin of worms in our pantry for years. Have fun. They can consume a lot!
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Post by ~summer~ on Mar 29, 2021 23:23:16 GMT
Neat!
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MrsDepp
Full Member
Refupea #2341
Posts: 475
Jun 30, 2014 18:36:02 GMT
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Post by MrsDepp on Mar 29, 2021 23:30:34 GMT
This brings back memories. My dad had a huge worm bed. I remember as a child helping build it. I played mostly in the mortar. I spent many days running around on the perimeter of it chasing my sisters. He was a fisherman and hunter. We farmed just about everything. Mom shopped mainly for sugar and flour.
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Post by Lexica on Mar 29, 2021 23:37:18 GMT
Congratulations! I started my worm bin for the fishing worms for my son over 20 years ago! He was an avid fisherman and I was tired of finding the store had run out of worms before we got there. I have a recipe for a worm bodybuilder that I sprinkle in mine all the time. I will dig it out and post it for you if you would like it. I just recently bought this gadget to remove the coffee grounds from the Keurig container to give the worms the coffee grounds and recycle the Keurig cup. www.amazon.com/Medelco-Recycle-Cup-K-Cup-Recycling/dp/B017XLW7I6/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=keurig+cup+recycle&qid=1617060658&sr=8-2I usually use a refillable coffee pod, but get lazy and buy the premade pods sometimes. With the gadget, I can at least reduce the waste when I buy the Costco pods by recycling them. |
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Post by calgaryscrapper on Mar 30, 2021 0:00:37 GMT
Dh has been running the toilet paper rolls through our shredder. He has been drilling holes in a couple of buckets and will use the paper and other items with some worms
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Post by librarylady on Mar 30, 2021 1:53:37 GMT
When I was in the library, I had an aquarium worm bed. Kids loved being able to see the worms at work, see the tunnels through the glass etc.
What is very interesting--cut an apple in half and lie it atop the soil. The worms are attracted to the apple and will eat all the flesh of the apple and leave a paper thin skin atop the soil.
I/we had the type earthworms that live in the top 5 inches of the soil. I did not have the big red wigglers that are often sold as fishing bait.........Prior to my experience, I did not realize the big red worms were a different variety.
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Post by PolarGreen12 on Mar 30, 2021 1:57:31 GMT
Aww little baby Nope Ropes.
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Post by elaine on Mar 30, 2021 2:14:19 GMT
When I was in the library, I had an aquarium worm bed. Kids loved being able to see the worms at work, see the tunnels through the glass etc. What is very interesting--cut an apple in half and lie it atop the soil. The worms are attracted to the apple and will eat all the flesh of the apple and leave a paper thin skin atop the soil. I/we had the type earthworms that live in the top 5 inches of the soil. I did not have the big red wigglers that are often sold as fishing bait.........Prior to my experience, I did not realize the big red worms were a different variety. Several types of nightcrawlers that are great bait worms don’t work well in worm farms. Canadian nightcrawlers are what is typically sold as large bait worms around here. They are great for bass and larger fish, but too big for panfish/sunfish unless you cut them up. European nightcrawlers do work well, so half of my worm farm worms are those kind. Red Wigglers are both great composters/worm-farm-worms and they are also popular bait worms. The other of the worm mix I bought are these. They are what we buy most often when Walmart has worms in stock (not right now). They are small enough to work with all kinds of fish. Regular garden earthworms live deep in soil and like cool temps, so don’t work well in farms. |
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Post by Crack-a-lackin on Mar 30, 2021 2:36:16 GMT
If you never removed some for fishing would they control their reproduction or would you quickly be overrun by worms? I know a few people who have large compost bins with worms but I’ve never heard them mention needing to control the population.
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Post by elaine on Mar 30, 2021 2:47:15 GMT
If you never removed some for fishing would they control their reproduction or would you quickly be overrun by worms? I know a few people who have large compost bins with worms but I’ve never heard them mention needing to control the population. They will control their population according to the surface area and food availability. 😀 If you didn’t remove any for fishing, they wouldn’t reproduce as quickly. |
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Post by librarylady on Mar 30, 2021 3:04:02 GMT
I read a story once about someone with a worm farm and they had a problem with the worms crawling out of the container.
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Post by Spongemom Scrappants on Mar 30, 2021 10:54:34 GMT
Ahh, a good cup of coffee and a discussion about worms. You just never really know how your day is going to start, do you?
Along with a variety of animals, we tried an ant farm and hatching butterflies when my boys were little. It really is fascinating to see some things up close and personal.
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janeliz
Drama Llama
I'm the Wiz and nobody beats me.
Posts: 5,633
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Post by janeliz on Mar 30, 2021 11:35:44 GMT
That’s so funny, because my DH is also a worm farmer. He’s got his bin set up on our back patio and we set aside food scraps, etc. for them.
He’s always out there fiddling with them and updating us on how they’re all doing. My daughter said he seems a bit obsessed. 😁
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SweetieBsMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,610
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Post by SweetieBsMom on Mar 30, 2021 12:08:51 GMT
Ahh, a good cup of coffee and a discussion about worms. You just never really know how your day is going to start, do you? Along with a variety of animals, we tried an ant farm and hatching butterflies when my boys were little. It really is fascinating to see some things up close and personal. This literally made me laugh out loud because I was thinking the same thing.  |
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Post by elaine on Mar 30, 2021 13:44:36 GMT
That’s so funny, because my DH is also a worm farmer. He’s got his bin set up on our back patio and we set aside food scraps, etc. for them. He’s always out there fiddling with them and updating us on how they’re all doing. My daughter said he seems a bit obsessed. 😁 Good for your husband! Does he use the worms for anything other than composting? Do you use the castings and liquid in your garden? My neighbor just checked on them and texted me to let me know that when he lifted the cover many of the worms were in the corners feasting on the scraps we put in yesterday. 😀 |
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,126
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Post by iowgirl on Mar 30, 2021 16:40:25 GMT
That's very cool!
We practice almost 100% no-till farming. This leaves a lot of organic matter on top of the ground. After a few years, the soil becomes very healthy and has a healthy structure that holds moisture well and is also FULL of earthworms. He will hold off on some pesticide applications, if the break even isn't crazy.
My DH is always excited to show me how many worms his fields have! LOL So I understand your excitement over worms!
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Mar 30, 2021 16:47:45 GMT
see, the Peas know everything first, lol! I would have gone to walmart sometime in the next couple weeks to buy worms for fishing, and been unawares that there is a worm shortage. But now, I know! it's bad enough that I pay $$ for them at all, when I remember finding huge nightcrawlers out in the yard as a kid, lol. But seriously, that's really cool, elaine. My grandpa always grew worms in their basement when I was a kid. (we went fishing in Minnesota for a week every summer for our vacation-- we used a lot of worms.) He would keep them in an old Styrofoam insulated cooler... just thinking about it makes me remember the aroma of the damp shredded newspaper, lol. I don't think I could even do something like that here; we don't have cool enough temps inside our house anywhere. |
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J u l e e
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,531
Location: Cincinnati
Jun 28, 2014 2:50:47 GMT
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Post by J u l e e on Mar 30, 2021 17:51:25 GMT
You are the coolest person I have ever heard of! , you really are!! |
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flute4peace
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,757
Jul 3, 2014 14:38:35 GMT
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Post by flute4peace on Mar 30, 2021 23:55:26 GMT
As someone who’s husband regularly goes out in the middle of the night to pick worms after big rains, I think this is amazing!
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janeliz
Drama Llama
I'm the Wiz and nobody beats me.
Posts: 5,633
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Post by janeliz on Mar 31, 2021 1:37:32 GMT
That’s so funny, because my DH is also a worm farmer. He’s got his bin set up on our back patio and we set aside food scraps, etc. for them. He’s always out there fiddling with them and updating us on how they’re all doing. My daughter said he seems a bit obsessed. 😁 Good for your husband! Does he use the worms for anything other than composting? Do you use the castings and liquid in your garden? My neighbor just checked on them and texted me to let me know that when he lifted the cover many of the worms were in the corners feasting on the scraps we put in yesterday. 😀 Right now he just uses them for composting. He’s always updating me on what scraps they like best, and he says he’ll have some good stuff for my garden very soon. His business is actually centered around fishing tackle and supplies, but he doesn’t use a lot of live bait. I’m sure he will this summer, though. |
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Post by cawoman on Apr 1, 2021 6:18:47 GMT
Around 40 years ago, as a teenager, I had a worm farm. I think there were maybe 4-5 raised beds. After a short time, my Mom was tired of having them in the yard so we flipped them and made a little over $1,000.00 That was big money then!
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What are you going to do with all the worms???
What are you going to do with all the worms???
