DonaldB, My frogs, too, come up to me to get fed. They swim over from the far side of the pond, then they sit on the rocks and stare at me. Very creepy as they don't blink! Sometimes they get overexcited and leap at my fingers just as I'm reaching down with the "worm". Now, since I HATED giving them live worms I came up with an idea that has worked out fabulously. I cut up hotdogs into long, thin pieces. I put these pieces on the end of a stick and watch the feeding frenzy. There doesn't seem to be a health issue using hotdogs as I did this all summer and never saw sick frogs. Just BIG, FAT, ones!

Stop feeding them when the water cools to 50°, and don't feed them again until spring when the water stabilizes at 50° again. The reason for this is not just because the fish have a hard time digesting the food, it's because the beneficial bacteria in your filter that converts ammonia to harmless nitrates is not working well and can't convert the ammonia. If you feed in the winter, you could end up with ammonia problems.

Gardenweed, Just to let you know, wood ashes have no nitrogen value. However, they will turn acidic to alkaline soil. Gardeners need to be aware of what plants prefer a high PH or a low PH, and should look at ashes as though they are applying lime to their soil to 'soften' it. As an example, Lupines prefer acidic soil as do Azaleas and Rhodies. I do use ashes in the gardens so as not to waste what our wood stove provides, but am careful of where it is placed. Lots of perennials do benefit from wood ashes - Phlox, Buddleias, Echinaceas, Lavendars, etc. - especially in my gardens where the soil can reach acidic levels of 4.5 PH. Here is a link that might be useful: Wood Ash Value in the Gardens/ Purdue Univ.

I am reading through the old stuff to get more knowledge. I found this question and I had the same questions when I first started too. So maybe I can help. Here's what I do. When tray 1 is full of VC - then you add tray 2 and likewise for tray 3 etc. When tray one was virtually full of VC I stopped feeding for a week (I am a once a week feeder so they went 2 weeks without food. I added tray 2 - with bedding only (week 1 of waiting). Then I fed only into tray 2 as there is food left in tray 1 - and they will live there for some time. So they don't all move up right away - but most will in about a month or two. Some will move down into the moisture collection tray - so look there when you add trays - you can dump them into the new tray with the VC they have made in that tray (there shouldn't be too much) and this starts the action going in the new tray. When I added tray 3 - I moved tray 1 to the top so I could use the VC easier - and keep the lid off occasionally - so the worms move down. So I have an "old tray" on the bottom - mostly VC some food (still being processed) and virtually no bedding. The middle tray is the feeding/working tray where I add new food and bedding once a week-ish. The top tray is my VC tray - and I pull VC from there for my garden. This saves me from dumping - and doing too much sorting. I put the VC in a pie-tin and pick trough that (and store it in the VC bin so it is picked through and ready to use) - I find I have a few cocoons - rarely any worms and a few shreds of envelope windows that didn't get composted (I toss those out and return the cocoons to the bin). This works for me (so far) as I have a small system and it is for home use only. Your results may vary.