wfike, are you adding wood shavings to improve the texture of the casts or to help aerate the bedding? I've read, and surmise, that wood shavings take a long time to break down, so I'm assuming you aren't adding them as feedstock, am I figuring this correctly? I've also read, from several older vermi books (and the Vermiculture_FarmersManual), that horse manure by itself is not the best feed, but that cattle manure is good. Do you mix the 2 as feedstock and bedding? I guess what I'm trying to understand is whether you use horse manure as feedstock and feel it is an adequate feed by itself. I added soaked, torn corrugated cardboard to the horse manure because I'd read that it has excellent nutrition due to the high-protein glue that is used to hold the layers together. Another advantage that corrugated cb has is it's water absorbancy, so the 2 (horse manure and corrugated cb) mixed together make a good bedding and a good feedstock. But, you know, you can find all sorts of contradictions when comparing books, websites, and opinions...so I'm interested in what you find to be true, based on your experience. Cheryl, I have been freezing the food waste lately. It does seem to speed things up a bit, but there is still the issue of varying amounts of water being released, mold/fungus, and odors if you use too much or have strong smelling foods to vermicompost. I've found that as much as I want to keep food waste from the landfills, it's a lot of aggravation (too much water, mold, fruit flies, fungus gnats, march flies, houseflies, odors..etc), inconvenience (both of my freezers are half full of food waste for the worms, leaving only half for my own food), and guess-work involved in feeding food waste to the worms. Now, if I didn't have access to horse manure and corrugated cardboard, I would still use primarily food waste. But since I do have access to those materials, I much prefer using them. I have encountered very few issues/problems using horse manure and corrugated cb. So, I ease my conscious by reminding myself that these 2 items would have been dumped in a landfill somewhere, had I not taken them. I still plan on freezing some food waste to use as trench feedings in my raised beds. This practice has eliminated all issues/problems with using food waste because it is buried 4-6" under the soil, and I have many worms in my raised beds who process this food quickly (and thank me for the cold stuff when it's hot outside). The junk mail I use are advertisements for credit cards, various insurance, and a hodgepodge of solicitations. I just remove them from the envelope and tear into strips that could be used as bedding (I put them in the compost crate, so they will be partially composted by the time the worms get to it). I don't use glossy papers, not because they are bad for the worms, but because they take forever to break down and I don't like the look of them in the compost. The Vermiculture FarmersManual recommends shredding cardboard that has a waxed coating, so I assume wax is safe to use if shredded or had the wax seal broken in some other fashion . I've read that oils are not good for worms (I assume oil would smother them since they breath thru their skin), but I wouldn't think a small amount would be harmful. The boxes that you have should be fine. Most of the corrugated cardboard that I use has colored printing on it and I haven't noticed any problems with it (the majority of people say that most inks are soy based now). I also use shredded office paper in the indoor bin I just created, and to absorb water from the barrel bins outside when rain has been heavy, and that paper has been thru laser printers. I haven't seen any ill effects from any of the paper products I have used. Welcome to the thread, Cheryl. I look forward to reading about your experiences in the vermi-world.

ttac, http://www.garden.org/zipzone/ I am zone 5b. I keep my worms in my celar all year round. Nodoubt my compost heap holds compost worms in the summer and maybe the frozen winter. That is where my worms came from. Methods I would use to winterize a bin in my zone are: Put the bin in a green house. Put the bin in a hoop house, a type of temporary green house. Put the bin in a hoop house, in a second hoop house. Put the bin in a barn with larger animals for a bit of heat. Put the bin in a barn with rabbits and chickens for a bit of heat. Use stryofoam outside the bin to keep it warm. Use BSFL Black Soilder Fly Larve to keep the bin warm. Use christmas tree lights in a system below the bin. I would prefer not to do that due to having to use electricity. One could build their bin outside, right out side of a celar window and keep the window open a bit and sort of a lean to shelter. South side of the house would be best for this. Hope I answered you question. One mostly needs worms to eat extra garden waste. So summer is when we need them most. The compost heap grows a new batch for us every summer right when we need them most. The Boys Life article was a start. I am so glad you did your own research on the topic and found us. Keep asking questions and we will keep answering. You get to decide if we are right or not. I can mostly answer from experience of what not to do, having throughly tested every way not to do it right. Although you lost all but two worms I bet before the others died they left you many cocoons to hatch in the spring warmth. Have you looked through your entire bin? If you start to feed the area again, think cantalope rind, watermellon rind, corrigated cardboard, jack o lanterns, monster zuchinni, fallen to the ground tree fruit, they should come back. Either way two is enough. Ask Adam. :-)

I have the Can O worms but from a worm farm and I love it.Nearly foolproof. I have bought a Compost barrel,solar lights and other things from that GS company, they are WONDERFUL to their customers.

Just a quick update. We've been to the vet. He did an Xray to confirm heart problems and said that Ginger is Stage 3. According to the vet, this is not too late for medication to give her a good quality of life, although it certainly can't cure the problem. He put her on three medications. One to strengthen her heart. One to lower her blood pressure. One which is a diuretic and she is taking a fairly high dose for several days, and if her coughing goes away he will slowly reduce the amount until it seems right. The medication caused diarrhea the first night. She is still having the spells where her legs give out and they are worse than they were at the beginning. We haven't even taken her outdoors lately. I put puppy pads by her bed, and sometimes just the effort of climbing out of the bed to use the pad will bring on a spell. The vet seems to think that will improve. I hope so because it scares her when it happens. It scares us too, but it's her we're worried about, not us. We hate to see her frightened like this. We are holding on to hope for a little bit, but we won't put her through this indefinitely. Only a little while, as the vet seems to think there is hope and says today's meds are really good. He did say that her tongue is nice and pink and that is a good sign, compared to when the tongue turns bluish for lack of oxygen. Of course, he also reminded us that at 15 1/2 years of age, she is quite elderly and medicine is not expected to keep her feeling good (even if it gets her that way at all) indefinitely. My heart breaks for her. I will let you know how she is doing again later on.