I'm a newbie, don't even have my worms yet but while reading your post I think I saw my future. This could rival watching football for my favorite hobby,and there's no off-season. Jay.

I really dont care aout the by product. The main reason i started raising them is that i was buying 4-5 dozen worms a month to feed my fish and turtles. The compost is just an added bonus.

I do buy specific foods for the worms. I like to think its like gut loading crickets and provides my fish with some extra vitamins and minerals. In fact this year my 10' X 30' garden was planted to feed my worms and fish/turtles (9 different types of squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes).

They have never affected my plans for a weekend.

Bryan

Cornmeal treats, pulped grapes, "soft newsprint" run thru a "special purchase" confettii shredder, strawberries?

And I have not harvested one teaspoon of castings yet??
Because the casting are super bacterialogicaly active and the guys may need it more than me??
Please, not to mention, they were moved into the house "against public opinion" so they wouldn't be too hot outside or in the garage!!
And egg shells!! The "public" (2 daughters & wife) are afraid to throw away any egg shells because "you know who" likes to eat them!!
And some weekends are totally encompassed by bin fluffings, worm counts, food prep and storage.
I'm beginning to agree with "the public" that I may be socially retarded. But "I'm" wondering about the mental end of it too!!

Hey, Chuckie, thanks for posting your bin temps. I have been monitoring an empty, but ready, bin out in the garage to see if the guys could survive out there next summer. That may be a little strange,too. But anyway, the bin temp is hitting 85 deg. and is stable. So maybe more worms could live out there. Ha Ha Ha Ha

bruce

Last summer I planned my daughter's 4th birthday party all around vermicomposting. It was wierd, but fun. I don't feed them special food. Just the scraps, but I would like them even without the vermicompost since they get rid of the scraps for me. This year my daughter got a "normal" birthday party, but I'm planning a vermicomposting workshop for our MOMS club craft day. Kids love those worms! One of the reasons I like them is that they aren't very needy. They give me something to do on the weekends if I don't have plans, but I never feel like they need my attention so much that I can't just leave them for a week or two.

I don't know how bad I am but I was at the 99cent store the other nite and found myself buying artichokes because my worms seem to love them. my other half thought I finally lost it.

I may have to try some artichokes! Sweet strawberries are getting to be "old hat"! Peaches were a big hit for a while.

Yea, you are pretty bad too.

bruce

Mrs Joe gets the worm poop for her houseplants and patio garden. She considers it "the rent" for putting up with me and my worms. So I must be worming for some other reason than the poop. I don't end up with any. :)

The worm bin began after yet another "I want a garbage disposal" discussion. They have performed the disposal duties so well that the topic has never come up again.

My worms have never screwed up my weekend. They just wouldn't do that.

Greetings,

I keep worms to help reduce my waste output. Between the worm bins and recycling, my roommate and I are now down to about 3 kitchen trash bags a month.

The compost is nice and I put it on plants now and then, but mostly I just give it away and use it as an excuse to tell other people about the worms in hopes they will start bins of their own.

I don't get my worms any special food, and I don't do anything like freezing or boiling their food for them. Spending resources on the worms would go against my purpose for having them. I do do things such as getting food from the salad bar in cardboard containers instead of plastic so that I can use the cardboard for bedding instead of making trash out of the plastic.

Jim

Jim:

Ain't it weird that worms cause people to become, to one degree or another, conservationists and more in tune with nature?

Pre-worm, I was plastic, throw-away and ignorant of the environment. Worms, and composting, pyramid and build upon themselves, and for me, were enlightening.

I told my husband, he had a choice of poached or scrambled eggs for sunday breakfast. He said could we have porridge instead. I said "No, the worms need egg shells" (this I found out from reading the vermicomposting forum)

My kitchen scraps could just as easily be buried in the yard, but I get such a kick out of the worms. There is just something fascinating about the way worms work.

I never bought or prepared anything for the worms, but it is a bit of a consolation when tossing out produce which has been allowed to spoil in the refrig.

I also keep a bin going to take to my elem. school in the fall. It is placed near the lunch court so 3rd graders can put in their scraps.

My worms originated because I read the _You Grow Girl_ gardening book which suggested a worm bin as an apartment composting option. I was thrilled, especially since the main office had threatened to pull out the garbage disposal that I wasn't supposed to have anyway (for what it is worth, they have not pulled it out and it has been a year). Before that I thought I was going to have to save up all of my scraps and take them to the town compost heap, which would be an ordeal and a half.

Now, that said, I've never pampered my worms. They get frozen food portions that can thaw in the bin. They still give me poop, which I have used to fertilize my plants. However, their castings are not the only fertilizer that I have. Lord knows, if all they did was eat and not poo, I'd be just as happy. Less waste in the landfill makes a happy J. (Plus, that is less trash I have to walk down to the dumpsters.)