Happy Earthworms in The Worm Condo...

Here's some of the population from top bucket,  which has the majority of Earthworms,  bedding and Worm food (old potatoes & lettuce,  coffee grounds,  carrots & stuff.)

I dumped out the top bucket into a clean empty bucket for these fotos,  and to check on their conditions & general health.

So the top bucket has most of the population and habitat:  chopped newspaper,  corrugated brown cardboard,  well-composted leaf litter,  and their native dirt.  That's where I toss them the vegetable scraps.  They seem happy.

I think my next step will be getting some larger containers like the rectangular Rubbermaid bins,  so one side can be bedding/habitat and the other "The Cafeteria".  They are thriving in their current balance of soil,  cardboard,  old newspaper;  so I'll continue with that formula.

It's really a Fun project.  Whenever I get home from work,  second thing I do is check out the Earthworm condo,  right after I feed Hüsky.

Anybody can do this... just a few 5-gallon buckets,  some old newspapers & cardboard,  plus the dirt you dug them from.

It takes me about 10 minutes to collect 100 Earthworms in the barnyard soil.

These worms seem happy enough with wilted Lettuce and old Potatoes.  A friend who's had some bins a few years say they just love melon rinds.

Citrus peels are supposed to be a no-no.  Egg shells are OK,  coffee grounds,  teabags.

I'll try the corn meal sometime.  They got a corn-cob after Dog chewed all the kernels,  but that's probably too much roughage.

No plans to sell any Earthworms.  The goal is to have thousands of content worms that breed and make lots of castings.

With enough castings,  I can make earthworm-casting tea to spray on field crops.

For now,  I've got just the one structure to learn with.  It's nice that I haven't killed them off,  so I'll probably keep the parameters similar for a while.

Who(m)ever wants to eat them,  go to town.  They charge about $20 / lb. on the vermicomposting websites,  which is more costly than Fine cow or Salmon.

For just a few pennies,  you can raise your own -- much less than the cost of growing Cow.  There's the three-bucket setup w/ old red lid.  That lid has been sitting around the yard a long time,  and the dog played with it for a while,  hence the curve.  I figure it allows for better air circulation.

This is the bottom of one of the two 'upper story' buckets,  you can see the holes I drilled there.

Nothing too precise,  but it has been enough for the worms to migrate between levels and get air.  Probably a 1/8" or 3/16"  drill bit.

Here's the drill & drill - bit;  for perspective are a bag of  Goldfish © crackers.

Anyway,  the Earthworms seem Happy,  and they are starting to reproduce.

You can't really tell from  that foto,  but they are beginning to have Babies.  The infant Worms are tiny and pale,  and their cocoons are about BB -sized.

I may have killed off a few with over - spiced Worm Food.

Some forgotten Guacamole from the back o' the Fridge went in the Habitat,  but that's spicy stuff,  with Omion and Jalapeño in microdoses.

No doubt their Sistren & Brethren  will eat their remains.