Night crawlers on the homestead- do you raise them?

[InHisName]

Getting ready to add a produce stand to our homestead, and wanting to add night crawlers, as we are in a big recreation area.
What kind of set up do they need? Hubby picked up about 200 this morning in the driveway, need a home to nurture them in....
Going to google, but would like to hear someone's experience with worms.

[Pig in a poke]

This has worked for us:
Get 4-5 horses.
Daily, make the rounds in the horse pasture with a wheelbarrow, picking up the horse manure.
Dump each load to form a large mound.
Presto, nightcrawler home.


Seriously, though, do you compost? I would think that would produce the same results.

[Roadking]

Our boy just started this with night crawlers and red wigglers...he ordered his online.
We are in the northeast, so cold winters, therefore, we / he raise them indoors. Simple really.

Get an 18 gallon Tupperware type tote with lid, soil, garden waste and shredded newspaper. Add dirt, other stuff, then worms then newspaper on top. Kitchen scrap (no meat, dairy eggs, etc., just stuff you would compost) occasionally and mist the paper. Worms like to be moist, not soaked.
I'll look for the site he used for reference.
Oh, you need to drill ventilation holes in the tub.
Google vermiculture until I find his site.

Matt

[Snowfan]

Google is a good place to start. I just built a roughly 2' x 4' (no bottom) box out of scrap 2" x 12", layed some plastic in the bottom with lots of holes in it (drainage), lined it with peat moss then filled the rest of it with some older potting soil. Keep it moist, feed them and check on their health every now and then, you should be OK. I keep my box in the shade, cover it to keep my wife's cats out and they (the worms) do fine.
It's a learning process like many things. I learned by trial and error. Enjoy. Just don't start giving your worms names.

[Roadking]

Here it is, step by step illustrated and pointers.

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

He is doing it for bait as well. Good luck.

Matt

[||Downhome||]

Your far better off encouraging them to come and stay in a area then to culture them.
collect them as needed.

I second the horse dung and rabbit droppings are even better.
you can still supplement the feed also just as you would in a bin.

Crawlers are finicky critters.
Unlike their cousins the red worm.
there is a reason the industry depends on crawler pickers.
It is big business too!

I covered the garden area with a foot of horse manure and I had not seen a worm in that area in a good while. (well not many and none of any size)

After the manure but before I turned it in , I could turn a shovels worth over and have a few dozen.
A few more turns and easy enough to fill a coffee can.

I try not to keep to many though, like I said they are a bit fussy and sudden dies offs are very easily obtained.
Any extras I pick that don't get fished go to the birds as a treat.

On a slightly different note, Dad had us picking at a early age and would run the sprinkler early evening to encourage the little beasts out of their burrows latter that night.
I got smart after a while and showed him if we covered a area that we could simply come out early morning and pull the cover and have a haul.
works much better then tripping around at night !

[YounGrey]

An old fridge on it side filled with compost, news papers, grass clippings will work great and keep them out of your house. Then wait. They reproduce more than you think. Your real expense will end up being the containers.


Homesteading Recipes:

http://homesteadingrecipes.blogspot.com/?m=0

From my farm to yours...

[K.B.]

A large leaf pile that you add to every year is probably the easiest way. If you are in a hurry to get started, shred the leaves on the bottom layer.

[geo in mi]

I don't sell my nightcrawlers, but I'm generous with the robins. I make leafworm beds by piling up the leaves I rake this year. Next year, after the moisture and warmth allows them to reproduce, I collect them for bait before using the leaves as garden mulch. For redworms, manure worms, etc, I would make a bin inside the house and use the kitchen waste to grow them...but I usually have plenty of leafworms, after they reproduce......

geo

[InHisName]

thanks for the great replies- I also read on a fishing forum of someone picking tons in the spring, putting them into prepared beds to have when you need them. Getting Llama manure tomorrow, think we'll work on a special place for the worms.
About 10 years ago tried the red worms- it was so labor intensive picking out those little football eggs, I chucked it into the compost, where they thrived for a few years. (our winters get 25 below, so I think they moved south)
We do compost, and it is good for worms, but seems like when we were looking for them, they were no where to be seen.

[fishhead]

If they are already in your yard maybe you just need to feed (manure or compost) them and keep the soil moist?

[Roadking]

Son had about 500 local worms, but couldn't be sure they were night crawlers...some over a foot long, so he bought the actual worms. Our local worms look like slimy snakes...only the ones in our raised garden beds ;tho.

Matt

[Steve in PA]

I used shredded office paper when I had redworms going in the basement. I gave up because the chickens were getting all the foodscraps and it was more work than I had time for. I thought I had given the all to the chickens too.

Found a bin full the other week in the basement. I hadn't added anything to it at all so I guess the shredded paper works good. The paper we use is not bleached so it's a lot like newspaper.

[Chucknbob]

The work juice is an awesome fertilizer as well. It's the liquid that drains out of the worm beds.