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There are several important requirements that the worms need.
- The first thing the worms need
is a place to call their own. From the nicest palace (ie:Worm Foctory), all the way down to the compost
pile. With any one of these homes that you provide for them, all of the elements will be the same.
- Food-of
course.... The worms we raise eat cardboard, paper, egg shells, and veggie’s. I
try to stay away from the citrus and the onion, as their acid levels are too high. I give them ripped up cardboard and paper that
have been made wet. The veggies also get chopped into smaller pieces (by hand, knife or food processor).
I also feed coffee grounds and egg shells. I have heard that coffee grounds are an aphrodisiac for
them; I'm not too sure about that, but they like it.
- The bedding that I use is cardboard.
It is everywhere and they just give it to me for free. I make the cardboard wet to keep the worm
sanctuary at the right moisture levels. The cardboard needs to be wet enough to barely drip water.
After feeding veggie’s it might get too wet I just give them dry cardboard. If the acid levels
are to high or the nitrogen is too high I feed more cardboard than veggie’s.
- Moisture it is
truly what keeps the worms happiest. Since worm breath through their skin a dry ecosystem is like drowning
them. Worm's can live for quite a while in water as long as it has oxygen in it.
- Your
mission is to provide the worms with the best home, ecosystem/sanctuary possible. They will in turn breed/multiply
and make the greatest fertilizer in the world for you.
- When I feed my worms eggshells.
I let them dry out first it makes them a lot easier to crush into little itty-bitty
pieces. The worms need the eggs for calcium.
One of the most important requirements for your pets is to have
the right temperature. The worms will do best if they are kept at 70 degrees. If the
temp starts to rise, cool the worms with water. It is not a good idea to keep the worms
in the direct sunlight as one side of the bin may over heat or the whole bin may.
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I have found a lot of info on this subject. These are
the facts from my research and my worms. After Breading, worms will lay about one egg every week until they
have depleted its sperm supply. With the right conditions (temperature, food, space) the capsules will
hatch in between 30-50 days. It will take another 50-75 days to reach breading maturity. There
is a lot of info out there that indicates worm population will double every 60 days. I have found that
that is not the case. Your worms will bread at an alarming rate, once you have a large population of breeders.
The mature worm population laying one egg a week for about 52 weeks, each egg hatching 3, plus young...you do the math. The first picture is of three eggs at different stages of development. The lighter the egg is
the closer it is to having just been laid. The darker they get the closer they are hatching.
The eggs will be almost black when ready to hatch. The second picture is of a baby worm. After they hatch worms are
pretty small.
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