Worms on the wing

OK, so I am burying this post behind the earthquake one, 'cuz I understand some people just might not be all that interested in worms and composting. We just ordered the cadillac of worm bins: The Worm Factory in black (post-consumer recycled plastic, OF COURSE!). We bought from Evergreen Farms, which had posted the Craigs List ad. Dave at Evergreen is a really nice guy, and they are shipping us our worms IN the tray, with habitat all established already to minimize stress on the worms. That is SO sweet! And these worm bins come with tech support, as I was invited to email questions anytime and they will email or even CALL me back!

I also learned that the juvenile worms don't migrate to the top layer like the adults do. Because their food requirements are different, they hang out in the more processed lower layer until all nutrients are used up, then migrate upward. Does anyone else have an image of drunken teenage worms hanging out in the basement eating processed snack foods and beer, while the more mature adult worms sit upstairs and lay eggs?

Anyway, this new information prompted me to go to FOUR bins, instead of 3, as I want ALL the worms as far from me as possible when I go to harvest the rich compost in the bottom tray. 4 will give me a one tray margin of error. And really, I am pretty squeamish. Maybe I'll get DH to do the harvesting. Heh.

Dave at Everwood had sent me homework to prepare for my 1000 new pets, who will be arriving by UPS before the end of the week. He suggests I may want to puree and even microwave the worm food to make it easier to digest. This is starting to feel like babies all over again. At least there will be no diapers to change this time!