Pictures

Got the camera out and took some pictures, now that we're into the fourth week of feeding.

Here's the wormery with the lid and the top layers of paper off:

The worms you can see on the top were in the top layers of paper.  The next layer is ripped up cardboard (from the base of a box of wine - gives the same effect as eggboxes).  To the left you can see my old wormery, which is now growing peas!  They had germinated after being thrown away...

To the right is the lid of the wormery and the papers that were removed.

Here's how it looks with the cardboard removed:

You can see the remains of each week's waste, with this week's in the bottom left corner.  Top left was week 1, and the lettuce and carrot stumps are growing in the compost, rather than being broken down and eaten.  Top right was week 2 and the bananas are all but gone, a few bits of skin that were attached still remain.

Bottom right was week 3, and the teabags and bigger bits of carrot are clearly visible.  Of course all of this week's waste is still there, although there is plenty of mould growing on it already.

Now, here are some (slightly fuzzy, admittedly) pictures of worm eggs...

This one was on the top layers of paper...

This one at the top of the wormery, between week1 & 2 waste...  This one looks more developed, and I can see at least two baby worms in it...

This one is in amongst week 3's waste, and looks fairly new.

I'm really happy with the way it's going so far - hopefully it will continue this way through the winter!

Week 6

Another good week - it's all going well so far!

Added quite a large amount of waste this week - made tomato soup with some of the produce from the lottie.  After the first cooking, the soup gets passed through a sieve to remove the skins, seeds etc, and this pulp all went into the caddy.

I've been putting each week's waste into a different corner of the worm tray, as per the instructions, so thats the last corner filled.  Will take a picture later to show the processing of each week's waste - what's still left and what has been transformed into lovely compost...

Worms are still nice and active, although we did have a night that dropped to 7C this week, so I've saved some bubblewrap from a parcel that I will use to insulate the wormery when the weather cools down a bit more.

Week 5

Third week of feeding - a handful of kitchen waste, inlcuding the mouldy end of a loaf of bread, went into the wormery today.  Have started keeping two pots for waste in the kitchen, one with softer stuff, and the other with harder stuff and worm-averse items like onion and citrus.  Not sure how the worms feel about my 'green tea with lemon' teabags, so am limiting how many go into the wormery caddy.

There are still lots of carrot stumps and the cut ends of the fine beans left from the first week of feeding - in fact the carrot tops have started sprouting!  The bananas have mushed well and are being processed quickly though.

Now seeing quite a few worm eggs, and the original bedding has been turned into lovely 'black gold' compost.

I am however, finding a few slugs in the top of the bin, usually in between the layers of paper.  I pick them out and get rid of them when I find them. I think they have either come in on the wet paper (which was left outside for months) or in the soil that was added on the first day, rather than climbing in after the bin was set up.

Any liquid collecting in the sump still seems to be rainwater dripping through rather than 'worm tea' as it's clear in colour.  I'm just draining this off to prevent the level rising too much and drowning the worms (who are still occasionally popping into the top sump levels for a visit).

Week 4

There was still a fair bit of waste left from last week - not unexpected as some of it was a bit 'hard' (carrot stumps etc) and not as soft as the wrigglers like.  Only added two very soft bananas (not the skins) on Wednesday so as not to overfeed.  This morning there are lots of worms crowded around the mush so they seem to like that....  :)

The top layers of paper tend to dry out a bit, especially at the edges, so I've started using a water sprayer to damp them down a bit every few days.  Basically when I check them every couple of days, I peel back the papers, and if they feel dry I give them a few squirts of water.

Found my first worm eggs this week!  Very exciting...  :)  Also found some worms mating on the top shelf in the sump...  Moved them carefully back into the tray - hopefully not interfering too much with what they were getting up to...  The 'earth' definitely moved for them though!

Week 3

Gave the worms their first handful of kitchen waste yesterday morning - mostly lettuce stumps, carrot, kenya beans and tomato stalks, with a few breadcrumbs from the chopping board.  I carefully picked out most of the onion peelings as there were quite a few in there (I'd had burgers in the week, and frankly you can't have a good burger without fried onions).

We've had some cold nights here the past few days, so I'm not expecting the worms to be too active, although the days are nice and warm still.  I'll check them tomorrow and see how they're doing, but according to the instructions, that handful should last them all week (or longer)...