My Journey into Mini-Worm Farming|Part 1πŸ›

in homesteading β€’Β  7 years agoΒ  (edited)

I decided to do this post in 3 parts, its way too long to do in just one. The first part is the background story about my inspiration into worm farming. Some people think it's a relatively new idea, but my Uncle Zeke in Texas was doing this at least 40 years ago.

So here is the story...

My uncle Zeke was one of seven kids, 5 brothers and 1 sister. After many years of being a horse trainer and bronc rider he decided to quit the rodeo circuit. His body had taken too many blows and falls throughout the years. He had one eye that a bulls horn had nicked just above the eyebrow, so it pointed in a upward direction. It was really hard to tell if he was looking straight at you.

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Courtesy of Pexzels.com this is not Uncle Zeke, but is representative of him Bronc riding in his rodeo days. I only have old slides of the actual events taken by my father. I inherited almost 2000 slides housed in Kodak carousels that hold 110 in each one. It is our family history viewed through my fathers eyes.

My Aunt Wayne told me when I was a teenager about his beginning venture and his success as a worm farmer. In those days I spent a lot of time with my cousin during visits to the storm cellar where his night crawlers were bedded. We had contests seeing who could pull out the longest worm, squealing with glee at the winner. We both had been fishing since we were little children so worms were no big deal to us!

Uncle Zeke used to tell me his secrets to growing big night crawlers. He had rows and rows of worm beds that were shaped into long mounds. The earthworms were in raised beds with the bottoms covered in black plastic so they could not escape into the dirt floor of the cellar. I was of course quite fascinated.

As you can imagine, it was a little eerie in the storm cellar. Opening the wooden hinged door we carefully walked down the steps in the darkness all the while fumbling to find the string on the bare bulb light. Pulling the string we could see the mounds that looked a bit like newly covered graves. But there was life in those mounds-thousands of earthworms. It smelled earthy and clean!

Uncle Zeke sold them to bait stores throughout the area and made a good living selling them by the container or by the pound. As he changed or rotated the bedding he sold the castings made by the worms to farmers in the area by request. The castings and worm dirt made a fine fertilizer for their vegetable gardens.

In the next part I am going to discuss the simplest way to get started with raising worms, it's not fancy or complicated. Its not as big of a operation as Uncle Zeke's worm farm, but it works. I suppose one could get complex with it, but why is the question. πŸ“

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Β  Β· Β 7 years agoΒ 

I love this article @mother2chicks. When I was young, I tried my hand at worm farming. My mom drove 40 minutes to pick me up my starter pack of worms. Sadly, the box I built for their home was not well built and they all escaped in the first week. On the other hand, they escaped into my mom's garden--so she was pretty excited about all those hard workers making her soil even better.

Thank-you. Oh dear, it's a doubled edged sword their escape probably led to delicious veggies. My first batch a few years back drowned during a bad thunderstorm. The container they were in filled with water. I felt awful! Thanks for stopping byπŸ“

Β  Β· Β 7 years agoΒ (edited)

So much yes to this! I raise red wrigglers but now in Uncle Zeke fashion :( More like a plastic worm bins type of gal. His worm cellar sound like my childhood dream! Although I am very girly-girl I have always been fascinated with dirt, worms and creepy crawlies lol. And I must be fascinated with chicken poop because I think I'm getting a little lone rescued pullet today if another person backs out.

Good for you! Red wrigglers are the ones many get and they do well. His cellar was way cool to us too we loved going down there looking at the worms. It was a great way to avoid the parental units at the same time. Good luck with your coop duties. Is it wrong to say that one studies the chicken poop to ensure the girls are alright? Did you get the rescue ?πŸ“pullet

Β  Β· Β 7 years agoΒ (edited)

I just showered and sat down. And yes I do check the chicken poop. They are doing well lol.
Unfortunately I didn't get the pullet. One of my hens is broody to the max and I think I'm going to slip her a baby chick soon. I just am scared it may turn out to be a rooster and after my experience with Mr. Timmins I kinda don't want that to happen again. He was like a domineering psycho boyfriend. I kid you not he would not crow until he saw me in the kitchen then he would try to peek through the windows to see where I was so I could give him treats and when Id come out he would try to attack me! All the ladies had bald spots from him and maybe I did too I just never noticed because I was so exhausted and anxious lol He was a giant leghorn too which made him scarier lol

Haha peeking through windows and attacking you. I got a visual. Sorry you didn't get the pulletπŸ“

He was really something lol

Thank you.

Interesting, I might try this with my wee son.

I say go for it, he will have a blast. One if my deepest desires is to travel to Scotland. My mothers side is heavily Scot with some Irish thrown in...yikes
Thanks so much for stopping byπŸ“

I'm a mix myself, parents are Irish, I was been in Scotland and am now living In Ireland married to a fantastic Irish woman.

You should definitely visit both countries.

Β  Β· Β 7 years agoΒ Reveal Comment

Meep meep