Making a cheap worm bin

Here is what I use, a $5.98 plastic tote, with some holes in the lid for air.

I set up my worm bin when it started getting colder to bring inside. I made it around Oct. 25th. 2012.


I just added some shredded damp newspapers and some red wiggle worms, a couple hands full.

I have added food and newspaper over the past few months. I though you might like to see what the results so far have been.


That's solid worm casting that you see.
Pulling back some of the castings you can see many many many red wiggler worms.


The tote is 17 x 25 inches, and 12 inches deep, the castings are 4 inches deep now of solid worm castings.

This is how I feed the worms, here I have added some boiled potato peelings,


Then I just cover that up with some damp newspaper, and put the lid back on, I will check it in a couple of days and if I don't see much food, I add some more in the same way.

So when I looked to see how things were going in the worm bin now, I thought you might like to see too.
I had some paper plates I had put in the bin on top of the newspaper.
I hadn't added any other food after the boiled potato peels. The worms will eat the paper plates as they start to break down, but they also like to lay under them once they absorb the moisture in the bin.

Lets pull back the paper plates and newspaper and see whats under them, and see if the potato peels are gone.




I'm adding some old raw cauliflower and then covering it up with damp newspaper and paper plates, remember all the black you see is worm castings, "Black Gold" for the garden. The worms you see are not all the worms in the tote, there a many many yet down in the worm castings.


Now I will cover everything back up.


I'll come back in a few days and see how much is left of the cauliflower.

When I started this worm bin back in October, I started with just an handful of red wiggler worms. Oh and a very important thing about the worm bin, the worm casting do not smell bad! When you take off the lid to the bin, you get a nice earthy smell. If you get a bad smell, the worm bin is to wet.

I sometimes but not often empty the tray from the rabbit cage into the worm bin, I'm not going to recommend it though, because some people may use material for the drop tray different from what I use, and they may or may not change it as often as I do. To much rabbit urine may effect the worm bin. However I didn't have any trouble with mine, the rabbit droppings and the fine wood chips that I use in the pan are almost gone.



Today I checked the worms and they are doing fine.

Today my mom needed some red wiggler worm castings and I wanted to show you how many worms are in the tote now, I started off back last Oct. with just a couple hand fulls. The tote is almost full of castings now, so I will start to take the castings out and start over, I will add some of the red wiggler worms to my raised gardens. I will feed them using the worm tube that I made.

I think I will also put up a sign to sell the red wigglers for fish bait!

Here is my final results from my October worm bin.


I will make worm tea, and work the worm castings into the soil around my plants. My mom uses it around her flowers too especially the roses. I will take the worms and start the worm bin again.