auntiejude
New member
I've had a dozen messages asking for my advice on worm farming, so I thought I'd post it here for everyone to refer to. Please feel free to quote or link on any post about feeding and worm farming!
This is my quick guide to setting up and maintaining a small worm farm for feeding axies or other caudates:
After about 30 minutes check under the potatoes/card/paper - there will be a wealth of bugs and creepy crawlies under there - collect the worms. Put the potatoes/card/paper back and check again in another 30 minutes. If you have no luck try again another evening, or try another area.
In the UK the 2 most popular on-line worm suppliers are:
Yorkshire Worms
Worms Direct
If you are outside the UK and have good supplier for worms please post a link or recommendation.
If your axies refuse worms it may be because of the bitter self defense excretions or because the worm is just too mobile. A quick and easy way to get around this is to blanche the worms before feeding:
Take the clean worm and put it in a cup. Pour a very small amount of boiling water over the worm - literally just a splash, then immediately cool it with cold water. This will quickly kill the worm, and prevent it wriggling and excreting its defensive goo. It also keeps the worm fresh and nutritious.
You can also use this if you are a bit squeamish about feeding live worms to your pets.
If your worms are too big for your axies, or if your axies are still very small you can cut the worms up. Use a pair of scissors rather than a knife, it's much easier.
I hope that answers most of your questions - if you want to ask anything else please do - I'll do my best to give you a concise answer.
This is my quick guide to setting up and maintaining a small worm farm for feeding axies or other caudates:
- Get a large plastic tub - about 25L should do, preferably with opaque sides. It needs a lid to stop the worms escaping.
- Take a pin, a candle and a pair of pliers, hold the pin in the pliers and hold it in the candle flame to heat it up. Make tiny holes in the tub lid to allow air in and out.
- Get some soil. It needs to be untreated compost or soil - plain topsoil, organic compost etc. You'll need about 10-15L to start, then some more for occasional top ups.
- Get some worms - you'll need about 50 to start for one or two axies. Depending on where you live you may be able to buy some at bait shops, pet stores, organic farming suppliers or on line. Any type of earthworm (annelid) will be fine - look for names such as nightcrawlers, red wrigglers, tiger worms, lobworms or scientific names such as dendrobaena, lumbricus or eisenia. You could also try catching your own from your garden or any patch of clean land where chemicals are not used - see below on catching worms.
- Put the compost in the tub, add the worms. You might need to add a LITTLE water if it's warm where you live, but generally you don't need to add any extra water.
- Cook some potatoes. Any potatoes will do - you don't even need to peel them, you can use old sprouting ones, slightly soft ones, and green ones. Slice them about 1/4 inch thick and boil them until cooked. Crush or mash them with nothing added and lay a thin layer on the top of your worm tub.
- Leave your worm farm somewhere dark - in an outhouse, in a cupboard, under a tarp etc. You just want to stop too much sunshine and heat getting to your tub.
- Feed your worms when they have eaten all of the last batch of food. You can feed them cooked potatoes or cooked vegetable scraps - especially root vegetable peelings, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli or other or brassica leaves. Avoid fruit, it tends to go mouldy or vinegary. Worms can also be fed grains such as oats.
- If your worm farm becomes too wet remove some of the wet soil, retrieve the worms, and replace the soil with dry compost. The removed soil will be good for your garden. You could also replace the lid with cotton material held in place by a sturdy elastic band - this would allow for moisture evaporation and prevent the worms escaping.
- Worms breed very easily - they are hermaphroditic so you don't need to worry about males and females. I would suggest you try and keep the biggest worms with a breeding saddle (thick pale ring) as your breeding stock, and use the medium sized sub-adults as food. If you end up with an overcrowded bucket you can start a 2nd one, sell some worms, or release them for a healthy garden.
After about 30 minutes check under the potatoes/card/paper - there will be a wealth of bugs and creepy crawlies under there - collect the worms. Put the potatoes/card/paper back and check again in another 30 minutes. If you have no luck try again another evening, or try another area.
In the UK the 2 most popular on-line worm suppliers are:
Yorkshire Worms
Worms Direct
If you are outside the UK and have good supplier for worms please post a link or recommendation.
If your axies refuse worms it may be because of the bitter self defense excretions or because the worm is just too mobile. A quick and easy way to get around this is to blanche the worms before feeding:
Take the clean worm and put it in a cup. Pour a very small amount of boiling water over the worm - literally just a splash, then immediately cool it with cold water. This will quickly kill the worm, and prevent it wriggling and excreting its defensive goo. It also keeps the worm fresh and nutritious.
You can also use this if you are a bit squeamish about feeding live worms to your pets.
If your worms are too big for your axies, or if your axies are still very small you can cut the worms up. Use a pair of scissors rather than a knife, it's much easier.
I hope that answers most of your questions - if you want to ask anything else please do - I'll do my best to give you a concise answer.