Worm farms - collecting/harvesting worms?

 I’ve got a worm farm at home that looks sorta like this:

http://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/upload/munchy/munchypics/WormFarmPhoto.jp=
g

At the moment, I’m strictly in the collecting/harvesting phase, not
the actual farming phase.  I get one of the upper containers that has
lots of little holes in the bottom which I’ve filled with fruit and
vegetable scraps.  They are mainly lettuce, cauliflower, and cabbage
leaves, with some pumpkin, apples, and bananas, but mainly green leafy
vegetables.  I know not to add citrus, pineapple, or meat – well
understood.  I then cover the whole lot with a hessian (burlap?)
sack.  I’ve placed this worm collecting/harvesting box on the ground
just near my old empty compost bin, and I pour a whole watering can
through the hessian sack every day or so, which soaks through the food
scraps and through the holes in the bottom, then into the soil.  I’m
figuring the scraps won’t get too water logged because of the adequate
drainage.
What I want to know is, will the worms in the soil eventually wriggle
up through the holes in the bottom of the container, into the worm
box?  Any advice here?
The reason I’m doing it this way is because it doesn’t cost me any
money at all, even if it takes longer.

 g'day gas bag,

keep the worm farm in a darker cool place.

if you have vege' gardens already then like us you could do away
without the worm farm, cutout the middle man. have your composting
worms in the gardens and tuck your kitchen scraps under the mulch
daily, that way the benefits are where they are needed, the castings
the wee all in the garden.

no extra cost at all this way except for initial purchase of
composting worms, some worms can still be harvested if that is the way
you want to go, we used to harvest them for our composting toilet.

On Thu, 6 Aug 2009 05:48:12 -0700 (PDT), Gas Bag

snipped

With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

 On Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:48:12 -0700, Gas Bag wrote:



I don't know. Probably depend on hole size and how secure the worms feel.

Why not just sieve the compost heap?

Our compost heaps are just a pile or collected organic matter in a 1m x
1m frame. Each day, I usually dump any organic waste from the house,
including all liquid (not any with soap or detergent).

If I want worms, I just scrap off the top of the compost heap and collect
the dense balls of worms/soil where a good lot of organic matter has been
dumped.

Hint, our compost heaps are not trendy fashionable constructed compost
heaps, but just the recycling of ALL organic waste from the house. so
they tend to work well as a worm farm.

--

Great advances in Debian Linux; post a bug report and get spam in three
days.

 Gas Bag wrote:

Compost worms are different to soil worms, they live under somewhat
different conditions.  The best way to grow soil worms is in the soil, bury
your organic matter where you want them to grow and to make compost (or use
an open-bottom compost heap) and keep it slightly damp and they will come
and do their stuff.  Compost worms don't like living in the soil which is
why people use above ground farms for them.

David

 To explain things a bit better, I'm harvesting the worms for my
brother's chickens, as adding extra protein to their diet makes their
eggs taste so much better.  Basically, I'm an egg-aholic.

(c:

Everything I've done so far has not cost me one red cent, and I'm
going to stick with this.  Eventually, I'll probably keep the castings
and liquid fertiliser, but this is more of a secondary issue.  Taking
into account what scraps I've added to the worm box so far (that has
holes in the bottom, hopefully for the worms to crawl through), is
there anything I can add/do that will "more stongly" attract the worms
to the surface?  If there's any advice, I'd strongly consider it.
I'm hoping to lure the worms into the box a bit faster (if at all?),
although I'm guessing it's still a slow process.  Any specific
pointers?