Worm question for Jay

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Hi Jay, and everyone else,

When I was a little girl, my dad made me a wooden worm box. It was kept in the pump room of our basement. I can remember that he always brought home coffee grounds from his work, and we would feed this to the worms. (Come to think of it, this is probably why I don't like coffee). Anyway, we never did anything with the castings, just sold the nightcrawlers for bait. A penny a piece. It was a long time ago. My question is.... Is a constant food, such as coffee grounds, OK for the worms, or should there be a variety?

Thanks, Charleen

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), January 08, 2002

Answers

Coffee grounds are a good source of acidity for the bins. To properly feed a fishing worm (such as night crawlers)for weight gain, a fattening mix is suggested . I'm currently in the process of moving my study into the vacent bedroom and don't have access to my fattening mix recipe ratios, but I use laying feed, lime ,eggshell, bran, corn meal and powdered milk ( the laying feed makes 50% of the fattener) powdered in a blender and mixed into the slurry I feed to bulk them up. The other ingredients are of unequal percentages. I will try to sort through my paperwork to find the exact percentages for you.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 08, 2002.

Found my notes. It is a variatin of the can o' worms recipe. layer pellets 50% ,corn meal 10%, powdered milk 10%, bran 10 %,composted manure 5% agricultural lime 7%, powdered kitty litter/sand/eggshell 5%, fish food flake 3%.

I slurry this into a mash in a blender adding enough water to keep the blender from burning out. If I use reduced fat drinking milk (sold as 2% milk), i use it in place of the water and balance the 10% dry measure deficit by increasing all other percentages by roughly equal percentages, going heavier on the laying mash for the odd percentage if neccesary.

Hope this is of help.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 10, 2002.


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