Feeding Fast Foods to Worms - Pros and Cons

[@Debbie-Keller]

I thought you were going to talk about getting worm food from a drive thru restaurant like Mc D. Lol lol

[@RockinWorms]

Hi Debbie! 🤣. They’d eat it too! But there’s no way I’d give up the fries 🍟 🤣.

[@NanasWorms]

Hey Jayne, it's like you're herding worms! They're going to love your lettuce feast. I find the vacate an area when I aerate/fluff, so that also might be a final thing to do to the uncovered half. It also will help dry it out a bit. ~ Sandra

[@RockinWorms]

I’m a worm wrangler 🤣. I totally agree that a fluff helps in many ways 👍. Now to find time to actually sift the bins! I’ve got more to get ready to sift too 😊 Thanks for watching ❤️🪱

[@debbiegarrett2035]

Hi Jane, I was listening to a webinar on vermicomposting and thought, I have heard that voice before. She sounded just like you. Her name is Rhonda Sherman and she is the author of-The Worm Farmer’s Handbook. You will have to listen to her.

[@RockinWorms]

Hi Debbie! Welcome!! I certainly know Rhonda’s name and good works on worming. I’ll have to listen to her - I don’t know that I have - and see if she sounds like one of my sisters 🤣. Thanks for watching! ❤️🪱🪱

[@wallysworms]

I use long pieces of cardboard to absorb the moisture from the food or the bin. The chunks are big enough to remove easily. Sometimes I keep them in the bin if the bin is still young. But I tend to put them into my precompost from most of my bins. For me it's a double plus. I get new bedding and my other bedding stays dry enough. Love your video's, keep them coming.

[@RockinWorms]

I ‘recycle’ my ‘old’ cardboard too! It’s all shred but it’s cardboard! The stuff in the pan I use the ‘wash’ my gloves plus the shred on top of the pre-compost totes get put into the pre-compost bins as the next batch of carbon. There’s a lot of good bacteria already in those shreds from it first usage so that the double prizes for me ❤️🪱.

[@learnwithlillian8509]

Love your videos. I’m new to worms

[@RockinWorms]

@@learnwithlillian8509 Welcomr again Lillian! Please ask any questions you have and the awesome worm wrangler community will help you out! 💕🤩🪱

[@ritawelch4949]

Great video, you explained everything very well. New subscriber.

[@RockinWorms]

Hello Rita! Welcome!! I’m very glad you have you along for this fun journey 🪱❤️👍. I hope you learn lots of do’s and quite a few don’t’s as I share my successes and failures along the way 😆.

[@mllokie9075]

As I am starting out I lend my slow foods and leave the fast as I want them to eat hole foods hehe I will rid the blending in a few months when they can more keep up

[@RockinWorms]

Hi! That’s a good plan - to slowly ramp up the feeding in the beginning. The worms need to settle into their new home, the ecosystem needs time to develop, and the bedding can always benefit from aging. It sounds like you are off to a great start! ❤️🪱👍

[@HermitHut1975]

Excellent information

[@RockinWorms]

Thanks! I hope it was helpful 👍🪱❤️

[@HermitHut1975]

Your videos have been extremely helpful for this new wormer.😎👍

[@lindaware3082]

Great video 👍

[@RockinWorms]

Thanks! I hope you found it informative 👍 Thanks for watching ❤️🪱❤️

[@lindaware3082]

@@RockinWorms Jane I always find your videos informative 👍 I only have shoebox size trays as I have limited space but I’ve gone from 1 to 4 plus my cocoon/nanny bin. 😉👍❤️

[@RockinWorms]

@@lindaware3082 Hi Linda! Use what you’ve got! Sounds like you’re doing great! Your worms must by happy to be so productive 👍❤️🪱.

[@lindaware3082]

@@RockinWorms thanks Jane I’m always a bit worried that I’m doing the right things until I lift the newspaper and I see wrigglers and cocoons 👍 You must take some credit as I was about to give up and put them in the garden until I found your channel 😉👍

[@RockinWorms]

@@lindaware3082 Worms are very forgiving - as I’ve proved more than once😳. I’m glad I’ve been able to help you over a little confidence bump ❤️. Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your progress!

[@brgovender8879]

Hi Jane. I'm new to worm farming. I follow and watch your videos every day. You are so inspiring. I also follow Captain Matt. Thanks for sharing. I have so many questions. But maybe you will help answer them in time. Bobby Govender from South Africa.

[@RockinWorms]

Hi Bobby! Welcome aboard the Castings Crew! Please ask any questions you have! We’re an interactive community here and everyone is encouraged to jump in and share their knowledge and experience 👍😍. Thank you for your support. I really appreciate it ❤️. Happy new year! 🪱🪱🪱

[@brgovender8879]

@RockinWorms Hello Jane. Thank you and the rest of the worm casting crew. Will definitely communicate with you. Happy New Year and have an awesome 2024.

[@PatriciaHall-cw2ks]

@@brgovender8879 Hi, my daughter lives in S.A. Little place called Betty’s Bay.

[@troymcdonald]

Where do you get so much newspaper? Thanks

[@RockinWorms]

Hi Troy! I mainly use sale circulars from local stores. They change out their weekly ad papers on specific days so if I happen to be at a store the day before I’ll grab a handful. This is for the newspapers I lay on top of the bins. The cardboard sheets come from a warehouse store that gives them to me when I ask. I also get clean cardboard boxes from stores like Walmart and Target and grocery stores - mainly from the canned goods area. They are also happy to get rid of the boxes 👍🤩🪱

[@Power_Prawnstar]

Hi there. When you say pre-compost, is that just finished compost? Thanks

[@RockinWorms]

@@Power_Prawnstar Hello! Welcome to the Castings Crew! 🤩 I call it pre-compost because we’re not taking the ingredients all the way to the high heat temperature of ‘true/finished compost’ and then having it maintain that high heat for the required amount of time that finished compost must in order to qualify as true/finished compost. We are deliberately not achieving temperatures where weed seeds are killed, where the compost becomes, at least temporarily, sterile. Our pre-compost still has recognizable pieces of the ingredients - mostly the cardboard shred. Our pre-compost is filled with mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria, with fungi. All good foods for the worms. 👍😎. I hope this clarifies the difference between what we’re doing (and why) vs what you’d buy in a store labeled compost. 😊🪱

[@Power_Prawnstar]

@RockinWorms thank you. I think I watched about 20 of your vids yesterday. I dug about 50 worms at guess out of my compost heap a month and Im learning how to get them to breed. Way more fun than it should be but I keep looking at them, I can't help it. I must leave them alone for 21 days now 😪

[@RockinWorms]

@@Power_Prawnstar Do you know what species of worms those compost worms are? Do they look like eisenia? Bulgy clitellums and yellow tails? Regular earthworms don’t take very well to the shallow crowded conditions of worm bins or even larger totes. If you’ve got eisenias, which do exist and thrive in nature then good for you! You’ll be able to manage them just fine. If you’ve got other earthworms then you’ve got a real challenge in front of you 😳😊🪱. Thanks for the support of watching my videos! 💕 Please continue to ask any questions or share observations you have 🥰🪱

[@Power_Prawnstar]

@RockinWorms definitely red wrigglers with the yellow tails. I have a big cold compost bin and chickens. I couldn't help myself, I had a look and your teachings have helped heaps. They've all moved to the bit with the moisture and are munching on some old apricots. I've put crushed eggshells, a bit of coffee grounds on top and a bit of sugar cane mulch underneath. I lifted it up, and they're all together, nice and active. I had the bed too dry for them to breed I think. This is my second try at this, first time I got to about 500 worms, but I had the tub on the ground and they all just left. Too hot I think, its 42°c here today, so I've got an insulated container with another container to catch escapees.

[@debbiegarrett2035]

Jane you have to be from the same part of the country as she is. Same kind of accent and just the way she says Ok. Maybe a relative you didn’t know about. It’s funny that you both love working with worms. I wasn’t watching the webinar but listening to it when I heard her and it surprised me that it wasn’t you. You even kind of look alike.

[@RockinWorms]

Now I’ve really have to watch and listen to a video of hers more recently than I have! ❤️🪱

[@PatriciaHall-cw2ks]

If you put carrots and apples in a blinder, would that make it fast food?

[@RockinWorms]

@@PatriciaHall-cw2ks Hello! Fast foods are generally those with a high water content. Blendering , freezing, cooking, will break cellular walls, which allows the decomposition of food to happen more quickly. This will turn slow foods into at least faster foods. While there’s no specific time frame that identifies a food as ‘fast’ or ‘slow’ any type of food break down before adding it to a worm bins will most definitely make it ‘faster’. I have taken avocado pits, which are among the slowest of slow foods, sliced them up, dried them and the pulverized them. They then disappeared fast in a worm bin! I also pressure cook foods 2 mainly to kill insect eggs - and a side benefit of that cooking is all the foods become ‘faster’. 🪱

[@paulacorey2148]

How fastis fast?

[@RockinWorms]

Hi Paula! A few days. Not more than a week. Even for a relatively modest number of worms in a bin. Fast food fruits and vegetables are mostly water. Other fast foods (aka worm chow) are super small particles that fit directly into the worm mouth. I do want to clarify that it’s not a good idea to fill a worm bin with fast food, a little carbon bedding and a handful of worms and say ‘ ok, it’s fast food! Eat it in a week!’ 😆. There’s still has to be a balance 😊. It’s always best to feed a modest amount and then wait a few days and check the worm’s progress. Adjust amounts from there. 🪱❤️🪱

[@paulacorey2148]

@@RockinWorms looks like a lot of food. Thank you

[@RockinWorms]

@@paulacorey2148 Because it’s mostly water it condenses down a lot. I’ve now taken to squeezing the defrosted food to rid it of most of its water. It doesn’t change it from being fast food. My bins were getting too wet from all the added moisture. Once squeezed you get a better idea of how much food there really is. You can also feed more of your bins are older and the whole bin ecosystem has been established. Other bin critters (mites and springtails being the most common) aid in breaking all foods down to worm sized particles.

[@cherylhowker1792]

@@RockinWormsI’ve found the bins getting too wet after feeding I go in to feed, no food but very wet and there’s only so much room in my bucket bins I can’t just add more Caron to combat- this week alone I’ve had to split the bins to add enough dry as it’s gotten smelly in the bottom of them. I’m hoping to turn all grow out bins to boxes like you have/ rays/tubs. And just keep the breeders in the buckets…. But as I’m keeping them in the house in the warmth so they breed and then hatch I can’t put them out to the craft room that’s unheated and not heating stable at any temperatures…. I need them to be big enough to survive that if that makes sense but that’s better the garden which is where I want them to go in summer time to work thro bins of precompost for the garden and that. I’m aware it’s getting colder here in the uk and down to 10c over night and it will keep going down now for the next 5 months but it will level out in a few weeks and stay that way for 3 months before it drops again around Christmas/new year. So I know I have a couple of months before I have to have craft room set up. Well a month as then I have my pup in for surgery and she’s gonna need my full attention. The worms will be having lots of slower foods then outside to get me through leaving her. Lol the joys of life. Thanks for all your information

[@LarryWileyWormFarm-ey8lp]

I like fast food but not McDonalds.

[@RockinWorms]

Haha! I can’t even eat it anymore. It doesn’t agree with me anymore if you know what I mean 😳🙄🤣. As for worms, they love a quick meal. Mine get whatever I have on hand so a large variety of fruits and vegetables. It doesn’t make them fat though. I have to add in worm chow to chonky them to. But I am sorta experimenting with higher calorie foods like avocado and beans to see if that works as well as chow. 🪱❤️🪱