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Hello all this is my first post here. I have been a long time member at shroomery, and only recently found this place. I posted this over there but would like to share it with everyone here as well. Sorry that the pictures are linked from another forum, it would be a lot to upload and replace over here. First a little backstory...My second job is a prep cook at a franchise restaurant on weekends. This provides me a little bit of "fun" money. I won't name the restaurant, but I was honestly excited when I got hired because they present themselves as kinda hip/green whatever and seemed chill. After I got behind the curtain I realized it was just another greedy company using the word organic to sell their overpriced garbage. I began to notice that no one used the recycling bin that was provided. As a high volume pre packaged restaurant, they produce a huge amount of waste. After harassing the general manager on the issue for a few months, they finally started to increase awareness of the recycling bin. I think people decided that it was easier to recycle than listen to the ramblings about the importance of recycling / earth stewardship and the love for mother earth from the hippy in the back. This is a year later, and the recycling bin is still being used heavily While harping on everyone about recycling, I started to notice the food waste that my position produced. I wanted to figure a way to divert this from the landfill, but there is no way I can compost all of this food in an open compost. I live in a fairly nice neighborhood and my neighbors would be quick to call the cops on my rotting mess. Then I remembered reading about worms a few years earlier; that night I was home googling my way through worm forums. Just like any other hobby that starts this way, there are so many conflicting stories as to whats "best" for said organism. Not to mention all kinds of crazy ideas people have come up with. November, 2011 I placed an order for 2 lb of red wiggler composting worms ( Eisenia fetida). I keep them in an attached garage that probably stays 45-80 year round. They do not care for extreme temperatures <32f or >90f. I plan to show you what has worked for me. These are my worm bins, as you can see I have 3 now. They might possibly be repurposed mono tubs The middle and the left handed one have screen over the vents, however I have found this unnecessary and did not do it for the third one. The lids have landscape cloth glued to the inside edge. I would probably put it on the outside if I make anymore. There are several (15ish) 3/8 inch holes drilled around the underside of the bin. This allows leachate to drain out. This is NOT worm tea and will go anaerobic fairly quickly. It is excess water that has passed through the bin. In my opinion some leachate is good because it lets you know that your bin is damp enough. However if your bin is producing a decent bit, you are most likely adding to much water in some form. I dump this liquid on my grass as I am sure it does have some nutrients or benefit to it, but avoid using it on my garden / potted plants. This is what the inside of the bin looks like. The brown paper at the top is just a paper bag. I only have it folded back to show underneath. Worms are photosensitive and this helps keep some light off them. It also helps hold in some moisture close to the surface, worms tend to hang out a little deeper if the top is dry. Remarkably true as all of the sites proclaim, there is little to no smell from a properly maintained bin. The worms that I raise are often generically called red wiggler worms, or tiger worms due to the yellow banding on the tail. Scientifically they are Eisenia fetida. There are other types that are suitable such as Eisenia hortensis, Eudrillus eugeniae, Perionyx excavates and a few others. All live in similar conditions, but are better adapted to different areas. They are what are considered "leaf litter" feeders and are typically found in the top 12" of soil. Canadian night crawlers are not a correct type of worm to use. They are deep burrowers and do not like to be disturbed, not suited for a enclosed bin. Each bin has enough area to support a population of about 2 pounds of worms. A juvenile is on the left and an adult is on the right. Notice the band near the head on the adult? This is called the clitellum and is how worms mate. They lay facing different directions and line up their clitellum. A mucus forms around both bands and they each transfer sperm. Both worms will then lay a cocoon, essentially a worm egg. They are lemon shaped and typically a light yellow when first laid, darkening to brown with age. Typically 3-5 worms emerge from each cocoon. Other Organisms You will encounter some creatures besides worms in your bin. You are setting up a smorgasbord of fine rotting food here, get friendly with some other decomposers. Some people freak out about these cohabitants, but honestly there is nothing you can do; they will show up eventually. I don't mind them at all, the way I see it is they too are breaking down the organic matter, and speeding up the process I imagine. Random gnats and flies. These are the most annoying for me honestly, just because they like to fly into eyes, ears, or your nose. I place permethrin (an insecticide :sad:) around my garage windows, they tend to migrate to light after leaving the bin. I also have a fly strip that I occasionally change. This definitely doesn't stop them, but it does help control the population some Mites will also be a guaranteed resident. They are very small and are the red "bumps" in the following pictures. There are 2 different varieties this reddish brown and white, I have both in my bin. The shear number in population that these guys can reach is astounding. Literally thousands of them. They tend to stay in the top inch or so of the bin, happily munching away. Some other inhabitants that you will most likely encounter are springtails, potworms, and fungi. Feeding As I mentioned earlier I collect food from where I work, usually at least 10 gallon per weekend. This typically consists of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pineapple, lemons, grapes, strawberries, cucumber, melons... well you get the idea. Things like pineapple and citrus are often advised against for worms due to their high acid content. About every other week I collect 5 gallon of coffee + filters (carbon source!) for a nice nitrogen boost. Meat and dairy should be avoided because they tend to turn rancid, which causes a very foul odor. I also collect about 100 egg shells per weekend. I rinse these in water that is first used to rinse off the vegetables. Once the yolks are rinsed out I bake them with whatever needs to go in the oven to dry them. I crush them by hand and add them to the collected scraps. The only other processing I do is dicing up the tops/rinds of pineapples. I have also found it beneficial to dice up grape stems, they take a while to break down and get clumped up with gunk if not. I get paid a meager wage, but the amount of worm food I can collect is a nice bonus. I originally tried adding fresh food scraps straight to my bin. What all these worms sites forget to mention is that fruit/veggie scraps contain a very large amount of water. Once it starts breaking down the water is released, turning your bin into an anaerobic mucky mess. A little more reading lead to a solution... a compost tumbler. I built this one based on these plans Tumbler. This has worked marvelously for me. It accomplishes 2 things, it begins the rotting process softening the food waste which makes it easier for worms to dig in. It also releases a large amount of water in the form of leachate as well. This also gets dumped on the grass. This liquid is probably low on the ph scale due to the fairly acidic foods that I add. The egg shells are reported to help buffer the ph. The chemistry behind it is simple calcium carbonate reacts with acid resulting in calcium and CO2, but not sure how readily it plays out in real life. I usually give then tumbler a couple of turns every evening. I feed my worms once a week and this is usually the only time I open my bin to mess with my worms. The blue bins slide nicely under my tumbler, which allows me to dump straight from the tumbler into the bin. As you can see there is very little plant matter left that is identifiable, but is no where close to being finished compost. I then add the pre-compost to the top of my bin, spreading it across the entire surface at about 1-1.5 inches deep. This usually takes about 2.5 to 3 gallon. before After Add a bit of torn cardboard as fresh bedding and replace the brown bag cover. Thats it, the worms will quickly move into the new food and begin doing their thing. I collect "cardboard" to use as bedding and a carbon source in my tumbler. While corrugated cardboard is readily available, we also recycle that and I feel that getting more life out of the paper pulp before it becomes worm poop is a good call. So what I collect is egg crate, drink carriers, and the piece that separates apples in the box. I tear this into smaller pieces. I collect a good many of these as well and can fill a 5 gallon bucket once shredded. This part is tedious but a little :pipesmoke: and a good show helps make the process a little easier. Also the promise of ice-cream often works on children who eagerly tear it to shreds. Of course you could use some type of machine, but lets use less fossil fuels and more child labor! Once I have fed my worms, it is time to add the collected food scraps and the rest of the cardboard to the tumbler. As you can see there is still a decent bit of material left in it (10 to 15 gallon) this will help inoculate the fresher scraps and provide continuous compost. While my boss is cool with my hobby, she has made it apparent that I can only collect on the weekends. During the weak the bureaucratic fat cats (corporate and state auditors) tend to dislike anything like this. Harvest I harvest the castings about every three months. I typically stop feeding a bin for 2-3 weeks before harvesting. This helps ensure that most of the matter is processed, and it also allows the bin to dry out a little bit. The material in the bin is now mostly nice dark worm castings. I use a trommel for this. The screen is simply a 5 gallon bucket cut in half, with some 1/4" hardware cloth riveted to the two ends. I cut the notch that previously held the handle out to ensure smooth rotation. The wheels at the front fit right into these groves. The bottom part was built from a wooden pallet and a kid's stroller that was being thrown out. A few pieces of cardboard helps to keeps flying castings directed towards the catch bin. The material from the bin is loaded into the higher end of the trammel. I like to crumble it a little before adding it. As the screen is spun, the material moves towards the opposite end and falls into a separate bin. A friend spinning the screen while I load makes this go fairly quickly. After running the entire bin through the trommel I ended up with about a 1/2 bin of material with a large number of worms. This can be split between 2 bins to expand your herd. I do not need another bin at this time though. It could also run though again in a week if I didn't feed the worms again. There is still a good bit of castings mixed in, but is in larger clumps due to moisture or bits of unprocessed material. Finally the dark crumbly goodness. This contains a fair number of worms. I like to remove them at this point and add them to the 1/2 bin of larger material. Worms are are photosensitive and do their best to avoid light. By now most of them have worked their way deeper into the pile. I then scoop this a handful at a time doing a quick search for stray worms. By taking advantage of their light sensitivity, I clean the top inch or so of the pile, pulling from a different spot for each handful. By the time I get back to the beginning the worms have dug deeper. Since the castings are screened, they are very light and crumbly. It's easier than it sounds to quickly separate most of the worms. You could rescreen this material with a hand screen faster, but it would still miss many of the smaller worms. Plus I like playing in the dirt sometimes :shrug:, it allows me to examine the material and see what didn't break down very well. This yeilded a very full 5 gallon bucket of castings. I could use my black gold right away, but I like to let it age a bit. Unfortunately, worm cocoons are very small, and fall through with the castings. I allow the bucket to sit for about a month and then sort it again for worms. If you wait to long, the worms will grow up and lay more cocoons. These juveniles, the few worms I inevitably missed, mites, fungi and microorganisms will quickly break down any remaining food. I hope you enjoyed, thanks for looking!