heavily with paper and put it outside and forget about it for awhile. We basically use these bins as bonus bins and treat them as though they do not matter. The idea is that you can feed them heavily and cover with a lot of paper because you have already written them off. At the end of the year we always find that they produce a lot of worms and process a large amount of food. The only critical management issue is to make sure you give them plenty of water. Occasionally a worm may fall from the bin into the drip tray, especially if castings have recently been removed. If the food is too wet the worms will look fat and pale. Add some dry leaves or shredded paper. Gently use a fork to turn the top layer and create some drain holes on the surface. If heavy rain is flooding your bin try moving it to a more sheltered location. Table 5. Task Flow Through Bin Weekly Management Flow Through Bin Weekly Management Task Description Times per week Turning Open lids and secure. Let stand for 10 minutes. Pull paper 2 flow back from the half of bin with marker. Gently turn material through over mixing paper and castings. bins Replace paper and close lids. Feeding Open lids and secure. Let stand for 10 minutes. Pull paper 3 flow back from one half of bin. Feed 4-5 gallons. Spread food out. through Put feeding marker on side fed. Replace paper and close lids. bins Watering Open lids. Lightly water to get paper damp (not soaked). 5 bin. Close lids. Collecting Remove trays from under each bin and dump into sorting 5 castings. tank. Scrape tray with dust pan. Allow liquid to drain into tote and empty. Mop under bins. Replace trays. Sorting Place castings on sorting table under fluorescent lights. Allow 1 worms worms to move to the bottom. Gently brush off the top from material until you reach worms. Let sit for 10 minutes to castings allow worms to go down further. Repeat process until you have a ball of worms at the bottom. Place worms in bins quickly and spread them out as they are stressed. Hand sort through rest of pile looking for any worms that were missed. Monitoring Use monitors to check and record for each bin. 1 ph, temp. and moisture all bins. Cleaning General cleaning, 5 sweeping and mopping of area. It is important to mop under and around the trays that collect the castings as these can become an odor problem.
heavily with paper and put it outside and forget about it for awhile. We basically use these bins as bonus bins and treat them as though they do not matter. The idea is that you can feed them heavily and cover with a lot of paper because you have already written them off. At the end of the year we always find that they produce a lot of worms and process a large amount of food. The only critical management issue is to make sure you give them plenty of water. Occasionally a worm may fall from the bin into the drip tray, especially if castings have recently been removed. If the food is too wet the worms will look fat and pale. Add some dry leaves or shredded paper. Gently use a fork to turn the top layer and create some drain holes on the surface. If heavy rain is flooding your bin try moving it to a more sheltered location. Table 5. Task Flow Through Bin Weekly Management Flow Through Bin Weekly Management Task Description Times per week Turning flow through bins Open lids and secure. Let stand for 10 minutes. Pull paper back from the half of bin with marker. Gently turn material over mixing paper and castings. Replace paper and close lids. 2 Feeding flow through bins Open lids and secure. Let stand for 10 minutes. Pull paper back from one half of bin. Feed 4-5 gallons. Spread food out. Put feeding marker on side fed. Replace paper and close lids. 3 Watering bin. Open lids. Lightly water to get paper damp (not soaked). Close lids. 5 Collecting castings. Remove trays from under each bin and dump into sorting tank. Scrape tray with dust pan. Allow liquid to drain into tote and empty. Mop under bins. Replace trays. 5 Sorting worms from castings Place castings on sorting table under fluorescent lights. Allow worms to move to the bottom. Gently brush off the top material until you reach worms. Let sit for 10 minutes to allow worms to go down further. Repeat process until you have a ball of worms at the bottom. Place worms in bins quickly and spread them out as they are stressed. Hand sort through rest of pile looking for any worms that were missed. 1 Monitoring ph, temp. and moisture all bins. Use monitors to check and record for each bin. 1 Cleaning General cleaning, sweeping and mopping of area. It is important to mop under and around the trays that collect the castings as these can become an odor problem. 5