7. I have a stash of worms in a separate box that has some small holes in the lid for air and to let some water in. It sets in my main box up to the lid with leaves surrounding it for insulation from the cold. In case something happens to my main box I have some to restart with. I also do presentations to schools concerning worms and the composting mostly around earth day in April. Some of them even pay me to come out and I leave some worms so the kids can feed them garbage and learn about them first hand. The teacher usually takes them home for the summer. Its good to educate kids to how dirt is made. I didn't think about it until I started studying about worms. I wonder if the earth is getting bigger and bigger each year as a new layer of worm poop is deposited?

6. Once you have a large compost of castings you may want to sell them. People will buy them to add to their soil as an organic fertilizer. When I first did my research on castings I found they had all the ingredients for helping your plants grow including enzymes. Also there is something funny about their gut. They can eat shit and it contain e coli and all the other bacteria but when it comes out of the worm it is cleaned of the bad bacteria and only contains bacteria the plants need to thrive. Amazing. Knowing that which poop do you want on your vegetable garden? Horse or cow? No . . . worm for me please.

http://www.redworms.com/?gclid­=CP7vnqq5ya0CFaZdTAodfQ5deA

If you want to order some worms here is one site but there are several on the net. This one had a special where I got 2 pounds for 29 dollars with 10 dollars shipping. That's a total of $39. I'm going to replenish my supply.
Feed: If you put any green grass or vegetables in the compost it will heat it up to unbearable temperatures and kill your worms so make sure the grass clippings are brown before you put them in the compost. My compost was big enough they could get away from any hot spots caused by a mistake and that was a good thing. Cat and dog poop has worm medicine in it and will kill your worms but if you have any animal poop that is not treated with worm medicine put it in the mix. I have chickens and when I clean out the coop I put it in the compost.

4. I should have sifted the worms out of the castings and put them back in the box but I didn't and it took about 3 years to build them back to any great amount. When I put garbage in the box I just dig down and bury it. The worms find it and eat it up. That's also a good way to get the worms out of the box. Get a bunch of bananas and let them turn black. Then peel them and put the mush in a hole in the middle of the area you want to clean out. Wait a couple of days and go back out and dig up the mush and you will find it engorged with worms. This is a good way to harvest the worms before you harvest the compost or if you want to start a new compost.

I put 30 bags of leaves in that box and 2 pounds of red wigglers. One pound in each end. In April of 05 and in October I harvested 12 heaping wheel barrows of castings which I put on my garden space after I cleaned it out for the season. Then, because the red wiggler is not supposed to be able to weather in Kansas because they live in the top 6 inches of soil, I covered the space with a 4 to 5 inch layer of leaves to insulate it. In Feb. I went to the garden to get some dirt for some new plants and it was 5 degree out and the dirt was like concrete. I pushed some leaves back and the spade when right down and there were 1/2 dozen worms in the dirt.

2. The worm box you see above is made of 1/2 inch plywood and I bought it at Boeing salvage for $5. It is about 10 foot long 3 foot wide and 3 foot deep, with 4X4 skids on the bottom. The perfect box for this and I drilled 1/4 inch holes 1/2 inch off the bottom so they would be just above the bottom of the box. They are about 2 foot apart so the box can drain off any excess water when it rains. Worms like it moist as they are about 90% water but they can drown is submerged in water. That'[s why you see them on top the ground after a real gully washer. By the way that's a good time to collect worms for your compost.

1. Leaves are the perfect compostable material. They don't get sprayed and when they fall they are all ready crumbly and dry which is important to a compost. When you add things to a compost that contains worms if those things are still live or green it will heat up the compost and kill all your little worm buddies so make sure any additions are dead and dry. You can put garbage in the compost but not any high acid stuff like orange or pineapple or grapefruit and no dairy or meat as it takes too long to break down and attracts varmits like skunks and possums and coons. All of them like to also feast on your composting worms.