# Raising earthworms!



## HerseyMI (Jul 22, 2012)

What do I need to know? Structures? Breeding stock? Varieties available? Pros & cons?


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Might help if you said WHY you're raising them. 

Composting ? Garden soil building ? Sell as bait ? Chicken feed ?


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## Roadking (Oct 8, 2009)

Son has started it as a business, he is 11. The bin...
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm
500 night crawlers and 500 red wigglers from decker worm farm.
He has contacted several local businesses to distribute to, and the castings are for the garden.
Pretty simple to do.
There is also the worm digest org, and Decker's site is pretty thorough.

Matt


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## HerseyMI (Jul 22, 2012)

TnAndy said:


> Might help if you said WHY you're raising them.
> 
> Composting ? Garden soil building ? Sell as bait ? Chicken feed ?


Compost some of the livestock bedding this spring, sell some worms, use some for fishing and fortify the garden beds.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

We raised them for a long time. Kept most of them in the root cellar where it was damp and cool in the summer and warm and damp in the winter. Kept a small box under the kitchen sink to take care of the table and kitchen scraps, NO meat fats or bones. Dumped them in the big box in the cellar when there got to be to many in the kitchen box. Box in the cellar was bead board insulation put together with liquid glue box under the sink was a boughten cheap Styrofoam cooler. We fed them cheap corn meal when we didn't have what we felt was enough scrapes from the kitchen and table.
We started the box with shredded news papers, Worms were picked up out of the leaf mold in the woods in the spring. Crawlers were picked up from the road after a big rain.

Here is a link to a site to help you start.
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/basics.html

Is the Reed City sports teams still the coyotes? Do they still have the tractor pulls in Hersey in the summer?


 Al


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

HerseyMI said:


> What do I need to know? Structures? Breeding stock? Varieties available? Pros & cons?


Keep them from freezing, and do not drown them. They also need some air.


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## HerseyMI (Jul 22, 2012)

alleyyooper said:


> Is the Reed City sports teams still the coyotes? Do they still have the tractor pulls in Hersey in the summer?
> 
> 
> Al



Yes! And sadly... no. But Hersey is actually growing whilst Reed City is shrinking a bit. Hersey Heritage Days draws quite a crowd now... the old roller mills has been restored into a general store, we have two new convenience stores one being a gas station, a full restaurant and bar, a year round farm market and storage lockers! Pullen's Fertilizer & Lime is where the tractor pulls used to be held. Hersey pond is gone, now a children's park, two new ball fields. Stop in sometime, we will be glad to remember you, Al.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

lived in Evart as a kid. Used to pull the antique tractors in Hersey back when they indeed had to be original engine and meet the dyno rules.
Seems like I remember the Wright brothers from Mcbain really owned the sled but carried the highland pullers logo on it.

Used to float fish the river a lot way back. My brother still lives near Avondale north of Evart.

 Al


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