DIY Wooden Bin System

by Claude Brewer
(Hammond, La.)

First I would like to thank Pauly for this site and all his help that he has given me. So here is my story and system.

I started my first worm bin in August of 2018 with 1 lb. of Red Wigglers in a plastic tote.

I drilled holes in the bottom, sides, and top for ventilation. My bedding consisted of peat moss, shredded newspaper and shredded cardboard.

My food consisted of food scraps that I froze then put them in my bullet and liquified all scraps. Poured them in small containers then refroze them.

The food scraps were banana peels, lettuce, watermelon, coffee grounds, and whatever else was laying around. I also made a dry food for them. This is oatmeal, cornmeal, wheat flour, dried eggshells, and a little sugar. I put this in my bullet and made a fine powder out of it.

I feed them the powder twice a week and on Saturday they get a container of the liquid food. They love it.

It’s been 3 months and I harvested the bin and I can say they more than doubled.

I live in south Louisiana and in July the temps hover around 98 degrees and 100% humidity. My setup is outside under a roof that comes off my man cave. I have fans pointed at them to keep them cooler.

I cannot lie in the beginning it was tough. The worms kept trying to escape and it got to the point I didn’t think this was going to work.

Then around the end of September it got better.

They were eating and staying in the tote. I noticed some cocoons and little babies. I guess they got acclimated to the temps and were now comfortable. It was at this point I started searching for a wooden bin plan to build.

In October I built a wooden bin With 2 compartments. Pics of my setup is below.

My purpose for raising worms is to supplement my retirement in the future. I am setting up to sell Castings to garden clubs along with worm tea. My biggest part of this is to offer worms for fishing.

Being I live in bayou country there is a lot of freshwater fishing here and I already have a list of fishermen waiting for me to start selling.

I am starting a web site now so it will be up and running soon. I have already sent out letters to some local garden clubs introducing my business venture.

Pauly sent me a presentation program that I am tweaking now to fit my business. I've read almost everything Pauly has written. He has educated me and helped me to get this going without any mistakes so far.

Like I said earlier, I just harvested for the first time with great results. The castings look perfect and the worms have more than doubled.

I put them in their new home and there was 100s of tiny babies. It looks to me they love their new home (the wooden bin). I will build a second one soon for ENCs for fishing. This way I will have 2 types of worms to offer for fishing.

Some fishermen prefer ENCs and some love the Red Wigglers.

I am promoting my worms as Cajun Wigglers for fishing. On all packages will be the name Tangi Worm Farm (Home of the Cajun Wiggler) That will be my brand.

I live in Tangipahoa Parish that is where Tangi Worm Farm comes from. We are about 45 miles north of New Orleans. We will have a huge market for fishing worms. There are tons of bait shops around here and they all get their worms from out of state.

People here like to deal with local businesses, and from what I see, there is NO local worm farms around here. The market is wide open.

Above is pics of my wooden bin and my first harvest and a pic of how I shred cardboard.

I am not a fan of the plastic totes, so I am designing my area with wooden bins. When I finish, I will take pics of it. It will have fans for summer and some kind of way to heat them for winter.

I have not figured out how to heat them yet, but I have to hurry because winter is coming. It does not get too cold here, but last year we got snow 3 times. Very rare, so rare, I was 1 year old the last time we got a lot of snow.

I hope this will help anyone that is looking for ideas on starting their first worm hobby. I find it fun and interesting raising worms. I do not have a green thumb so I don’t do it for planting a garden.

I have a neighbor that has a huge vegetable garden, so he is my test subject for worm tea and castings for fertilizer.

If anyone has any questions I will be glad to answer them, if I cant I’m sure Pauly can.

Happy Worming,
Claude

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