I hate wasting bait, and I got fed up of buying expensive worms – usually dendrobaenas, by the quarter kilo, about £5 or £6 round here - and finding they weren't keeping well. I did a bit of research and trial and error; my worms are doing well now, so I thought I'd pass on a few things.
I stopped putting them in the fridge in plastic tubs – that's how my local tackle shop keeps and sells them. I've got two 40 litre plastic storage containers, double-deckered, inside a lidded plastic garden storage box in a shaded part of the garden. Each container has a couple of inches of dead leaves on the bottom, a middle layer of compost and a couple of inches of dead leaves on top and a tight-fitting lid. 2mm air holes are perforated into the top inch, above the leaves, and a few in the bottom in case things get too wet. The worms – I put an initial half a kilo in each box – are fed on chicken feed, called Layers Mash, a sprinkling every other day. They come up and feed on it from underneath. I started off mixing the chicken feed with hot water into a mash. It went mouldy quite quickly, and on a visit to a local worm farm I found the owner, a worm-breeding expert, fed it dry, so I do now.
The worms now breed – eggs followed by small worms appeared after a few weeks- and the worms last for ages, indefinitely, it seems. I don't think it's viable to breed enough on this small scale, but I'm pleased that I can look after what I buy, keep what I don't use and breed a few more. I keep enough to take fishing in peat in a permeable bag in the same garden skip.
My former colleagues say, what are you doing now you've retired?. I say, oh you know, keeping busy
I stopped putting them in the fridge in plastic tubs – that's how my local tackle shop keeps and sells them. I've got two 40 litre plastic storage containers, double-deckered, inside a lidded plastic garden storage box in a shaded part of the garden. Each container has a couple of inches of dead leaves on the bottom, a middle layer of compost and a couple of inches of dead leaves on top and a tight-fitting lid. 2mm air holes are perforated into the top inch, above the leaves, and a few in the bottom in case things get too wet. The worms – I put an initial half a kilo in each box – are fed on chicken feed, called Layers Mash, a sprinkling every other day. They come up and feed on it from underneath. I started off mixing the chicken feed with hot water into a mash. It went mouldy quite quickly, and on a visit to a local worm farm I found the owner, a worm-breeding expert, fed it dry, so I do now.
The worms now breed – eggs followed by small worms appeared after a few weeks- and the worms last for ages, indefinitely, it seems. I don't think it's viable to breed enough on this small scale, but I'm pleased that I can look after what I buy, keep what I don't use and breed a few more. I keep enough to take fishing in peat in a permeable bag in the same garden skip.
My former colleagues say, what are you doing now you've retired?. I say, oh you know, keeping busy
