For Christmas I received a huge present, sneakily smuggled in behind the Christmas tree without me noticing!
It took a while to unwrap, and as I did, I couldn't see what it could be, although the photographer could by the time I'd removed most of the wrapping paper
Finally revealed. My new Wormery.
I ordered the worms which arrived through the post on 10 th January. It looked as though they had been trying to chew their way out.
I followed the instructions carefully. Mindful that worms don't act so fast in low temperatures, I located the Wormery in its insulating jacket in the garage with a remote temperature gauge to check. The temp has regularly dropped below 8C but not below freezing. Nevertheless I was not surprised after a week to see that they hadn't processed the small amount of household waste. They had made a start, and at least they had stopped crawling up the sides of the bin to explore their new home.
I'll leave it another week before giving them a little more food. They are at least moving the soil around and seem happy enough, though how do you tell if a worm is happy?
It has been pointed out to me that I need to keep my chickens and worms well apart :)
Well, I didn't do very well with the wormery. It started alright - I kept it in the garage for warmth and waited for the weather to improve. The worms seemed OK. As it got sunnier, I moved it next to the back door. I didn't realise quite how hot it was getting there, but looked in and it seemed to be sweltering! So I moved it around the other side of the house in the shade. By the time I checked again, it seemed to be a slimy foul-smelling black mess swarming with flies. I tried to allow the flies to get away, but there didn't seem to be any live worms left. I've a horrible feeling they all got overheated. I think I'll start again in spring 2015 with a fresh set of worms.
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