Well I have done it. I harvested my first bin this past weekend. First, I have included some photos of my set-up. I have mentioned in the past that I have the worm bin under my rabbit cage. The vision was a partially self cleaning rabbit cage / worm bin. The rabbit cage is in the basement and dragging the rabbit cage out side to clean all the time was becoming messy and tedious, so I thought this was a better plan, cuts down on the trips up stairs with a dirty rabbit cage. My father assisted by buidling the Hutch/Bin set-up for me, from a sketch I made for him of what I wanted. I gave him the dimensions I wanted the cage section to be and the rest of the dimensions were sort of determined by that. I wanted functional, thinking he would use scrap wood (he is a contractor), I got furniture. I shouldn't be suprised he tends to be an over achiever when it comes to building things, to my benefit. He even varnished it, I could put it in the living room if I wanted.

This picture,above, shows the drawers partially open, when closed up they all sit flush and pretty.



This picture, above, shows the "drawer" I pull out to allow the cage droppings to fall into the worm bin. There is a built in stop that makes sure everything falls off the back and into the bin. He also built in a "funnel" type set up inside to make sure that almost everything goes in the bin, not on the floor around the bin, since the bin is a bit smaller then the cage area. He did think of everything.


This picture better shows the "drawer" where the bin sits. The whole set up is on casters so that I can easily move the massively heavy 30 gal tote around.

Basically to clean the cage, or at least partially clean the cage. I just have to pull out the bin drawer, take off the lid, slide it back under the hutch, pull out the built in drawer, everything drops in, and then put the lid back on the bin.

First lesson - Be a little more specific. Dad purchased the Rubbermaid tote that fits in the "drawer". Which it fits perfectly, but is a 30 gallon tote. All of the on-line directions for building a rubber maid bin are based on a 14 gal tote. I have learned there might be some very good reasons for that. That 30 gal tote full of worms, compost, wet material etc = HEAVY. And it took the better part of a day to harvest (4 hours plus), sifting through all the material and seperating all the worms. Of course most of that excess time was due to getting a system set up to harvest and figuring out what on earth I was doing.

I am thinking in the future that I will harvest half the bin at a time. Hoping this will cut down on the time, and most of the worms will have moved to the other side. I had to do alot of hunt and peck for the worms this round.

Here is what the material looked like prior to sifting.


Second lesson - For Pete's sake find a damn table to do this on. Sitting on the floor for hours on end sifting, picking and poking kills a persons back. Moving to sitting on the toilet, leaning over and impromtu table was better but still not ideal for long term activity. For this first round harvest I was exiled to the bathroom where the bin had been living (since boyfriend barely tolerates the bin, let alone moving it to the kitchen table to harvest LOL). This is the bathroom in our basement that all pets are fed, and or kept. I guess it is the place for getting dirty, basically.

Here is my sitting on the toilet and leaning over a make shift table solution. At least it was better then sitting on the floor.

The square tray on top is the soil sifter I was using. On the other side of that is the building pile of castings/compost after sifting.

Here are the little piles waiting to be sifted, hoping the worms will go down to the bottom, which they did seem to do.



At least in warmer months I can move the whole process to my potting bench out side. I would much rather stand then lean over. On the bright side he has warmed up to it all a little bit, now that he has seen the beautiful finished product and I have explained how much of a benefit the castings will be for his Bonsai trees. Also, I had a bit of a problem with flys at first, that problem has been solved so he is a little less cranky about it.

Third lesson - I had learned mostly prior to harvest, but it was a big lesson. One pound of worms is no where near enough for a 30 gal bin. This is, I think, one of the reasons I had such a bug/fly problem at first. That and the bedding on top was too dry, since there was a lot of straw from the rabbit cage (I have to figure out how to limit the amount of hay our rabbit wastes, too much is dropping through into the bin and tends to dry out the top material a bit and which becomes a fly haven). Also the amount of "product" our rabbit produces was just too much for 1 mere pound of worms, spread out over the 30 gal bin. Of course I have also decided that two bins (with 2 pounds of worms each)will be best in the future. The amount the rabbit produces and our kitchen produces can easily support two bins, I plan to rotate them under the rabbit cage. Maybe two weeks on/under, two weeks off.

Well, I ended up with a 5 gallon bucket of beautiful castings/compost that smell like a forest floor. And another 5 gal bucket of partially finished material. I plan to add some of this back to the new bin, but some of it just may go out in the compost bin to finish. Not sure yet what's best to do with that bucket. But the castings/compost is soon going to be compost tea and Bonsai fertilizer.

Well that is the end of my worm harvesting adventure (at least this round). I hope I didn't put in too many pictures and this takes for ever to download.

I would love to hear any adivce on how I could do it easier, different or better. I have a few ideas for next time, but I always need or want more ideas.

Next adventure, building an out door bin. Where does it stop?

Thanks
Kat

I don't know about Pete, but about 10 minutes into my first bin harvest, I looked over in the corner of the garage at my cheap, never used folding card table all the while wondering why I was sitting on the floor. A card table will help you a lot. An old shower curtain will help the card table a lot.

I harvest my 18 gal bins when they're about half-full. Not as heavy. Not as big a project.

I've never understood the 6 or 8 little piles. I make one big pile in the center of the card table, wait an hour and begin scraping off an inch or so, looking for COCOONS...they don't go to the bottom where most of the worms go.

Except for a card table, you're doing all right.

Chuckiebtoo

I love your setup. I'm glad to hear it works for you. I'd put the partially composted material back in the bin. That'll give all the cocoons in it time to hatch and since it's already biologically active your bin will process things faster than if you start over with just worms.

Thanks for the pictures. I really enjoyed seeing them.

Mariann

Shoot, that is the second time that Chuckie has given me the "what should have been totally obvious" advice. The first time was using a shop vac to suck up flies and now the card table. I think I had one in the next room the whole time. I kept tyring to think of a table that would fit in the room.

Well, now I know.

Chuckie - Also, I did harvest when it was about half full, it was still super heavy. At least heavier then I want to lug around much. 30 gal tote half full, still equals heavy. I think I will still harvest one side at a time and see if that helps.

Funny you mentioned the one big pile. The picture I took was my first attempt, I started by making the little piles (I started with a few more then are in the picture), as I had seen on other people do. Let's just say I only did that the one time. After that I turned the bin up side down, dumped everything out into one big dome and went and had lunch. A sandwhich and two beers later the top several inches were worm free and I started whittling it down from there. I usually prefer straight forward and simple.

MKitten - Thanks, the whole thing seems to be working well now. And should work even better in the future. I did put quite a bit of the partially done material back in the new bin, but still have a 5 gal bucket full. I wasn't sure how much I should put back in there. I am planning on starting a second bin in the next week, so I think most of it will go in there to get the second bin off to a jump start.

Thanks for the feedback
Kat

What a great setup! I better not show my worms or they will move out.

Great pics as well. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Thanks Jason, your words mean alot since I have enjoyed reading your web site/worm blog. I have had a blast with this little project. And being as I like to make things work for me I love that it has cut WAY down on the number of times I have to empty stuff from the rabbit cage. It really has almost become a self cleaning rabbit cage. I just have to tear it down every once in a while, get stuff out of the corners and edges that stuff collects in and disinfect.

You know what I find funny about my pictures? Is being the girl that I am, when I was posting them today I said to myself "I should have really cleaned FooFoo's cage before I showed this to the rest of the world". Now what a girl thing to think. I am sure most people don't even notice for instance the hay hanging from the TOP of her cage because I had a bag of hay sitting up there before taking the pictures. At least I can laugh at myself and I posted the pictures anyway, dirt and all.

Thanks again
Kat

Now ya know, i just had to scroll back up the page to see the hay on the top of your cage. lol

Your setup is awesome. I want one to, can I borrow your dad? lol But really im thinking that some of us that are not that good at carpentry could make some adjustments to a existing piece of furniture. OK come on yard sale season!!!!!

Carey

Ha!.. Me too! Thanks for this post(s). I am trying to design a tray system that will hold my rubbermaid bins, so that I do not have to lift them off of a stack. {Driving DH nuts trying to picture what the heck I am talking about}..(what's new?) Your pics may help a bit. Thanks!

beautiful set up, great harvest, and good advice. leaves nothing constructive for me to ad.

Can't get any better.

Moni

Edited on Feb. 13
I since harvested out of my bin. The one, that sat there, while cocoons could hatch. I am waiting about another month, and look once more. Then, it should be planting time for cool crops here, and I got vermicompost for the first time, at the "right time".

Thanks for reminding me to harvest.

Moni

I never knew I wanted a pet rabbit! Great pictures, excellent furniture design... inspiring!!

About harvesting.. I used to do that dump, make a pile, drink a beer, skim the top etc. It just took more time than I could deal with. Now I make up a new bin, with the old top bedding material, recognizable food and fresh bedding. I made a tray shape, out of hardware cloth that would sit right on the new bedding. I then scoop out about a 2" layer of the old bin onto the tray, leave for about 10 minutes (still get to have a beer), and dump what remains on the tray into a storage container. I keep doing this until the whole old bin has been scooped out. This is the fastest way I have found.

Wonderful setup! I'm so impressed. On the problem with the large, heavy bin, it looks like your bin drawer might be big enough to hold two smaller bins side by side? I recognize that would require you to take one out and scoot the other over to position it under the "funnel" from the cage bottom when you want to clean the cage, but that might be easier than wrestling with such a huge bin. (I'm astounded at how much my much smaller bins weigh when they're ready to harvest). You could alternate bins, adding the cage mess to the first one week and the second the next.

I'm really enjoying this thread and learning from it. Well done, Kat! When I harvest for the first time, I'll read through these posts again.

My bin is now two weeks old and I've been able to resist checking in on my new friends so much... now it's just every other day. They're all through the bedding, and I saw a cocoon today, so something's been going on in there while I'm not looking!

Just one question: was your bin pretty uniform for moisture or were there pockets of wet stuff? How did you decide it was 'time' to harvest? Oh, two questions.

I liked the suggestion of going to two smaller bins and alternating. When mine is really going, I'm planning to start a second so I can alternate as Fadoodle said.

Kat, do you mind if I put a link to this post on my blog? I was thinking of titling it "The Coolest Worm Bin Ever".

Jason - Go ahead and link, you made me blush. Too funny. When I first started talking about this idea last year.........oh the funny looks I got. It is nice to have my idea validated. We already had the rabbit, I had been reading about the worm composting and how alot of people feed their worms rabbit poop, so 1 & 1 equaled a rabbit cage that is easier to deal with.

Thanks, I will keep you updated on the progress. If any one is interested I can send more detailed pictures of the construction and what I would do differently.

Thanks again
Kat

Definitely interested in the design and more photos - why don't you just throw them out here for everyone to enjoy?

I will have to take more photos, I don't have any more detailed photos yet. The next time I tear it down to clean I will take some shots of how he set up the internal structure, with notes on what I would change. There are a couple of tweeks I would make if I was building a second one. Oh the things you learn and realize after the fact. Mostly there are a couple of areas that "stuff" gathers that I think could be eliminated, but I am not a carpenter, so some one with more construction knowledge might have to make that decision.

Thanks again, I am glad everybody has enjoyed the photos. Like I said, it is nice to come to a place where people understand it. My family thought I was a little titched when I told them what I wanted to do. But that said they are starting to come around now that I have proved it works, and works well at that.

Kat