Harvested a 14 inch section from Big Ben today. The bedding was only 6 inches deep. I started my dry down process last Thursday. I use a small 4 inch fan that blows across the top and work the bedding 3-5 times a day(3 on work days, 5 weekends). The result is over 90% of the worms vacate, the bedding reaches a moisture level of around 65% and I can hand sift around 5 gallons of castings in about 20 mins. Now I only need 30 more gallons of castings to fill my 4x8 bed. Big Ben and his squirmy crew are paying huge dividends!!! Pics are the before and after with a lil over 4 gallons of 1/8 sifted castings 😁💩🪱😁

@Jason Evans is! He sent me a package... Seriously, I LOVE this. With digital cash apps, it's hard to save the first dollar. This is SO much better. I'll never be jonesing for a drink and steal the dollar! :)

***Update*** Progress on Bigger Ben and change of plans. Pictured is this weeks progress on Bigger Ben. Caster wheels installed, floor joists and flooring put down. Hopefully get the side and end walls installed tomorrow and the pond liner in this weekend. The change of plan is that it will be a red wiggler bin. Little Ben has become home to my ANCs who seem to be very happy in there after a few days. Coming soon to a wormery near you. An even bigger worm bin, "Bigger Ben". This is the initial frame work for a 3 1/2' x 8' x 18" ANC bin. 3/4" plywood will make the walls and floor which will be on 16 inch centers. It will be lined with pond liner and this time I'm gonna cut it to size and seal the seams with a pond/fish safe sealant and will also be installing caster wheels rated for up to 4,400 lb making fully mobile as well. The max capacity for ANCs is much different than red wiggs and blues. They top off at about 3 lbs per sq ft and only about 300-400 per lb which is a max capacity when full of about 35,000 worms. We shall see 😁🪱💩😁

Never mind. I know you wet the bedding, but what about the newspaper you put on top? I see some people getting it wet - others put it on dry. What do you do - and more importantly tell me WHY!

This past Sunday harvested and reset my 2 micro bin experiments. Purpose of experiment is to check reproduction of small amount of worms, in numbers I thought WOULD be manageable ! Both bins are 2lb Folgers Coffee containers started with 50 worms each. As of now I have 4 containers, 2 with 50 worms each, 2 that got the balance of the worms. 87 in one, 82 in the other. Looked at all the wisps, juveniles and cocoons and decide it would be easier to let them go for another few weeks and start 2 tray style bins. I will continue to keep original Micro bins, harvest every 3 months, count the larger worms and put in the trays I am going to start. At the end of the year harvest and weigh the worms residing in the trays. Purpose of this experiment is to have info for those new to the hobby that ask "If I started with 12 or XX number of worms, how fast will they reproduce ?" Will be good info for @Cherene Packard, @Rick Redding, @Jason Evans and others in the "Business Builder Get Together" to have as an indicator to potential clients that may ask. ONLY a Guesstimate right now, but think each bin of 50 has grown to 150 - 200 worms. May hit 1 - 1.5 pounds of worms, from each 50 that I started with ??