How Many Worms Can One Bin Hold?

The conventional wisdom in the area of how many worms can one fit in a worm bin hints that you may have one pound of worms for every one square foot of surface area. A typical rubber maid tote is approximately 30x20 which would be 600 square inches. Divide that by 144 (one square foot in inches)and you get 4.16 square feet of surface area.

Following the formula- you may have 4-5 pounds of worms.

If you are buying worms- conventional wisdom would also say to start out with half your capacity and allow the worms to grow into your bin. In other words- don't calculate your maximum amount and purchase that amount, but buy half and with the space available and adequate food supply, the worms will feel free to follow their biological tendencies and start filling the bin themselves.

When it is time to harvest the castings (approximately in three months) the worms should be nearing their maximum density and you can separate them into two containers.

I have also heard numbers for different species for volume (cubic feet) of space they need. We'll cover that in another post.

When Neglect Is Good

I love to harass my worm bins. I figure they are mine to harass, so I do. I like to see how they are doing, how the food is decomposting, and to generally be the busy-body nosy pest as they have come to know me to be. It's my way to learn and to be a better worm farmer. I am sure they don't mind, at least there has been no verbal protest as of yet.

I also like to scan the Internet and see what others are finding. I found a great web page on daily maintenance. It was published by the Trinity Ranch Worm Farm owner. (Article).

Within the article I found a cool list of 5 things that worms need to thrive:
Air, Water, Decaying organic matter (OM), Time and the big one, Neglect.

I have found that the bins that I leave alone, do just as well as my favorite ones I like to harass, if not better. I've noticed that when the outside air temperature was hovering in the single digits this winter and I knew the heaters were on by the signal light I could see form the back window, and I decided to not venture outside for a couple of days- the worms were just fine with it.

I've noticed when I don't bother my inside bins for a couple of days- they don't mind either. Apparently as long as I give them enough munchies, they don't miss me at all.

Lesson learned- Don't sweat it! Take some time off. Leave town for the weekend. Stay inside and keep warm. As long as they have what they need (which is not generally you)- they'll be fine. Neglect is more than OK with them- it's preferred!