I always kinda wonder what would happen if someone used a giant camping cooler, the type with the spigot to release the water....up on something like a bench....I thought it would be cool to get the juice out of it, plus it would have a nice lid.....been tempted to do that with my cooler, but so far haven't. There is a nice cinder block worm bin at NOVA, but I don't have designs for it...Its got three chambers, three flap doors, divided by plywood, I think, and seems to be working. Its pretty big, but might be something to consider when trying to design.

What would be the benefit of a worm bin to your farm? Seems the scraps you would use in the worm bin would be better used in a compost pile. Worm bins are wonderful for urban usage where the resident has too little waste for a productive compost pile but not as useful to a farm as the compost would be.

My $.02
--Tom

HI,
Seattle Tilth has really great worm bins in their children's garden. I think you can stop by anytime they are open to check them out.
www.seattletilth.org
peace, Julie

Hi Rose,

I have been making quite a few worm bins lately, from materials I get for free from boeing surplus. Sometime they throw out crates that are nearly complete as worm bins. I like to have the floor and the lid of the box made from 3/4 plywood to last longer and to have the lid stay flat. I can try and draw something to show how I make them.
Worm castings are the most often recommended compost to use when making compost tea, so having a worm bin on the farm would be handy for this use.
I haven't tried to collect the "worm nectar" from mine, but I know Tilth has a design for a double walled plastic design worm bin for apartment use. You can find it here: www.seattletilth.org/resourc...binplans

And more of their compost bin plans are here: www.seattletilth.org/resources/compost.

The big reason for worm bins in the city is to keep the foods scraps out of reach of rats. I personally would do the same on a farm for the same reason.

I would not bother to collect the "worm nectar" as I don't think there really is that much volume coming out the bottom. The holes you are supposed to put in the bottom are mostly for air circulation anyway. If any leaks out it will probably come at an inconvient time and you cannot store it very long before it starts to anerobically decompose and smell. If you move the worm bin around you could harvest or plant into the nutrient rich soil later.
I'll try to make a sketch of my worm bin constructon sometime this week and send it to you.
:)steve

Guess you probably have got a bin done and built by now. How did that work out?

I just got a hand-me down bin and its just a large tupperware thats falling apart. I read a great book on worms called "the earth moved" and the author describes her bin has having multiple tiers. The top tier is for fresh scraps and the bottom tier is post permicompost. (ie just castings!) This type of system is attractive to me and i wonder if anyone has seen it. I saw one online for $100. Does anyone have any ideas on how to build something similar. Maybe just a few shallow boxes with screened bottoms for worms to pass through?

-brad