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Vermicomposting in the cold-climate apartment – Eggs – by mail!

Thursday, August 08, 2002

See also “Cocoon Nurseries” where I describe my plastic jar and cardboard box nursery.

A small packet arrived by mail – a box about 7cm by 5cm by 2cm, really too small for Canada Post. They’d crushed it slightly to make sure it wasn’t one of those foreign cars, then wrapped a large clear plastic bag around it to give it some personality.

I’ve shredded five sheets of newspaper – they won’t need it for bedding as much as a reservoir of moisture – and layered about one inch of soil on top of that.

I spread the contents of the package onto a sheet of white paper very briefly (do eggs fear the light?) to count the eggs, but they were sufficiently embedded in the peat moss that decided it wasn’t worth risking any more trauma, so spread the peat moss mixture over my layer of soil, topped it with another inch or so, and sprayed it wet with a mister bottle.

I figure the slight wetness will sink downwards and coat the area in which the eggs lie.

The breathing lid is in place, the cardboard box sleeves over the lot, and the nursery is now sitting on a laundry closet shelf, in the dark, at an equable temperature.

I plan on inspecting the nursery daily for any signs of worms, although I’m not optimistic that they will, in general, reveal themselves willingly.

Assuming that these eggs (cocoons?) were laid a week ago, I’ll have to wait two to three weeks to witness any results at all.

After four weeks I will empty the nursery and count worms, returning the mix to the nursery to hatch any late-starters.

Hatcheries - why

There are many reasons for starting hatcheries; here are some:

• Like me you’re just curious, and want to “watch the eggs hatch”.

• You are a teacher, of any kind, and want to arrange a hands-off demonstration of the life cycle of worms.

• You send eggs-by-mail to remote requestors, and want to have some idea of when they should have hatched beyond the black stump.

• You use eggs for hatching, and want a statistical idea that they are hatching; you place one out of every hundred eggs in a hatchery to check that it hatches.

• You raise worms and want to know which diets produce healthiest or most prolific worms. Hatcheries let you compare isolated hatchings under identical conditions from different worm broods.

Hatcheries

What better place to hatch eggs than an egg-carton – a source of food.

I cut a cardboard carton into two sets of 6 cups each, and place one half (with its half-lid) in a clear-plastic case, such as those boxes of cookies or pies which well-meaning friends bring to eat with our ice-cream.

Add sufficient water to completely soak the ½ carton and leave a reservoir film on the bottom of the plastic.

For each group of, say, three eggs, place half an egg-shell as a container in a carton crater. The egg-shells contain egg-white which will degrade and provide food for hatchlings.

Add a teaspoon of stale or mouldy coffee grinds to each cup, and lay two or three eggs on each.

Cover with two more teaspoons moist coffee grounds.

Close the lids and place in a dark place (my bathroom counter).

Observe daily.

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