WORMS! 20000 Red Wigglers in COW MANURE

Summary

This video script documents the process of acquiring and handling a large quantity of worms for composting purposes. The narrator describes the unexpected amount of worms received, their initial storage in cow manure, and the challenges of separating the worms from the manure. The goal is to move the worms to a better environment and use the manure as feed, while also highlighting the worms' rapid reproduction and the resulting 'black gold' or organic compost. The script also touches on the excitement of potential customers interested in purchasing the compost.

Takeaways

• 🐛 The narrator unexpectedly received more worms than anticipated, with an estimate of at least thirty thousand worms.
• 📦 They were initially supposed to get two bags, but ended up with a large box that was half full of worms.
• 🌒 The video was cut off due to darkness, with a promise to continue the next morning and show the worms' setup.
• 🔄 The process of cleaning the worms involves manually separating them from the manure, which is a sticky task.
• 📝 The narrator plans to estimate the number of worms by weight, assuming about half a box to be about a pound.
• 🚫 The narrator advises against overcrowding the worms, suggesting a maximum of about a pound per two square feet.
• 💡 It's mentioned that worms reproduce quickly and should be given space to grow, starting with about 500 worms per square foot.
• 🌱 The worms are being moved from fresh cow manure to a more suitable environment to improve their health and productivity.
• 🖤 The presence of 'black gold' or worm castings indicates the worms' beneficial work in creating nutrient-rich compost.
• 🚫 The narrator finds many dead worms in the fresh manure, possibly due to ammonia, and plans to move them to avoid further losses.
• 💰 There is a budding interest from the community in purchasing the compost produced by the worms, indicating a potential business opportunity.

Q & A

What was the initial plan for acquiring worms?

The initial plan was to get two bags of worms, but they ended up receiving a larger box that was about half full.

How many worms did they end up with?

They estimated that they had at least thirty thousand worms.

What was the process of cleaning the worms from the manure?

The process involved manually going through the manure, removing the worms, and separating them out into buckets.

What is the recommended amount of worms per square foot for heavy production?

The recommended amount is about 2,000 worms per square foot for heavy production.

Why did they decide to move the worms from the cow manure?

They decided to move the worms because they found many dead worms on top of the manure, possibly due to the ammonia from the fresh manure.

What is the purpose of the worms in the composting process?

The worms help in processing the manure and other organic materials into nutrient-rich compost, also known as 'black gold'.

What is the estimated cost of the worms they received?

They paid one hundred and seventy-five dollars for an estimated fifteen thousand worms, which works out to a little over ten dollars per pound.

How did they plan to use the composted cow manure?

They planned to use the composted cow manure as feed for the worms later on, after it had been allowed to season more.

What is the significance of the worm cocoon mentioned in the script?

The worm cocoon signifies the reproductive process of the worms, indicating that they reproduce quickly and are part of the composting cycle.

What was the final outcome of the worm and manure separation process?

After three and a half days of work, they ended up with a significant number of worms and a lot of separated cattle manure.

How did the script writer plan to expand their worm business?

They planned to build a bigger space for the worms, start selling compost, and were already receiving interest from potential customers.

Outlines

00:00

🐛 Overwhelming Worm Arrival and Setup

The script begins with the narrator's surprise at the volume of worms received, much more than anticipated. Initially expecting two bags, they end up with a large box half-full of worms, estimating around 30,000. With the day ending, the narrator plans to show the worm setup the following day. The process involves manually cleaning the worms from the manure, with the goal of separating them into buckets, aiming for about a pound per bucket, despite the sticky and laborious task. The narrator also discusses the optimal living conditions for worms, suggesting a maximum of 2,000 worms per square foot for heavy production, and plans to start with 500 worms in a bin that can hold 2,000, allowing for growth and reproduction. The video ends with the narrator's intention to move the worms to a better environment due to finding many dead worms, possibly from ammonia in the fresh cow manure.

05:02

🌱 Transitioning Worms to a Healthier Environment

The second paragraph details the process of moving worms from fresh cow manure to a better environment due to the discovery of many dead worms, likely from ammonia exposure. The narrator demonstrates how to separate the worms from the manure by carefully removing the manure and leaving the worms intact. The process is likened to harvesting, with the goal of minimizing disturbance to the worms. The narrator shares the discovery of worm excrement, referred to as 'black gold,' and worm cocoons, indicating healthy worm activity. The manure is composted separately, and the intention is to use it as feed for the worms once it has settled and matured. The paragraph concludes with the narrator's satisfaction with the worm removal process and the anticipation of producing quality compost.

10:06

📦 Collecting and Estimating Worm Numbers

In this paragraph, the narrator describes the methodical process of collecting worms from a large pile of cow manure, aiming to separate them for healthier living conditions and future composting. The process involves breaking apart clumps of manure and carefully sweeping out the worms, which tend to stick together and move downwards to avoid sunlight. The narrator expresses joy in handling the worms and emphasizes the impracticality of counting them due to their vast numbers. The collected worms are estimated to be around 5,000 per good handful, with the total collection from the session being around 15,000 worms, which were purchased for a cost of approximately $10 per pound. The narrator also mentions plans to sell compost, as there has been interest from potential customers, and concludes with enthusiasm about the budding worm business.

15:08

💰 Early Success in Vermicomposting and Sales

The final paragraph of the script discusses the early success of the worm composting venture. The narrator shares an experience of selling eight bags of compost at a local event and the excitement of potential customers, including a school interested in purchasing compost for a Christmas festival. This indicates a growing demand for their product. The narrator encourages others to have fun with their worm business and invites viewers to subscribe for more content, ending on a positive note about the prospects of vermicomposting as a sustainable and profitable endeavor.

Keywords

💡Worms

Worms are the central focus of the video, referring to the creatures used in vermiculture, a method of composting that utilizes worms to break down organic matter. The video discusses the process of acquiring, separating, and eventually using these worms for composting purposes. For example, the script mentions 'we got worms out the you know where,' indicating the large quantity of worms received, and 'we're going to put two pounds probably into each one of those,' showing the application of worms in compost bins.

💡Composting

Composting is the process of decomposing organic materials into a nutrient-rich humus, which can be used as a soil amendment. The video script frequently mentions composting, particularly as it relates to worm activity. For instance, 'we're going to just clean out and get them out of the manure so I just thrown it on the table here,' which describes the initial step in preparing the worms for composting.

💡Manure

Manure is animal waste, typically from cows, that is used as a fertilizer or soil conditioner. In the context of the video, manure serves as the initial substrate in which the worms are found and is also a byproduct of the composting process. The script mentions 'I'd rather feed him composted cow manure,' indicating a preference for using composted manure as a food source for the worms rather than the raw manure.

💡Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting is a specific type of composting that involves the use of worms to convert organic waste into nutrient-rich material. The video script refers to this process when discussing the separation of worms from manure and the subsequent use of these worms for composting. For example, 'this is all in cow manure and now these guys are working over here' illustrates the vermicomposting process.

💡Reproduction

Reproduction in the context of the video refers to the rapid breeding of worms, which is an important aspect of maintaining a healthy worm population in a composting system. The script mentions 'they reproduce very quickly,' emphasizing the worms' ability to multiply and the need to account for this in the setup of composting bins.

💡Cow Manure

Cow manure is a specific type of manure that comes from cows and is used in the video as a substrate for the worms. The script discusses the process of removing worms from fresh cow manure, as in 'I just think I need to move them I just don't like them being in this direct cow manure,' indicating a preference for a more processed, composted form of manure.

💡Black Gold

In the context of the video, 'black gold' refers to the dark, nutrient-rich compost produced by the worms. It is a term often used to describe high-quality compost. The script mentions 'you can see all of the black stuff black gold around here,' highlighting the desirable end product of the vermicomposting process.

💡Cocoon

A cocoon is the protective casing spun by some worms, particularly in the later stages of their life cycle, before they transform into a new form. In the video, the script mentions 'here's one egg or a cocoon I hope you can see that right there,' indicating the presence of worm cocoons as part of the vermicomposting process.

💡Harvesting

Harvesting in the context of the video refers to the process of collecting mature compost or worms from the composting system. The script describes 'this is a lot like harvesting in regular harvesting,' comparing the act of removing worms from manure to the agricultural process of harvesting crops.

💡Organic Castings

Organic castings are the waste products excreted by worms as they consume organic matter. These castings are highly valued for their nutrient content and are used to enrich soil. The script mentions 'they've been asking about the humus or the organic castings,' indicating interest from potential customers in purchasing the worm castings for gardening purposes.

💡Ammonia

Ammonia is a compound found in fresh manure that can be harmful to worms if present in high concentrations. The video script mentions 'it's just I think it's the ammonia and stuff from that,' referring to the negative impact of fresh manure on the health of the worms and the reason for moving them to a better environment.

Highlights

Received an unexpectedly large quantity of worms, initially thought to be two bags but ended up with a much larger amount.

Estimation of at least thirty thousand worms received.

The process of cleaning and separating the worms from manure manually is described.

A method for estimating worm quantity without counting, using weight as a proxy.

Guidelines for worm population density in composting, suggesting a maximum of 2,000 worms per square foot.

The importance of not overpopulating worm bins to allow for reproduction and growth.

An emergency situation leads to a deviation from the standard worm-to-manure ratio.

The discovery of worm eggs or cocoons indicating reproduction.

The negative impact of fresh cow manure on worm health, leading to a need for a better environment.

The process of transitioning worms from cow manure to a more suitable composted environment.

The visual difference between fresh cow manure and worm-processed manure, referred to as 'black gold'.

A demonstration of the harvesting process for worms from manure.

The practical challenge of separating live worms from the manure without disturbing them.

The use of a sweeping motion to encourage worms to fall out of manure clumps.

The excitement and community interest in purchasing the resulting compost.

The economic aspect of the worm business, including the cost of worms and the sales of compost.

The potential for scaling up the worm composting business, with plans to sell at a local festival.

Transcripts

well we got home with these worms I

thought we were only gonna get two bags

of him like this he wound up having a

bag and they poured one bag and they

gave us this big box it was about half

full so we got worms out the you know

where and I don't know if we were gonna

put them all

we probably got oh I don't know thirty

thousand at least worms and well it's

getting dark it's so I'm gonna have to

cut this video off for now but tomorrow

morning I'll make some video and show

what we've got with all these worms

worms worms

well just as I got started here just

wanted to show kind of what the process

is going to be I just turn this over to

get a handful and we got worms we got a

lot of them live worms so this is really

good and we're going to just clean out

and get them out of the manure so I just

thrown it on the table here and you know

just have to go through it manually just

stuff so sticky but there's lots of

worms to get so I'm going to get as many

as I can I'm not going to go squeeze

through every little bit of this stuff

but I'm going to get as many as I can

and then separate them out put them into

this I mean about and a half of this

ought to be about a pound so that'll

kind of give me an idea of how many I am

not counting 20 to 30,000 worms okay not

going to happen

but I'm just gonna fill them up and and

call it about half of this will be a

pound so then I'll put them into these

different buckets put them up maybe two

pounds of piece in here they really

shouldn't have more than about a pound

apiece for the size but right now I mean

they'll they'll hold 2,000 but generally

you want to put your worms and put less

then you have four square foot so

they'll grow into the space because

they're going to reproduce and they

reproduce very quickly and general rule

of thumb is that this

one square foot of area which is about

what that is it should be about 2,000

worms maximum that's that's like all

you're ever going to get in a heavy

production so you wouldn't want to put

more than maybe a thousand in there and

then they'll double or you know over

time they'll they regulate themselves

and so typically I didn't maybe put 500

in there to start and it just let them

grow into it but this is kind of a

emergency situation so we're going to

put two pounds probably into each one of

those and I'll probably put ten pounds

that's a two by three so it's six so

it'll hold 12 pounds so I might put even

12 to 15 pounds in there because later

on we're going to be moving it over into

the into the constant flow through

anyway so I can kind of load it up right

now it's not like they're going to be

having to survive in there for months

they'll be in there a week or so and

that shouldn't be a problem

lots of food ready for them and and

there's lots of food ready in those for

a week to two weeks

so that should be plenty but anyway yeah

we got like lots of worms and I know I

keep talking on the video because I

really don't want to get into all this

cow manure but there's not much choice

got to make it happen and see the worms

have already gone there they're helping

in here but there I just think I need to

move them I just don't like them being

in this direct cow manure

I'd rather feed him composted cow manure

than to have him try to live in the cow

manure so that's where we're going I

wanted to show you a very good example

here just exactly what happens with the

worms and and the difference of stuff

now this is all in cow manure and now

these guys are are working over here but

they haven't quite finished and these

guys are really quite finishing and

they'll be moving they'd probably be

moving pretty soon I'm going to be

moving them to a different place but you

can see all of the

black stuff black gold around here and

that's around with the worms their

excrement and then there's another group

of them over here that we've got the

same thing and here's one egg or a

cocoon I hope you can see that right

there yep and so this is what happens

after a time and we're moving these guys

into a little better environment and

then straight cow manure but we bought

them in cow manure and I mean they are

processing and they're they're doing

okay but we're finding hundreds of them

dead

every morning on the top and it's just I

think it's the ammonia and stuff from

that so we're moving them to a better

environment anyway I wanted to show you

here the nice black gold that we're

getting out of that and the difference

you can tell in the color very easily

from this brown from the newer of the

cow and then to the black of the manure

of the worms a little bit about how to

remove worms from khamenei work and

actually the process is not that you

want to remove the worms from the cow

manure the easiest way is remove the cow

manure from the worms simple enough

here's a big pile of cow manure that's

got a lot of worms in it

we bought I don't know about the 300

pounds I guess that's a guesstimate of

this cow manure that's just full of

worms they estimated there's about

20,000 worms in there I don't know how

many we've really lost count because

there were just so many but probably

well over 10,000 anyway I don't think we

really reached 20,000 I don't feel like

we've had so far now this is the last of

the all the piles but I wanted to show

you a little bit about how we go about

removing the worms from the cow manure

or the cow manure from the worms and

what we found is this to use a very

similar process to what you do when

you're harvesting the worms as it's all

finished product now we wanted to remove

the

the worms from this common or because a

couple of reasons one we're finding an

awful lot of dead worms here's one right

here and and you can see a pile of them

up here and it just we think that the

manure was too fresh

so we're wanting to move the worms out

and let the manure settle a little

longer and then we'll be able to the

remaining worms anyway we want to get

them out of there

and within we want to use this composted

cow manure as feed for the worms a

little later because we're going to

we're just going to compost all of the

cow manure like it really should be have

it much more seasoned anyway the whole

video here is about getting the worms

out so let's take a look at that well

we've got this pile here

and so basically we've let it sit for a

couple of days because we've been

working through everything else and what

we're seeing in here is just dead worms

for the most part now there happens to

be a live one that's kind of unusual for

for what we've been having but I'm gonna

put him over here in the bucket and it

looks like we've got sorry the air force

is running maneuvers of some kind here I

guess so we've got a couple more worms

here that we're living which is really

unusual for grabbing one of these piles

on top so I'm going to take that out

there's there's a bunch of dead ones in

there so we're going to take this and

just drop it in our in our compost

bucket or to be composted and I just

been taking this slowly at a time and

just cleaning this away and then we

leave the worms so we're not disturbing

them too much and we just take this

slowly but surely clean it around clean

it around oh there's some worms okay so

if we're if we're careful I mean we may

drop a worm in the compost bucket okay

so what that'll be alright so I'm gonna

go ahead and rake that in there because

we don't need just one worm and then

we're going to go over here and kind of

break around and see what we find we

start seeing a whole bunch of worms well

now that's what we're really after so

we're going to take these gonna start

taking the clumps off here off the top

and see what we get into

getting a couple of worms so I'm gonna

this is this is what I say it's a lot

like harvesting in regular harvesting

but because the materials not dry

they're still inside they're a lot so

let's take this and this is a clump of

dead ones and everything now we're

starting to see a whole lot of worms

this is really what we want to get into

here so let's let's again remove

material that we don't want and we're

going to keep the material that we do

want and see how they they'll stick

together now you'll get a worm or two

that that kicks out with that but

generally they'll all stick together and

then they move down because the sunlight

now we're not in real bright Sun here

but they don't like any light so let's

try to uncover this a little bit let's

come back up in here and see what we got

oh yeah now we're into some worms so we

just want to remove this other top layer

of stuff and I usually just set it to

the side over here a little bit and that

the worms come out of that I break it

apart slightly or agitate it somewhat

and most of the time they all fall out

or at least the majority of them and I

can drop that in there so I just use

this small sweeping motion and just

sweep around over here a little bit till

I start finding a lot of worms and then

I grab that dump it or I'll come over

here on this side for a while and then

when I get a big clump of them like like

I've got going here then that's what I'm

going to take put into my bucket so you

know count how many worms there are I

don't know you tell me I have no idea

when you pick this up

it's just worms I mean you want to count

them all come on over possibly count of

all there's probably four or five

hundred in there at least maybe maybe a

little more than that and

I don't I don't want to have to count

them so that just goes in the bucket

there I just love that part oh that's

that's fun I don't know I like worms so

let's see get up in here just a little

bit more and do another oh yeah another

good handful so you know you want to

count them it's just not possible but

ain't it pretty ain't it great we got

worms and we're able to make organic

compost finally and we're really happy

about that we've actually had people now

come to us and ask us when can we buy

some compost from you we're excited

about it too we want to buy the company

now they don't like looking at the worms

they don't want to touch him or anything

but they they've been asking about the

the humus or the organic castings and

and we're excited we're going to be

having some of that in a few weeks so

there's another 3/4 of a pound or so and

then you know just it keeps going now

this has got a lot of a lot of manure in

it but I'm still going to go ahead and

drop this parcel handful in there so the

the bucket has some things for them to

go work around in and you know they do

that real quick they disappear in fact

I'm proud to make a video here in a

minute about how they disappear once we

put them into the final bucket over

there I'll show you how that's done and

maybe even do a time lapse video on it

or something I've been wanting to do one

of those so anyhow lots and lots of

worms thanks for watching that's how you

remove the manure from the worms I

wanted to show what the the final is on

all of this after three days three two

and a half days anyway we took about 300

pounds of

cattle manure mixed with worms now we

have worms and a lot of cattle manure so

this is not nowhere close to the whole

final of the worms this is just in this

final box this is the box that I've had

everything in here and this is the work

today and I worked about four hours this

was up pretty close to 3/4 of the way we

tried to put it in here

clean this today and now this is this is

what we've got and this is just where

I'm drying worms huh lots of worms I

figure there's about 5,000 in here

that's I'm not very good at figuring

kind of new at this but that's what I'm

gonna figure one good handful that's not

even one real good handful but about a

pound is supposed to be about a thousand

that's about a pound and that's maybe a

little more than the pound so I'm going

to estimate we got 5,000 here we've got

approximately we've got four buckets of

a thousand we've got I just stick like

this they really get sticky when we've

got several others so I'll total out of

what we thought was supposed to be about

twenty thousand that was the estimate

that we paid for we wound up I'm going

to estimate that we've got about fifteen

thousand and we paid a hundred and

seventy five dollars so a little over

ten dollars a pound

I think it works out fine we really only

needed about six thousand worms but we

decided if we're going to do it let's do

it right and get them now build a big

enough place and then we'll start

selling compost and since we've been

talking to people about it they're

starting to be interested about getting

compost so that's wonderful that's you

know sometimes you take that step and

risk a little bit

step up a little bit and looks like it's

gonna be sold I sold eight bags

yesterday a little bit of compost two

dollars a plastic bag full so that was

pretty good and I start and she said I

take a whole bunch more but I want to go

take this over to a school she was going

to a Christmas Festival she said I want

to take this over and sell it there and

I said go for it so that's a potential

customer that we're going to have right

away and everything's good anyway lots

and lots of worms have fun and your worm

business if you haven't subscribed

please do so and get some worms worms

worms there you go