Hungry Bin trial after 4 weeks - harvesting the vermicompost for the first time!

 The Hungry Bin has been quietly eating our kitchen waste for a number of weeks, now.
So I decided it was time to risk taking off the bottom tray to look at the vermicompost.

I undid the catches on each side, and carefully lowered the bottom tray - half expecting the entire contents to fall out of the bottom - but no! it all worked exactly as the Hungry Bin web site said it would!

The compost you can see on the ground fell out of the bottom tray when I removed it - none has fallen out from the Hungry Bin itself.

Most of the compost in the bottom tray is from the original material I added when I set up the Hungry Bin more than four weeks ago, but there are some worm casts in there as well.The bottom tray fits neatly into the liquid collection tray, normally seen on the ground under the Hungry Bin

I could only find one worm, who was returned to the Hungry Bin to join the rest of the many thousands in there, busily munching away at our waste.

I added the compost to some pots of veg in the polytunnel, as well as giving the plants a feed of diluted worm tea from the Hungry Bin collection tray. I then put the collection tray back underneath the Hungry Bin - two catches which did up really easily.

My Hungry Bin is now absorbing my daily kitchen waste -about a kilo of it every day, plus whatever else I find to throw in to the worms.

I am SO impressed with this wormery!

Hungry Bin update after 3 weeks

Here at Compost Mansion we generate a kitchen caddy full of waste every couple of days from our kitchen - tea bags, coffee filters and grounds, veg peelings and assorted bits of cardboard all go in there. The caddy lives in the corner by the sink, next to the sink. Typically, we empty about 5 kg of compostables out of it every few days.

I have been re filling the Hungry Bin with assorted kitchen and garden waste every day, a little and often is the best way and I have been adding a couple of inches of food stuff for the worms everyday, as suggested by the  Hungry Bin parent company in New Zealand

This was the view inside the lid of the Hungry Bin on Day 20 of the trial.I added some more assorted  kitchen and garden waste from the kitchen caddy and some of the packaging hay I recieved in my order from Rocket Gardens.

I have now owned a Hungry Bin for 3 weeks and am still delighted with it, despite the warmer weather recently it does not smell and it can handle a lot of kitchen waste.  I have also been using the "worm tea" from the tray at the bottom - diluted 10:1 with water  ( until it is the colour of weak tea, no milk, no sugar) the plants in the polytunnel love it

Next time I will hopefully be reporting on opening up the tray at the bottom to harvest some vermicompost ;-)

Hungry Bin update - Day 9 and the worms are thriving :-)

I have been re filling the Hungry Bin with assorted kitchen and garden waste every day, a little and often is the best way and I have been adding about an inch of food stuff for the worms everyday, as suggested by the  Hungry Bin parent company in New Zealand

This was the view inside the lid of the Hungry Bin on Day 6 of the trial.

And this is the same bin two days later,  - I did not feed the worms on Day 7 as I wanted to get an idea how much the level would drop over a couple of days.

It has dropped by several inches, and the worms have eaten a lot of the material.

 Scraping aside the surface, uneaten layer we see a lot of rich, dark vermicompost. Lovely!

I added some more assorted  kitchen and garden waste -  or as I prefer to think of it - valuable organic worm feed for my wonderful worms;-) 

And shut the lid.

I have now owned a Hungry Bin for 8 days and I must say I am delighted with it, it does not smell, it can handle a lot of kitchen waste, it reduces the waste rapidly and the worms are certainly working hard. I am also very pleased with the "worm tea" I am getting from the tray at the bottom - diluted 10:1 with water  ( until it is the colour of weak tea, no milk, no sugar) it is a fabulous feed for my plants.

Will report back in another few days.

Hungry Bin update Day 3 (07/07/12) and Day 4 (08/07/12)

I was quite worried on Day 3 - the deluge continued here and the worms were obviously convinced that they would be drowned if they stayed in the Hungry Bin so followed their instincts and tried to move up and away from danger- but the lid contained them.

I was concerned that the deluge would fill up the collection tray with rainwater and I would lose all my lovely worm tea, but NO! the design obviously keeps rain from falling into the collection tray - which is good.

Despite having had a lot of rain overnight! This wheelbarrow was next to the Hungry Bin.

I added some more material, about 800 g of mixed kitchen caddy waste, a small amount of cooked food and some roll roll tubes with compost inside which had held some bean plants, but they had been eaten off to soil level by slugs.

When I went back later the same day the tubes were full of worms all munching away.

Day 4, I added a about a kg of assorted waste, paper scraps, chicken droppings, weeds and tomato leaves from the plants in the polytunnel (I had been removing some of the lower leaves to let in air to the plants)which had been sitting in a bucket for a few days

I had a look at the waste and saw lots of worms busily working away with none in the lid so I think they must be happy with their environment.

See how quickly those cardboard tubes have disintegrated!

I laid some cardboard on the top surface so the worms had somewhere to hide under, and closed the lid for another day.

Hungry Bin review (1) - putting it together and setting it up.

When I was at the Masters Conference at Garden Organic I was very interested to see a new ( to me) design of wormery.  Johannes Paul of Omlet was showing a new addition to their product range - the Hungry Bin. Omlet are selling these wormeries in the UK, they originate from New Zealand and are an interesting design,

According to the makers, Low Impact Ltd

The Hungry Bin is a unique design. It creates an ideal living environment for compost worms. The worms convert organic waste into worm castings and a nutrient-rich liquid, which are both high-quality fertilisers. The liquid drains freely from the bin and into a tray placed below it. The tapered shape of the bin compresses the castings, encouraging the worms to move to the surface layer to access fresh food. Compressed castings are easier to handle and largely free of worms. It is a simple process to collect both the castings and liquid produced by the hungry bin.

I must admit I was very impressed by the design when looking at it on display and when Johannes offered me a Hungry Bin to try out, of course I said yes ( I never pass up the chance to experience something new involving composting and worms)

So when the box arrived yesterday, along with two large lidded buckets of worms and bedding, I was really excited (I'm funny like that!) and couldn't wait to get the system set up. Fortunately we had a dry and sunny day yesterday so I was able to take lots of photos as well

 Packaged in a cardboard box, what looks like proper sellotape to seal it (therefore compostable!) and the instructions are in a paper bag. Full marks for packaging!

All the parts nested together, like a Russian Doll

Very easy to understand instructions

Compostman stands next to the completed wormery - it took less than 10 mins to build.

In situ, behind the Barn, facing the Polytunnel - so I can feed it easily "little and often". There is a comprehensive "owners manual" to tell you how to set up the wormery once you have put it together, as well as lots of advice on the Omlet website.

Adding the bedding for the worms - when you first set it up you need to fill it half full with compost, coir, growing medium, soil or a mixture of all of them, to give the worms something to live in. I used spent home made compost from the potato planters I have just harvested.

As soon as I opened one of the worm buckets Babs was there! She must be able to smell worms at 100 paces!

 Worms!
 

A video of the worms, after I added them to the Hungry Bin

Compostgirl adding some growing medium to the Wormery

Titch was bored, so went to sleep as there were no more worms on offer.

The    Hungry Bin  web site says about the design

The hungry bin is the result of several years of design development by inventor Ben Bell, of New Zealand. Ben is a keen gardener, composter and worm farmer. He felt that the existing worm farms on the market could do with some improvement, and in true Kiwi spirit he decided to do it himself.  The original idea for hungry bin evolved from earlier models Ben created using broken kerbside rubbish bins.

I must admit it DOES look a bit like a rubbish bin on wheels!

The unique shape of the bin creates a large surface area allowing all the worms living in the hungry bin to easily access the food scraps at the top – exploiting the fact they’re surface feeders, and increasing their processing capacity. The tapered sides also encourage the worms to stay on the surface, while compressing their castings below.

I was particularly impressed by the large surface area and when I went out tonight to check on the Hungry Bin the worms were busily working in the material I had added on top of the bedding. A lot were on the inside of the lid, though. That tells me it IS going to rain, later on!

Once the compost process is complete, the hungry bin is designed to allow the simple and easy harvest of both finished castings and liquid fertiliser. Harvesting castings does not involve any heavy, messy lifting. The floor of the bin is easily removed, allowing approximately 4 litres (3/4 gallons) of castings to break away at the bottom of the taper. This allows the easy removal of finished castings from the bin. Removing the castings is a relatively clean process. Finished castings are largely free of worms.

I saw this demonstrated at Ryton - the tray really does come out full of worm casts and the material really did stay put! The only fault I can find so far is the liquid tray is easily accessable to the chickens - who will drink the worm "juice".

The lid is at a comfortable operating height, and convenient to open and close. Tight fitting, it prevents pests from entering but has sufficient venting to create healthy airflow. The hungry bin even has wheels, making moving the bin light work.

I found it easy to put material into the bin, so did both Compostman and Compostgirl.

If you are interested in buying one of these bins, you can order one from   the  Omlet Hungry Bin pages

I will write more in a few days, but so far I am very impressed with my Hungry Bin.

Refreshing my Wormery with Bakefield Worms Compost Booster Kit

Sharp eyed readers will recognise this bag as something I was given at the end of my visit to Bakefield Worms in May

 It contains a bag of worms, worm cocoons and the vermi compost they live and grow in.

Here is my Can o Worms - a Wiggly Wigglers product which I actually got off Freecycle.

The kit is very easy to use - I simply opened the bag of Bakefield compost/worm mix and tipped it into the bottom tray.

 See the worms!

 Babs tries to get to the worms in the top tray - but I was too quick and got it off her before she could eat any ;-)

Wormery put back together, just waiting for the lid.

Babs is disappointed she can't get to the worms...

The bag contained a good quantity of compost worms and cocoons so I am hoping it will replenish my wormry.


The Bakefield Wormeries web site says

Compost Booster Kit
Produce your own vermicompost

A dozen UK bred mature, vigorous composting worms.
500g cocoons, hatchlings and vermicompost selected from our own established, healthy, production beds.
Especially formulated to rejuvenate existing compost systems and wormeries and to give a boost start to new systems.

And it was certainly a very easy kit to use.

Master Composter visit to Bakefield Worms

Earlier this week I went to visit a lot of worms!

As regular readers will know I am a Master Composter, a volunteer community compost advisor with my local council ( Herefordshire) and we do all sorts of interesting stuff to promote home composting of waste rather than dumping it in a hole in the ground to create Methane ( which is what happens to putrecible waste if you throw it "away" into your landfill bin.)

And as well as going to shows and doing assemblies in schools and talks at gardening clubs and practical workshops on compost making and, oh, all sorts  - we occasionally get to go on visits to interesting, compost related places as a treat - well it is a treat if you like composting lol.

Today, we went to a worm grower and vermicomposter, Bakefield Worms. Now I am always keen to go and see anything compost or recycling related so immediately wanted to visit this business, which is in the village where my daughter goes to school.

This also meant that the site we were visiting was only 6 miles away from my house, which is really quite close compared to some of the events I have attended as a Master Composter - Herefordshire is a very large and very rural county and I have to travel around a lot to get anywhere!

Anyway we arrived and were welcomed and  our choice of refreshment ( tea/coffee/cold drink) was asked about, for later on during the break. Names were taken and name stickers handed out ( for those of us who forgot our official name badges and yes I did forget! Bad Compostwoman!)

And then we were shown into the barn which is one of the two main "nerve centres" of the operation. Bakefield Worms produce quality, live, Herefordshire worms and vermicomposting products. All worms and products are hand selected from their own established, healthy production beds.

One of the two Bakefield directors, Kate, showed us how they produce the worms. She described the process from start to finish very clearly - and demonstrated just how wonderful the worms they produce are, by showing us to them...

There are various bags of worms and cocoons for sale, direct and by mail order, and I must say they all looked really good value

Bakefield Worms supply:

• Worms
• Soil Enricher
• Compost Booster Kits
• Compost & Wormery Rejuvenator
• Chicken Scratchlings
• Solid Compost Worm Units

This is a load of composted horse manure with a load of worms wriggling around in it, waiting to be packed up and sent off out to purchasers.

It is a very hands on process , harvesting worms!

A worm and a couple of worm cocoons

 
 

Kate was an excellent imparter of information, with an obvious and infectious passion for vermicomposting. We left with an (unexpected)  sample of worms to take home and memories of a very enjoyable, informative couple of hours talking about composting and wormeries and the power of vermiculture.

Thank you to Bakefield Worms for having us to visit and thank you to Herefordshire and Worcestershire County Council Waste Management departments for arranging the visit for us.