I'm slowly trying to move towards increasing my herd to cover my family's waste needs, and also giving away as many worms to friends as I can (ie if I started with 1000, how long would it take before I could give away 1000 per week indefinately?).

Anyway, I have made a little excel spreadsheet to try and calculate just how fast a population could grow. Yes I can hear you now saying "...but there are many factors involved....yada..yada..." lol. True, but you have to start somewhere.

My VERY conservative assumptions are these:
-20 week life cycle (ie cocoon to sexual maturity)
-Each adult lays 1 cocoon per week
-Each cocoon hatches 2 reds in 10 weeks time (70 days)
-Adults live several years in good conditions

I have also added input boxes for starting number, and weekly loses (ie start with 100 mature worms, lose 10% per week, etc)

Guess how many you'd get in a year? lol

What do you think of my assumptions? Are they reasonable (given fair conditions, food and space)?

Since I can't post a file here, if you'd like a copy, post here and I'll try and email it to you.

Cheers

Jay

I am starting with about forty to fifty worms, of which I had about 15 adults and the rest were small ones. I have been wondering how long it would take to get enough to start a second ten gallon bin? we need enough worms for about 1 lb to 2 lbs of kitchen waste a week. Right now I am placing about a tablespoon of food in there, once a week!

Thanks!
Gina

I'll send the calc soonest, but remember, the numbers out of it are theoretical (but possible).

It will be interesting to trial a bin and compare it to the calc. I will start a new tote next week (already seasoning one now) with say 50 little fellas and see how it builds across time. Not exactly a clinical trial, but it will server my purpose, and let me modify my expectations (and the calc) to suit me and the way I run a wormery.

Fun stuff ahead! LOL

I have also added a weight calc (based on 1000 per lb) and you can now enter the number of young per cocoon.

I have also timelined it a bit, so you can enter a start date (past present or future) and it'll tell you when you have how many.

Next, I'll add moon phases and tides.

Jay

I would appreciate a copy of your worm calculator too!

Email: dtchenvmn@sbcglobal.net
Thank you!
Mike

I'll be interested to see how close I can tune it for my own herd management.

Cheers
Jay