My clever buddy Sean and I were interested in buying or building a harverster for our worm bins. We debated buying this expensive tumbler harvester and splitting the cost, but we were reluctant.
Then I got feedback from Travis on the Worm Bin Board. Here are his comments:
I have one of the first “mini harvesters”, I don’t like it very much. Think about what you want it to do for you. The reason I don’t like it, is it can kinda beats up the worms. Just letting you know. I don’t sell my worms, so I really wouldn’t need to worry, but I really like my worms and don’t like to beat them up, they have been too, too good to me, know what I mean? I just use a sifter, with a 1/4 screen.
Sean decide that cheaper was definitely better, so he scrounged up some supplies at home (deck rails, L-brackets, and 1/4″ hardware cloth) and built a nifty little platform screener that fits neatly on top of a rubbermaid bin. You can read his post on his MySpace blog here.
I caught up with him this morning so he could donate his leftover deck rails and hardware cloth to me. I picked up some L-brackets at Lowes, and I assembled my harvester/screener tonight. Easy! I’ve got me a handy harvester! Sean tried his out tonight and he was satisfied with it. I’m going to give mine a try this weekend, when I harvest my bins and set aside starter stock for my new worm buddy, Jenny.
(By the time I got back with the camera, the cat had taken up residence on the screener.)
Looks good Jeni! Let me know what you think of the single layer cloth and my thoughts about pulling them through gently as they hang down.
W00t!
Comment by — March 20, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
I’m a new worm friend! I like that title, yes I do
Comment by — March 22, 2007 @ 3:23 pm