Breeding California worms at home. How to breed California worms: personal experience Which sawdust is better to grow California worms

You will not find such an animal as Californian worms in reference guides - this is absolutely accurate.

California worms are artificially bred and are not a natural, biological species. This is a kind of hybrid - voracious and very useful for farmers, poultry farmers, fish farmers. In addition, the "Californians" are extremely unpretentious and omnivorous animals.

The appearance of Californian worms is as follows: the body has a red-burgundy color, much smaller than our rain worms, once in the light, they instantly hide, burrowing into the soil. And such a speed is justified: worms can die in the light.

All About California Worms

Being able to reproduce already at the age of three months, a pair of “Californians” is capable of producing offspring of one and a half thousand individuals within a year, if only living conditions are suitable and there is enough food. So no one will have problems with breeding Californian worms.

In order to create such conditions, nothing out of the ordinary is required: wooden boxes filled with a mixture of organic waste with garden soil, room temperature and darkness.

It will also require the attention of the owner, who wants to get a full-fledged vermigrunt from the worms (biohumus fertilizer, as it is also called).

Indeed, biohumus, a fertilizer that provides a real benefit. If you add it even to clean sand, it will ensure seed germination, seedling growth! And if you use ordinary garden soil, then for a sharp increase in fertility, an addition of only 15-18% of biohumus is enough. Even super-clay, heavy soil will become fertile. If you want, grown in room conditions, to “surpass” the seedlings of a neighbor who has a heated greenhouse, add 25% vermicompost fertilizer to the soil. And most importantly - you will not need any additional dressings, no chemicals or “fragrant” mullein. They say that even underweight, immature seeds germinate in biohumus, it is such a strong stimulant.

Those owners who are engaged in the production of vermigrunt (biohumus) have no problems with protein feed for poultry, they do not have a case of young animals because Californian worms are excellent food when bred. For breeding fish in individual ponds and pools (in aquariums), “Californians” are also used.

California worms breeding

How is vermigrunt prepared, how are worms propagated, settled? Nothing complicated, we assure you. It is enough to have a few boxes with a slit bottom, a lot of organic waste and a little ordinary garden soil. Since the vermigrain, if you look at it, is the excrement of worms, and in order to have a lot of them, the “Californians” will have to pass a lot of food through their digestive system. What is this food? Paper, cardboard, onion peels, all kinds of vegetable and fruit peels, tea leaves, coffee grounds, fallen leaves, wilted flowers from a vase, rotten apples, seed husks - everything that can decompose. There are also limitations: it is undesirable to give worms for processing printed materials, especially color ones.

Once you have collected enough organic debris, you can prepare a worm hostel:

On the bottom of the boxes covered with paper, spread everything in a row with a layer of 5-7 cm, add a little garden soil on top.
To bind with organics, mix lightly by compacting.
The mixture should be damp, but not wet, breathable.
You can start new settlers.

First, put a good enough handful of Californian worms on top of the box, and they will immediately burrow themselves, hide from the light. And they will immediately begin to work, eating all the “goodies”. By the way, try to notice how fast the worms hide: if they crawl on top for a long time, it’s better to collect them and hide them again where they were stored before. This situation suggests that either the temperature of the substrate is too high, or the worms are not satisfied with the increased acidity. Both acidity and temperature may depend on the quality of the organics laid down, analyze the composition and quantity.

If everything ended well, and the worms hid in the substrate, you can add the same portion of the swarming mass. Only the speed of obtaining vermigrass depends on the number of migrants: few worms - you will wait a long time, a lot - you will not have time to feed. And you will have to feed from time to time, adding fresh kitchen waste, until the box is filled to the very top with vermigrain.

It is quite possible to keep the boxes even in a living room, placing one on top of the other with racks and covering with a wooden shield or plywood from the light. Since there will be a complete processing of waste, you will not feel any unpleasant odors.

Let's say the boxes are already full to capacity and there are a lot of worms there. What to do next, how to free the biohumus fertilizer from worms, how to relocate the latter to new apartments? It's also easy. It is enough to prepare new boxes by analogy with the previous ones and put sieves with vermigrass on top of them, in which the worms no longer have food - everything is eaten. Having smelled fresh food, they themselves, without your help, will crawl through the holes of the sieve and will fall down in hundreds. Moreover, you leave the sieves open, and the light will spur the worms to hide as quickly as possible. During the autumn-winter period, you will be able to prepare, thus, a sufficient amount of biohumus fertilizer for the needs of your site, for growing seedlings. It is best to store finished products at normal temperature in plastic bags.

If you have the opportunity to prepare biohumus in the summer, there are no obstacles either. On the site, you can always choose a place where there is little light, where precipitation does not fall, it is not very hot. It makes no sense to build shelving here, you can use some kind of large chest-type box. The most important thing is that it should not stand on the ground, but at least on bricks, so that wild earthworms do not crawl into it from below. By the way, when you fill the soil in boxes with organic waste, pass it through your hand, as if sifting between your fingers: this way you can select earthworms, if any, and release them into the wild, preventing them from contacting Californian worms, thereby breeding will not produce mutants. In the box-lare, make several holes in the bottom for ventilation and drainage of excess liquid.

If it is impossible to prepare yutohumus fertilizer in winter, before the onset of cold weather, select the worms from the chest and send them to a cool place for the winter, where they will just sleep until spring. The temperature is desirable within 5 degrees.

You may have a question: what will happen if not all the worms move to new boxes and some of them remain in the biohumus. And there will be nothing terrible if Californian worms fall into natural conditions under: they will also do their work there, but gradually losing their uniqueness due to crossing with wild relatives.

The worm breeding business is characterized by a high level of profitability and low capital costs. Among other things, you can even do this at home or in an apartment (having allocated only one room).

Wastelessness of production.

"Prospector"

Earthworm

Dendroben

Muckworm

The advantages of this type of worm lie in the distinctive characteristics for vermicultivation. Previously served as the basis for breeding species such as Prospector and Red California Worm.

Red California worm for breeding at home.

On the basis of the dung worm, a new population can be developed, characterized by greater voracity, growth and reproduction rate, depending on the needs of buyers.

flour worm

loosening the soil;
timely feeding;
watering the soil.

Among all the types of earthworms that exist in the world, only a few can be bred in artificial conditions.

But the most versatile in their characteristics and the most economically attractive are the worms belonging to the species "Red worms".

The red earthworm usually has the commercial name "California", since it was in the state of California in the United States of America that its intensive cultivation began in the fifties of the last century. Among the various species obtained as a result of various selections, the red worm obtained by the American Barrett, as a result of the selection of the common dung worm, is widespread and successfully reproduced.

What does the California red worm look like?

Red California worm - dark red (brown-red with purple-pearl tones), the body of the worm is elongated, cylindrical, flattened from the side of the abdomen and divided into segments, each of which has two bristles on each side. Cultivated individuals are 6 to 9 cm long and 3 to 5 mm thick. The weight of an adult worm is in the range of 0.2-1.0 g. Body temperature 19-20°C.

The California worm is very prolific, and its life expectancy is 4 times the life expectancy of the "wild" earthworm.

Different lifespan and fecundity of the forest earthworm and red Californian worm.

The lifespan of the California red worm is about 16 years, during which it regularly copulates every 7 days, starting from the 90th day of life, if the litter has an acceptable temperature for it.
The California worm is hermaphrodite (bisexual) and cannot self-fertilize. However, as a result of cross-fertilization of two earthworms, two eggs or capsules are formed, one for each individual, which mature and open after 14-21 days, depending on the temperature of the habitat of the worms in the litter.

Rules for breeding Californian worms

Each capsule or cocoon contains between 2 and 20 worms, and on average 7 young worms are born from each individual of the common earthworm in the climatic conditions of southern Europe.
The number of young worms depends very much on the temperature outside the cocoon in the habitat, however, it can be simplified to say that the sexual activity of this worm decreases in the cold months and reaches a maximum fecundity in the temperate season and decreases again in especially hot months.

Temperature conditions for cultivation of the Californian worm

It should be emphasized that one of the main concerns of the beginner worm breeder is to maintain a constant bed temperature. Optimal conditions, i.e. humus production and sexual activity, are achieved at a bed temperature of 19 to 20 °C.
The California worm is afraid of both excessive cold (0 ° C) and too much heat (over 42 ° C), so measures must be taken to protect it from adverse climatic conditions.

Advantages and disadvantages

The red California worm reaches sexual maturity at the age of three months, when it can be considered fully mature. Two individuals of an earthworm per year can produce an average of 1500 young worms under fairly normal conditions of a temperate climate. Thus, one pair annually produces 3,000 young worms in five generations.
This pair, grown in an optimal environment with a constant average temperature, constant and controlled humidity, the presence of acceptable food and sufficient water, can produce 7 to 10 young worms per capsule and up to 20-21 young worms when bred in a greenhouse.

From the usual earthworm, the Californian worm is distinguished by a higher vital activity and the ability to process food faster and more completely. As a result of processing one ton of substrate, about 600 kg biohumus, A increase in biomass of worms - is 100 kg.

As noted above, the only drawback of the Californian worm is that it is too thermophilic. He has a weakened self-preservation instinct at low temperatures and therefore, when the habitat is cooled, the Californian worm does not go deep into the ground to the freezing depth, but gathers in one place in large quantities and freezes safely. So if you are going to breed this type of worm, you should take care of good a worm hive with a positive temperature in winter, or you will have to warm the piles well when grown outdoors.

The worm breeding business is characterized by a high level of profitability and low capital costs.

About breeding worms as a business in the country or in a private house

Among other things, you can even do this at home or in an apartment (having allocated only one room).

In addition to the fact that the worms themselves are a product of sale, they can provide additional income as fertilizer and worm tea, which significantly accelerate the development of plants.

This idea will be especially interesting as an additional business for gardeners and gardeners, poultry and fish farmers. This production will perfectly complement agribusiness with useful humus, and poultry and fish farms will be supplied with useful complementary foods at cost.

Advantages of a business idea with minimal investment

The business case for worm farming at home is based on the clear benefits of a profitable business with minimal investment.

Advantages of breeding worms:

The simplicity of the equipment used.
High reproduction rate.
The presence of a high level of demand, as well as ample opportunities to open new outlets.
Insignificant flow costs for care and feeding.
Wastelessness of production.

In just one year, an entrepreneur can get more than fifteen thousand individuals and up to one ton of fertilizer (with a nursery size of 2 m2). Having made simple calculations, you can see that the net profit from the sale of 15 thousand individuals will be about $ 700. In addition, the profitability of this business can be increased by selling the collected tons of worm tea and humus. In today's economic situation, the profitability of breeding worms for the production of humus reaches 145%, which is an excellent indicator for such a low initial cost.