The worm bin for this experiment was not large, rather only 4 ½ square feet of surface area. The depth is 18 inches with the original bedding material of 14 inches deep. I have approximately 800 Alabama Jumper worms in the worm bin.

As my original posts have stated, I have been able to hold these Alabama Jumpers and keep them healthy for approximately three months now. The problem was in having the correct conditions which would enable them to reproduce. As the last article mentioned, I was feeding them strictly Purina Worm Chow as they gobble it down. Currently I use it as a substitute which still disappears daily.

The difference came about when I began adding vegetable scraps, same as one would add to a red wiggler worm bin or worm farm.

I have noticed something recently with the addition of a second mound of pureed vegetable scraps once it cooled down. The majority of the Alabama Jumpers in this mound are the larger worms. I am not sure whether this is a coincidence or if there is some type of social behavior. I have never seen them to be aggressive to one another; hence I do not believe that the younger mature worms are being chased away. I do have to wonder if there could be some type of hierarchy to the Alabama Jumpers which is understood  that only larger mature worms to take over an area suitable for breeding while maintaining an understanding that the smaller worms stay out. This definitely has me intrigued so I have a new theory to try.

Back to the original reason for this article, as the picture illustrates below some recently hatched Alabama Jumpers. As they are young and this is an experiment, I am not going to pull a lot of them out as I am trying to disturb them as little as possible to receive more accurate results.

I will be trying to watch these to see at what rate they grow. To accomplish this I am trying a new bedding material which I will screen after two weeks in hopes of harvesting some cocoons from the Alabama Jumpers to raise separately.

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When raising Alabama Jumpers inside in a worm bin, I decided to go back to the drawing board and start from the beginning.

I have read till I am blue in the face that Alabama Jumpers do not feed on food scraps such as vegetables. Well go ahead and hit me After all I have preached about not believing in everything you read online as it contains much false hoods.

Keep in mind the Alabama Jumpers are eating well as they thoroughly enjoy the Purina Worm Chow I place in the worm bin as well as the ones outside I feed with it every week. I have noticed that the Alabama Jumpers appear to be congregating more in the moister and warmer areas of the worm bin. Hence my idea was born…

Two days ago, I took some vegetable scraps and coffee grinds and placed all of it in a blender to make a soupy mixture. I then mixed in some peat moss to thicken the mixture a bit. I proceeded to the Alabama Jumpers worm bin and dug out a trench on one side, laid down some cardboard and evenly distributed the mix to fill the trench. I then covered this with some damp cardboard followed up with some damp newspaper.

After day one, I noticed a few worms on the edge between the regular bedding and the new mixture, which I figured could have been a fluke.

I checked again this morning, day two, and now noticed a few of the Alabama Jumpers were in the middle of the vegetable scrap mixture itself. Now mind you there are only a few however the mixture was heated up a bit on day one and is beginning to cool down. The worms in the mixture appear to be healthy and wiggling well.

It is too early to tell whether the Alabama Jumpers are moving into the food mix because of the available food itself or the heat being generated as the material begins to compose. It may even be a blend of both or perhaps the moisture content.

I will update this post within the next few days as it could become very interesting!