Inspired by Bentley Christie’s 4 worm experiment where his 5 1/2 month experiment with 4 mature worms rendered 12 adults and 94 juveniles. I began a similar experiment of 2 bins with 4 worms and my normal bedding.
11-14-10 I set up up two starter bins w/ bedding and 4 mature red worms.
12-5-10 Three weeks into the experiment I did a pretty good count in one of the bins and was able to find the 4 original worms and 4 juveniles. I was also able to find a few cocoons. I could have easily missed counting due to the small size of juvenile worms .
From everything I can gather a mature worm can produce an egg sac every 7 days, and reach sexual maturity in 60-90 days. The two main variables I would like some data on are:
1) time it takes a cocoon to hatch?
2) number of worms in cocoon?
I have read cocoons can hatch 3-30 baby worms, and assume healthier worms in ideal conditions will hatch more. Accurate numbers will require accurate counting, and isolating variables.
I recognize that calling this an “experiment” is a bit of a stretch but wanted to see what would happen.
Texas Jumpers 
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