Birthday Worms

Today is my birthday. Joshua's cub scout den went to the worm farm, and since I was off work I got to go too. It was thrilling to say the least. They had a whole wall of boxes that were 3ft X 3ft x 1ft. There were eight boxes along the wall and about 6 boxes high. They were on this really heavy duty steel shelf. I'm talking industrial strength shelving. The kids got to fill one of the boxes. First they put in soil. Then horse manure went in which was from organically fed horses. The lady had made this other mixture of wet cardboard that had been through some sort of pounding mixer or something. While the boys poured that in with metal dustpans Mackenzie spread some shredded paper over the top. Then the kids grabbed worms out of a bucket and put them on top. They were encouraged to look for worm eggs while they were spreading the worms. The lady also had a video about worms and the kids enjoyed hearing how a worm moves and eats. They also could see it's hearts. A worm has 10 hearts. 5 sets of 2. We also learned that when a worm is cut in two, only the side with the hearts regenerates. It's a myth that both sides grow into worms. It was a pretty cool trip.