Are there worms in the bin yet?

What people won't eat, maybe the rabbits will.
What the rabbits won't eat maybe the chickens will.
What the chicken's won't eat maybe the worms will.
Large cabbage, or cabbage family, huge old bags of onions, tons of old citrus, huge amounts of raw pineapple maybe give to the hungry compost piles. As they will scent or marinate the worm bins. This plan might leave some strawberry tops, bananna peals, apple cores, wilted lettuce and celery, an onion skin or orange peal, pepper cores, coffee grounds, and crumbled egg shells for the worms. Add these compostable / worm eatables and your shredded egg cartons as you have them.

Congratulations on the new bin. Everything in it is so nice, and new and fresh until the worms get at it and turn it into gold.

Worms eat decaying organic matter. To have decaying organic matter in your bin, there needs to be organic matter decaying in the bin. If I had helped you start the bin, it would have gotten its first feeding a week of two before your worms arrived.

I think the reason people suggest not feeding right away is so that you don't overfeed while the worms are getting used to their new surroundings. If you have compost piles, that problem is easily solved. Feed your worms some of your compost right now, and then add a small amount of your kitchen scraps. Expect to find thank you notes on the surface of the bedding if you feed the worms compost.

Yes I've added the worms, along with a small amount of food scraps, quite a bit shredded paper, and a little compost. Would more compost be better than the shredded paper, like I said i have lots of compost.

Worms LOVE compost, as long as it is past the heating stage. You can use compost in place of both bedding and food. But if the purpose of having the worm bin is to compost your kitchen scraps, go ahead and give them kitchen scraps and paper. Paper is good for balancing the kitchen scraps.

Compost in a new bin helps get the microherd established. As long as it is past the heating stage, you can't really give the worms too much.

If it was my new bin, I would toss in a generous amount of compost now, then focus on the food scraps and paper after that.

Most of my kitchen scraps are not quite worm ready, so I pre-compost almost everything in my regular compost bins. Since I also have worms in my compost bins, I suppose they could be considered worm bins. When I need to feed the dedicated worm bins, I grab whatever is mushiest from the compost bins. This time of year it doesn't even matter if the material is still "hot". The worms appreciate the extra warmth. Often there are already worms in that material.

Andrew

Im starting to feel like i made a big mistake because i got my worms from my compost, probably a few hundred. Of course I found them in large groups in composting paper, sod, plant stocks, ect. Things they obvious like. So much online info put an emphasis on shredded paper to start your bin that i felt like that was the route i needed to take. In the future I will start with material from the compost already cooked.

In my opinion you started the exactly perfect way. The only detractor is the words "office paper" the harsh unfriendly medium some grow in. So much warmer is cardboard torn up or egg cartons or coffee trays.

I use office paper, because that is what I have. I also mix it with cardboard.

I'm now starting a new bin as my previous one is now full of castings. I've already added the damp shredded cardboard (around 5 kg.-dry). I have a quantity of fruits and vegetables that went moldy, then were mashed up in my food processor, ladled into disposable plastic containers and frozen for three months. Now i'm planning to defrost them and add to the new bin. Is there any reason to wait between adding the food and transferring the worms since the food is already in an edible form? Also some say to add it in the corners while others believe that layering is best. Any opinions?

Shaul

The food is not really edible to the worms until it is decomposing. The sooner you feed the worms, the sooner the food can start to decompose. Be aware that frozen foods can release a lot of water into the bin all at once.

You can feed either way. The only reason not to layer the food is to prevent the bin from heating up. I will feed in corners if I am giving the worms something questionable that they may not like. Otherwise, I layer it over half of the bin.

Mix some of the old castings into the new bedding, but also mix some castings into pre-rotting food so that it pre-rots 'better' for the worms. Then you can add a bit of food at a time, and the worms will dive in.
Also you can mix pre-rotting food vigourously to aerate and dissipate heat- you can't do that once it's in the worm bin.

I'm a casual worm composter so I believe in tossing scraps in the bin whole as I get them; with dry bedding. It is the least amount of work and it takes a long time for things to break down; that's ok with me. That way I don't have to handle and store rotting food.

"I believe in tossing scraps in the bin whole as I get them; with dry bedding." I agree. Plus if I do decide to three claw hand tool around in the bin there are interesting places to visit and see what is happening. Sometimes I take apart a whole bin a clawfull at a time and toss it upside down into a second bin. It is like a science experiement seeing what is happening in there and learning how things decompose and interest the worms. But I so totally agree with the less work method. No disrespect to the blenders and freezers. There is a place for that in herding too.

Thanks all, for the comments and suggestions. Back in November when I started, I was saving all the fruit and veggie waste we went through each week. That soon got out of control as there was always more than the worms could process in the same amount of time. So I mashed it up and froze it thinking to save it for 'a rainy day'. Unfortunately, that day never came as the worms still cannot eat it fast enough and so we end up throwing away alot of stuff that could go to the worms (we don't have a compost pile or a place for one).
Now, i've heard that blending to a baby-food consistency, as well as freezing & defrosting are both acceptable forms of feeding as they break down cell structure and make it easier for the worms to eat it (even if it's not mouldy).
So, I will probably layer the defrosted mush in half the bin, wait a week (to let it heat up if it will) and then add the worms. I'm not putting in all the frozen mush at once (i've got around 5 kgs and that represents alot of veggies).

Shaul