Oh, photos of my flow through:http://s789.photobucket.com/albums/yy171/antfiresbetter/?action=view&current=STA70086.jpg
http://s789.photobucket.com/albums/yy171/antfiresbetter/?action=view&current=STA70096.jpg

I get this when trying to view the images

The action that you were trying to perform has failed.

Sorry, maybe this will work?

Here is a link that might be useful:

> So how does it work from now on?

You answered your own question.

> I add food at the top, with a layer of bedding,

That is how it works.

> but there will be a huge mass that is needing to be composted all at once at the center, right?

If that happens, you are feeding too fast.

> How will I get to the flow through part?

I don't understand your question.

> Did I add too much all at once?

Maybe. If you let the worms do their thing for a while, you should be fine. Considering how many worms you put in the bin, I think you will be OK.

> The worms seem happy, and they are fatter than I have ever seen them.

That should tell you something.

The bars look too close together. I suspect you will be removing half of them after you try to harvest a few times.

sbryce, thanks for answering my questions. I also have been reading lots of previous posts. I worded some of my post poorly. I wanted to ask how to get the worms to work from the bottom up, rather than throughout, but it appears they will hang out toward the bottom, where it is wetter, if I get the drift of some of the earlier posts, at least until I get things equalized. So that should be fine.

Thanks, and I will just keep reading and I am sure all my questions will get answered before I can even think of them, with all the great resources here!

As the worms process the material at the bottom of the bin, it will become mostly castings. When that happens, the worms will move up into the "fresher" food. If your composting chamber is deep enough (it looks like yours is) the bottom few inches in the bin will generally always be pure, or nearly pure castings that the worms are no longer eating.

As for the bottom being wetter, that is true with Rubbermaid bins, but in a flowthrough bin, the bottom is exposed to the air, so it may be drier than the bedding above it. It depends on how you manage the moisture in the bin. You don't want the bottom to dry out, since dry castings become hard and difficult to harvest.

I am sort of hoping in a flow through castings dry our first at the bottom while the top stays the wetest. Hoping does not count in physics. I am waiting to see how it all works.

I think worms go to where the best food is. If it is at the wet bottom or the wet top. "Corn Meal" like an ice cream truck song of "HELLO!!!" grabs the worms attention and they all flock.

I'm even worse than sbryce.

"The bars look too close together. I suspect you will be removing half (two out of three of them if not more) of them after you try to harvest a few times."

Vermicompost does not seem to understand the concept of gravity.

What do you think the ideal space between the bars should be?

I'd say at least 1 1/2", ideally 2" between the bars. Not from centre to centre.
Otis

No bars AT ALL just the normal compaction from the gentle compaction provided by the trash can sides sloping just a bit. Or Six, Eight or Ten inches between bars. Either way a hand tool still seems to be necessary to explain to the vermicastings Elvis is in the building and they need to vacate the area immediately. Maybe bins need to flair at the bottom like bellbottoms.

I need much more experience to answer this question with facts behind me. So this is more opinion.

Not that I think it should be but really there are three diffent disscussions. Bins, Stacked and Flowthrough. Many things are the same but many things are different.