Worm system problems are hard to diagnose over the internet, so it is hard to guess what might be wrong. I do know one thing, Horse manure is like a vermi aphrodisiac. But it takes time. Worm density will double every three months under good conditions, but that means you have to wait the three months.

I am doing something similar now. I gave away 2 lbs of worms, then started a third bin, using worms taken out of my first two, then noticed that my worm population was shrinking. Things appear to be stable now, but that still means that I have to wait that 3 months for the worm population to be back to what it once was. I am feeding a little heavier now, and supplementing with horse manure. I hope that encourages them to breed.

Anyway, if we knew a little more about your setup, we MIGHT be able to help with a slightly intelligent guess about what you are doing wrong.

How many worms did you start you system with, where did you get them and how long have you had them in the worm farm?

It can take 4-6 months in a new system before the worms settle and start really eating and mating. It will then take another few weeks for those cocoons to hatch and another few weeks for the babies to reach maturity.

If the worms were purchased from a dealer then they were most likely manure fed and will take to the horse manure you added very well. If your composting goals are to dispose of garden and kitchen scraps then I think you will find the generation of worms born in that food and bedding environment will consume it faster.

I have also found that the gusanito or worm factory bins do not really allow proper air flow. The "tea" they claim you can collect from the handy spigot is really leachate and largely undesirable and unless the spigot is left open there is really no airflow through the system. I have found that taking the tower of trays out of the base unit and rotating it so it sits on the edges of the base unit up a bit. It gives you much more airflow also the worms will not want to collect in the base.

Hope this helps. Lots of worm farmers have a shaky start but once you have a few pounds settled into your system you will find it works without much effort.

Mr Ed

And here I was thinking Daman was making a pun about his Guasimoto bin. I thought he meant Quasimodo after the Victor Hugo character referring to his ugly worms.

Thanks for the info. I think the airflow may be part of it. The worms seem to migrate down to where the leachate is suppose to come out of. I thought they were suppose to migrate up through the bins.
I did purchase this set of worms from a dealer. My last set reached a tragic demise. Which is another story in my worm frustrations.

In my experience, they go down into the leachate if the bin is too warm. Any chance your bin is getting hot?

That's a possibility. Hmm. I will have to check that as well. I had assumed they were in a pretty ideal temperature.

Some worms just seem to like the wetter environment in the bottom of the bin.

Leaves take forever to decompose. And my worms have never liked lettuce (you said salad in your original post). Was the manure you put in rinsed and aged? If it contained a lot of urine or was too fresh it could be bad for the bin.
Liz

I have heard of aged manure but rinsed??? There won't be much left.

I have a Worm Factory which is very similar to the Gusanito.
I put landscape/weed fabric underneath the lowest tray with VC and since I have an extra tray, I use this extra tray between the VC tray and leachete tray to keep the fabric in place. To increase air circulation, I do not drop the tray completely into the leachete tray. I lift 1 side and let it sit on the edge of the leachete tray.
Haven't seen any leachete since and no smell.

I recently got a rotten sweet potato (or is it yam?) from a grocer and the worms are having a party. I leave the hard part in a ziplock to rot before I feed it to the worms. I also think I cannot give them too much of that at one time.

Don't give up Daman, you're almost there.

Horse manure is actually pretty fibrous as a lot is undigested. I flush a lot of water through it before letting it sit in order to rinse out the urine and leave it wet for some composting to happen until I am ready to use it. The rinsing doesn't appear to affect the volume, and the stuff running out looks to be mainly water just slightly coloured. The high fibre content probably also helps hold it all together.

But back on topic, a bin at ideal temperature may be hotter inside due to composting and worm activity.

I started leaving the lids off my COWs to aid cooling and they seem to be much happier than those where the lids are left on during the warmer seasons. I intend to put the lids back on during winter.