Normally, don't put anything on top, but the coir does dry out faster. Once you get going with adding food, your greens will likely provide all the moisture you need but for now you MAY need to water the coir. (You also may not; don't add water just because the booklet says so.) Just try to keep it as wet as a well wrung out sponge -- moist but not soggy. If the worms are hanging out in the newspapers, it could be a sign that the bedding is too wet or too dry for their preference.

The worms will eat the bedding and newspapers if they get hungry. For now, just put in a little bit of green food, like a 1/2 cup of leftover veggies or some that have gone bad. Chopped up is best to help get it going. When they have eaten 90% of it, add more. Eventually you'll get the hang of how much they can process.

The most important part right now is not to overfeed and to keep good moisture levels.

So, should I remove the newspaper, or just not replace it with more when it is gone? Thanks so much for your help.

For now, I would leave the newspaper. The worms seem to like it... and what they like, they get. :) There's nothing wrong with a newspaper cover at all unless you let it dry and it turns into paper mache.

The worms are happy between the sheets of newspaper. Grab a grill stick for kabobs and use that to peek around the bin. You have 2000 of them. So as long as you get 2 survive you can be ok. You get to make 1998 mistakes. Where else does one get that in life?

It sounds like you have done it right to me. I started my first a few months ago pretty much the same, also using sheet newspaper as a cover. Perhaps the thing I found that really made a difference, was during the summer leaving the lid off and just covering the top with a fly screen to allow more air in, and evaporation to keep it all cool.

The COW people also now make mats, but the best cover I have so far, is cutting a circle out the back of an old jumper which was probably mainly polyester or whatever they use.

The worms aren't eating it, and it holds moisture really well, and keeps the light out.

Thanks for the advice. I just felt so ill equipped as I didn't get a whole lot of information to start with!! Also, tap closed?? When do I drain it? Or do I need to leave it open?

I would leave the tap open for airflow. Put cardboard in the base for any wonderers. I would leave the drain open all the time and drain constantly and dump any drainage back on top while adding cardboard. YMMV.

You paid good money for the system. I am surprised sellers do not seem to have any idea of how their product works. If they do they do not share it. If I did a Consumer Reports article on worm bins, and that is not out of the question with the greening of everything, I would have clear, useful instructions as a priority for point rating. With worm systems, information is maybe more important than which system one chooses. A system with scanty information is no system at all.

I have the "Worm Cafe" which is apparently the new version of the COW. It did not come with the moisture mat and the nursery where I bought it doesn't stock the mats, so I use sheets of damp newspaper on top and it works well for me. Though now that I have had it for about six weeks, the paper is starting to fall apart. I just figure I will incorporate it into the bedding and put fresh paper on top.

I leave the tap open, but after the first week, I have not had any leachate.

I have always been curious about how much airflow you get from opening the tap. It's such a small hole, and the leg sockets have much more vent area.

But it is a good idea to leave it open to allow the leachate to drain out into a strategically placed bucket.

I am very frustrated with the lack of information that comes with the COW. There is no moisture mat, which they seem to feel is essential, and for someone like me who is
JUST starting out, we don't have much in the way of intuition about how to do these things or even where to purchase supplies. Apparently, I live in a non-green area and people look at me like I'm crazy when I ask if they carry hemp mats. Really, the most helpful thing I've found is watching a few instructional clips on youtube. Thanks to all of you for helping out a newbie.

I don't use anything that resembles a moisture mat in any of my bins. If your COW has a lid, or the bedding is deep enough, you shouldn't need it.

I had all kinds of problems with my COW until I threw out the instructions. Listen to the folks on this forum -- not the booklet.

You're doing fine. Don't worry about a moisture mat. If you are in a very arid climate you may decide you need one later to help you manage moisture, but for now your best gauge is feeling the bedding with your hand.

And truly, you don't need to buy supplies for your worm bin... it's all garbage and leftover cardboard from now on.

I am getting a bin soon (currently have tidy cat bucket)

Does the bin go outside in the shade in the summer? Will it need to be moved when it gets a certain temp or can the worms handle it?
thanks,
Karen

Shade for sure. Black plastic in the sun means cooked worms, the smell of which is pretty bad I am told.

Shade, absolutely! And one of the brilliant members here, (I forget which! Sorry!) freezes their extras scraps for the worms in newspaper wrapped 'burritos' in the freezer. That way, they are not using up a plastic bag, the worm food bits are obvious, and if the bin is hot, there is no need to thaw the burrito, just pop it in to cool the worms for a summer treat.

Aren't the folks here just so smart?

I like the frozen buritto idea. I will do that on hot days, thanks!

I have 3 Can O Worms, which have been up and running for over a year. I haven't used a moisture mat since the first couple of weeks. In fact, keeping moisture in there has never been a problem. In other words, keep that tap open, there is more than enough wetness in there even without a mat.

For bedding, I usually use paper grocery bags put through the shredder. I add to that torn paper towel rolls and torn up egg cartons, and the occasional paper towel or bit of cardboard. I don't wet it at all, I just put a thick layer (several inches) on top every month or so. Each bin takes a heaping mixing bowl of fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, and eggshells 1-2 times a week. I don't bury the stuff, I just throw it on top. After the bedding disappears or if fruit flies get thick, I add another layer of paper shreddings. Also if I see a lot of worms in the lid or if I feel heat coming off the surface, I'll take that as a hint and add bedding.

My bins are outdoors, but in a spot shaded year round. I don't worry about what else is growing in there--it's quite an ecosystem, that's for sure. But I have not killed them yet, even in my newby phase. All three bins are running at full capacity.

Sometimes I wonder if people who wait for most of the food to be gone before adding more are limiting their worm population. Granted I have a LOT of worms, but it takes time for stuff to decompose to the point where it is worm-ready. I keep that pipeline full. The only thing that slows me down is heat. If I feel a little heat coming off the surface, I give that bin a break for a couple days.

I no longer bother with chopping things into small pieces or freezing and thawing things to make them break down faster. With three bins I'm in no hurry. These worms work for me, not the other way around. The only thing I'll cut are raw root vegetables, because a whole carrot will sit in there forever in worm years.

Moonlocks--How many worms do you think you have? Did you grow most of them or start with lots? And how often do you turn over a tray? And you layer your scraps on your bedding and sort of just alternate layers? And would you recommend that I start a second, or second and third, bin if I have lots of excess food scraps? And would you recommend another Can o Worms or should I...build my own??? I'm not very handy, although my husband is, but he is VERY busy and not fully on board with my "crazy worm experiment" just yet. ;)

I would get your first bin going and happy before increasing the size. Any leftovers can go outside into a regular compost pile.

I had better results when I batch-fed instead of just throwing scraps on top whenever like the COW advertisements. By batch feeding, I can be sure I am not adding too much of anything at once, that the whole surface doesn't get covered, and that there's an appropriate balance of bedding. (Let me tell you, spinach rots fast and smells *nasty.* Never add a whole clump at once! It's the only time I've ever had a stinky bin.)

The food for the batch also pre-rots in a compost can upstairs, which the worms like. I use a Folgers coffee tub with the "aromaseal" lid. It gets opened enough that it gets oxygen. I like the freezer idea, too. Freezing will break down the cellular walls and make stuff rot faster once it is thawed out.

**How many worms do you think you have? Did you grow most of them or start with lots?***
I bought them from redwormcomposting.com. I started the first bin with 2.5 lbs. Within a month or so I knew I could handle so much more, so I got inspired and built a flow-through out of a 45 gal garbage can and stocked it with 5000 more (5 lbs) ordered from the same place. Unfortunately the flow-through didn't work out--it was heating up in the middle and with the weight after another month or two, it was on the verge of collapse. Plus, I was being raided by rats or raccoons at night. To save my worms, I ordered two more COWs and transferred it all, doing my best to divide the worms evenly. So now I had 3. As for how many worms I have now, well all 3 bins have all trays in use, and worms are absolutely teaming in there. Last week I laid an entire medium watermelon rind across the top of one bin. A few days later when I took the lid off, what was left of it was MOVING as the worms reacted to the sudden light and dove for cover. Freaky!

** And how often do you turn over a tray? And you layer your scraps on your bedding and sort of just alternate layers? **

Yeah, pretty much. I never stir or dig. Sometimes I'll lift what's on the surface just to check on the worms, but I replace it as it was. As for how often I turn a tray, well gosh these worms eat everything so fast, I swear these things are bottomless. All bins have the max number of trays now, and the systems are a year old, but here's the kicker--I have never harvested a tray. It boggles my mind. I throw so much in there. Where the heck is it going? I have been watching the original bin for a while, thinking it was time to finally take the bottom tray out, but I'm waiting for the surface of the top one to come up to the mark. Every time I think it's there and I hold off on feeding for a while to try and make sure all the worms come up out of the bottom-most tray, the level at the top sinks below the marks again. I can't imagine how dense the bottom tray must be by now.

**And would you recommend that I start a second, or second and third, bin if I have lots of excess food scraps?**

Once I got the COW, I hated having too much stuff and not enough worms to eat it. I'm cooking for a family of 6, but when you get down to it I'm eating most of the fruits and vegetables. I manage to fill a very large pyrex bowl every 1-2 days with my scraps. I like big things like pineapples and melons. Oh, and just an aside, I eat a lot of eggs and throw in all my shells (crushed loosely in my hand or in a paper towel); I don't know how much that helps buffer the environment, but I have to think it helps. If you have room and your first bin is working well, and you have more scraps, I'd get more bins. I could probably be making due with fewer bins if I wanted to put time into freezing or chopping things for faster turnover. But I don't. I throw it in my bowl just as it comes off the cutting board. Right now all three bins are right up at the very top with the latest layer of paper shreds and uncut never frozen stuff. But somehow, there is always room for more and the actual level of castings is low.

** And would you recommend another Can o Worms or should I...build my own??? I'm not very handy, although my husband is, but he is VERY busy and not fully on board with my "crazy worm experiment" just yet. ;)***

Like I mentioned, building my own didn't work out. I have had very good experiences with the COWs.

Thank you so much, Moonlocks, for all the time that it took you to respond to ALL my questions!! It's so helpful when starting something new to get information from someone who's been doing it awhile!!

You're welcome! You will be an expert in no time.