Wow, I hope to have too many worms someday. Sounds like you are doing a good job.
Karen

Just an update.

Most of the worms have decided to stay and have stopped climbing the walls of the bin. Only a couple managed to make it all the way to the floor to become curly crunchies. I do still have a few heading down to the drainage/harvesting area.

Other than a bit of smell the other day (radish greens always smell nasty), the bin looks good. I wish I had prepped a little more pre-rotted food for them. The big tub of pitch black castings I harvested from the COW went to dress my potted pomegranate and into the garden... and hardly made a dent.

One ewww moment yesterday -- when I was rescuing a few worms from the bottom, a felt my hand brush something wierd. I looked in, and the entire bottom of the newspaper lining was covered with a filamented fungus growing down about 1".

Nonetheless, I need a bigger bin. Or more of them; I have a source for spent grain now if I want it although I'm not handling all my own compostables yet. In reality, the surface area of the Brute trash can is only about a third larger than the COW. It's much less of a size upgrade than I thought while eyeballing the trash can in the store.

Did you build your trash can into a flow through? I am estimating that my flow through processes waste 3 times faster than a RM bin of the same surface area.

Yes, it's a flow-through. I basically did the typical DIY Brute can conversion using plastic coated metal garden stakes as the bars, spaced about 3-4" apart with the end bars a bit closer to the trash can edge. The upper vents are a couple rows of staggered 1/16" holes all the way around the trash can just below the rim. The wheels on the bottom are a recommended upgrade -- not that I need to use them much, but this sucker is going to get mighty heavy, I think.

However, I'm not real happy about having to get down on my knees to get into the bottom opening. For people contemplating this style and are sure where you want it to live permanently, you may want to build a platform at a height where you can sit down and access the bottom while still being low enough to add scraps. I'd include the wheels and a lip around the slightly over-sized platform so you can move it a bit if needed. With wheels, it will also be easier to roll it down a ramp if you ever need to move it.

My basement is generally dark, so I am not sure I need the lid now that the herd is settling down. I may cut a hole in the lid and add a rubber-like opening so I can put in scraps without taking off the whole lid, but the rubbery material will spring back block most of the light. (I'm at a loss for words to name such a device.)

Another option is an lid with a cap and flap that allows putting the scraps in from the front. This would be especially useful if someone did raise theirs up for easier access to the bottom. Like this link, but a big OUCH on the price:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=42089&catid=765

"with the end bars a bit closer to the trash can edge"
That is a very wise thing to do because I now found out, most of the falling VC into that harvest chamber are from the edges.

"surface area of the Brute trash can is only about a third larger than the COW."
Somebody wrote in a forum: In a FT, because top and bottom are exposed to air, your surface area is the total of top and bottom.
Because this is what I want to hear, I believe it. LOL.

"you may want to build a platform"
I agree with you, especially for people with several joint problems. Then, all you need is a stool; to sit on when you harvest and to stand on when you feed (or poking around).
Better build that platform before your bin get too heavy. It is too late for me because I have a hard time just to wheel it several inches.

"Like this link, but a big OUCH on the price:" You could get about 4 lbs of worms for that.
Somebody on another worm-forum covered her FT with 2 pieces of cardboard. Just slide 1 part of it to the other side for feeding or checking. I think that is a great idea, especially because it's FREE.

"That is a very wise thing to do because I now found out, most of the falling VC into that harvest chamber are from the edges."

And I suspect this forum is where I got the notion!

Regarding the lid, I think I will keep my eyes open for a cheap/free trash can with such a lid, then mount it on the Brute lid. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of having an easy way to just drop the "trash" in.

"because top and bottom are exposed to air, your surface area is the total of top and bottom. Because this is what I want to hear, I believe it." Seconded.

What is more accurate is that since flowthrough bins have better penetration of oxygen throughout the bedding, the worms work more than the usual top 4 - 6 inches of the bin.

Specifically the bottom 4 - 6 inches of the bin.

When I took apart my FT, it slid out in pretty much one fairly solid lump, so I was able to see it's innards. In mine, there were more concentrations worms at the top and bottom, that is true, but there were also generous amounts throughout the bin too. Especially around certain choice worm areas, like a rotten mass of sweet potato and a bunch of nearly completely decayed leaves that were right in the middle, not in either 'end zone'.
Of course, my bin may not be typical. It has a mix of red worms and Euros, and I filled it to within 10 inches of the top rim pretty quickly (3 months). And I probably started with about 5000 worms. But still, I think you can figure that your worms are not necessarily strictly adhering to the top and bottom zones in your FT.

What about the concept of things getting more vermicasting towards the bottom? I have read that after the initial top zone things are pretty much similar throughout. Was this your experience too? No doubt the worms eat the best stuff first and then later the other stuff.

I found a pocket of very pure castings right in the center, toward the bottom about two thirds of the way down. If you were to divide the FT into a tic tac toe grid, around and below the center square was very pure.
I tend to feed almost always around the edges in a clockwise pattern and only fed directly in the middle things that I was sure would release a lot of heat, so only once or twice. I am not sure if that is why this area got such pure, clean castings or what, but it had almost no other unfinished matter in it, and it was so full of cocoons I couldn't sift them out. I pulled out the castings and put them in a bin alone and have been watching them for hatching. I have found four tiny worms in the castings, but I am hoping to catch one actually hatching, and if so I will photo it and post here.

Oh, and yes, other than the obviously fresh stuff, and the very pure stuff, once you got down about half way, it was all pretty much the same, fairly well composted.

I think if you wanted really nice castings, you would have had to put them in a smaller bin to finish them really well. But for my garden purposes, I could have harvested 2/3 of the bin, if I hadn't cared about cocoons and saving every possible worm.

Sbryce wrote "What is more accurate is that since flowthrough bins have better penetration of oxygen throughout the bedding, the worms work more than the usual top 4 - 6 inches of the bin"

I would love to see some supporting evidence for this.