"I am tempted to dump the whole FT bin in a container and check things out then dump back in." I do this whenever the spirit moves me. It is more fun than a barel of monkeys. I learn a lot about what is going on in the bin this way.

equinoxequinox that is the push I needed! Now I can observe where the worms are gathered and see if my set up was working.

I am probably going to dump them tonight and check them out!!

WHOO HOO, what a fun Friday night worm party at my house.

lol
Karen

Karen if you are going to bother to dump them out anyway first get yourself a couple tools. A coarse sifter and a collander with about 1/4 in or less holes. Then you can get some of the castings you want for your flowers.

I did a week or so before I set up my FT. Reason being, I needed the castings for tea and once I set up my FT I did not want to disturb it. I want the castings to drop and eventually come out the bottom with as little compost as possible. I know I will still have to sift what comes out the bottom but alot of the work will be eliminated.

pjams a great idea! I was about to strain but most looked unfinished to me.

the good news is that worms were spread all through the bin!

I also had cocoons! WOOO HOOO!!! I was so glad!

I am going to dump again because I was able to add food to the bottom then fluff the bedding and add more shredded newspaper. I layerd tiny bits of new food (moldy stuff) with the old bedding and worms.

The melons and apple I put in were 100% gone! No evidence of them....

I am so glad so far no sign of dead worms anywhere

Karen

The stuff you know that is 100% gone is now castings. Those castings may be stuck to bedding but it is still castings.. If you need it just put a few handfuls of compost at a time into your collander and sift.. You will know the castings as they drop through.

Why do you want to add food to the bottom?

Most of us want the bottom to be only castings, no food, bedding, cocoons or babies.

I'm tempted to empty out my rubber maid bin and look through it. All my worms in there seem to be hiding. I know they're there and eating because the food is disappearing. I just don't see many when I lift up the food and check on them.

On the flipside, I see tons of worms in my stackable bin. It seems like most of them hide out on the food. A lot of those worms are younger though and maybe younger ones hide on the food more than older, more developed worms.

smalltowngal I too did not see many worms at the top. Just a few hiding in the cardboard covers I add on the top.

I wanted to dump to make sure I was not killing them or any had died.

I added food through the bin. I had lots of seed starting mix/soil I dumped in and the whole bin was full. I wanted to try to add some microbes to the bottom half since it may have mostly been soil and paper. I thought that might give me rich castings down there someday.

I am very new so anything i do is an experiment. I only added cantelope rinds at the bottom and middle of the bin. Just a few also.

From now on I will continue adding just to the top of the bin.

Since I now know they are laying cocoons I may start a rubbermaid bin or another flow through eventually.

I am stocking lots of scraps in the freezer and want to eventually be able to add more scraps to the bins.

I also have mine in my cooler basement so things may be moving slower.

I am really glad I dumped it all. I was worried since I had so much soil they may not be happy. I was wrong they were spread out all through the FT bin. It was so much fun and I got used to handling the worms!

I had a large plastic storage bucket thing. I dumped and rolled the material around so I could peek at all the worms.

Next I added back in and layered with shredded wet newspaper and a little rotten food here and there. (I added it in small amounts so it would not heat up)

On top I added a small sprinkle of oatmeal on one corner and the food that was on top. then cover with shredded news paper and then my wet cardboard pieces. there are a few worms already in the cardboard. they love it wet and slimy from the glue :)

I hope my newbie observations and ideas help. If anyone sees somehting I did that could kill my worms please let me know. I am here to learn!!

"I had lots of seed starting mix/soil I dumped in ...."
"I was worried since I had so much soil they may not be happy."
Beware of store bought soil, it might contain chemicals.

"Beware of store bought soil, it might contain chemicals. "
thanks it was seed starting mix. No fertlizer or chemicals added. I try to keep chemicals out. It was old too but I had the package so I checked. I sure hope the worms are ok.
So far they seem to like it. I also rinsed it out a couple times