I only started with 500 worms from Uncle Jims and I don't want to buy more because It was $23 and I'm hoping they can multiply on their own without me spending any more money.

What do the experts here recommend? Just grabbing a handful of worms from my current pile and adding them to my new bin?

I keep the top and bottom uncovered and in the cool basement. The newspaper I keep moist on top, because I found a dry newspaper kept sucking moisture up from the bin.

So far only 3 worms have committed suicide which I attribute to their violent movies and video games or possibly extreme pressure to succeed from their parents. Who knows.

This is what I use now for bedding when I add more - which I've decided I"m going to stop adding bedding since about 99% of my bin is unprocessed bedding. But if I ever need it I use this stuff - cross shredded corrugated cardboard.

I was hoping for a good amount of vermicompost before the snow falls again here in MN, but at the rate these worms are moving I doubt it will happen. So my plan is to make multiple bins, perhaps 3-5 bins this year, so next Spring I will hopefully have a surplus of vermicompost.

Back to my original question and the purpose of this post - do you folks think I should just grab a handful of worms and transplant them into a new bin and start expanding that way?

This post was edited by iLoveLawn on Wed, Jun 26, 13 at 16:34

Just divide one into two, then 2 into 4, etc.

Chuckiebtoo

BTW... That newspaper really needs to be shredded. Aeration is being scoffed at. Freedom of the press!

Uhh...so you're saying take 1/2 of my worms out?

I don't know what I was thinking having a water soaked pad of newspaper on top - perfect for anti-airflow. I thought about just taking that newspaper off today. For some reason I think I need some sort of lid. I do have some mesh material I could rubberband over as a lid that would allow air in and keep my suicide worms in.

Just grab a handful of worms and use them to start the new bin. They will eventually fill the new bin, and the old bin will recover quickly. Or divide the old bin in half. I would think that dividing the bin in half would disturb the worms more, and defeats the purpose of a flow-through design.

If you started with only 500 worms, you're better off keeping them all together for a year or so.

Take 25 or 30 mature worms to seed your new bin and in a year you will have between 1/2 and 3/4 lbs.
I hope priswell will agree that taking 25 out of 500 won't hurt the general population too much.

I had gone away from vermi-ing for a year, and missed it horribly.

Around NovemberI was given a palm-full, literally, of worms from a friend and put them in the plastic container that baby spinach comes in. My thinking was that they needed to be in a small container so that it was easy for them to find each other and breed.

They have multiplied and thrived and have long since been promoted to having their own rubbermaid bin. I could see the cocoons through the plastic salad container so I knew that all was well. Obviously I was *very* careful in the amount of food I was giving them.

They are still prospering and making babies, and I have since given some away to another friend to start her own bin. I'm an advocate in having small containers when using a small amount of worms, to make sure they can find a mate.

This post was edited by jasdip on Sat, Aug 10, 13 at 19:12

iLoveLawn please revisit this post and tell us how your system is doing.

The cross shredded corrugated cardboard looks delicious. I would be afraid I would hurt shredders but the material is beautiful.

If... the newspaper on the top is impeding air flow then the cardboard and newspaper on the bottom is also. Maybe they want oxygen. No proof of this. Just one thing to think about.

I like your system. When I first saw it in June I thought why do you hate your Ginsu kitchen knife so much? Then I thought I hope he knows that layer of material at the bottom is not going to break down for 8 months. Then... I know the material is not going to fall through those openings like we would all like to imagine it will.

I even like that the buckets you choose are bright yellow and once held yummy pickles and that you were so precise that you drew lines to follow to cut for the opening on the bottom bucket.

Has the opening in the bottom bucket had an effect on the structural integrity of the system? You might just get away with it. An inch more, maybe not. Others with larger systems with thinner plastic have not fared as well. 5 gallon buckets are pretty well engineered.

Have you had any issues with moisture dripping? The present design has no system for saving the floor from moisture.

Despite the issues whose answers are in process of being remedied as time goes on and the system developes I like your system and enjoyed the pictures and post. ... Possibly because it looked similar to the system I used for a long while. Let me know when you decide to get out that Ginsu knife and cut out two of the three bottom support strips. That vermicompost, despite the minimal slant of the sides of the bucket just will not fall down. And when it eventually does, avalanche. This is where I left a similar system despite my still 100% belief that it should work.

Despite my belief that worms should travel up to food and fluffy vermicompost should fall out of huge holes in the bottom upon a brief request by a garden trowel or tri pronged rake I just could not convince the worms nor the vermicompost to see it the way I envisioned.

May you have way better luck or vermicomposting ninja skills and return to tell us about it.

An update on my bins...

I am impatient and decided to buy 2000 more worms and split them between two more of the same type of flow through bins. I removed the moist newspaper "lid" completely and the top is just exposed and the bottom is currently a solid piece of grocery store bag (not a thick cardboard like bin #1.) This bottom piece is breaking down on all 3 of my bins now and will open up soon and add more air flow coming up from the bottom.

My two new bins I decided to use wet peat moss and shredded cardboard and coffee grounds as bedding. It works WAY better than bin #1 which was a bedding of shredded newspaper and cut up cardboard. Bin #1 is doing fine - it's just clumping and is going to take a long time to break down. I do fine eggs in Bin #1 so that's a good sign.

I also decided to drill a bunch of tiny holes along the sides of the inner bins. I don't know if it's really making a difference but it doesn't hurt anything.

I don't add any water to any of the bins because I've been feeding them a lot of melon and that seems to release enough moisture. At one point I had to put my dehumidifier next to bin #1 because too much melon caused too much moisture. It brought levels back to normal.

My two new bins are probably pretty acidic due to peat moss and coffee grounds, so I plan to add a bunch of egg shells this week. I also have access to composted horse manure so I'm gunna give that a shot soon too.

Equinox - thanks for the reply. I appreciated your post. The questions you have were the same ones I did, but I've just been watching my worms closely and they seem to be thriving. To answer a couple of your questions - 1. So far no problems with dripping (leachate), but my two new bins have dropped some castings (a couple Tbsp) on the basement floor. So I'm considering a solution there. 2. The buckets are pretty thick and sturdy, I probably could have cut a bigger hole and the structural integrity would be fine. I did toy around with the size of the gaps between the bars holding up the worms and compost. So I'll know soon which one works best for me.

So that's the update right now. There's about 900 worms in each bin, and bin #1 is laying eggs, so they are pretty crowded. More bins will come before the end of the year