You seem to be doing very well. Just a couple of comments.

Manure mixed with alfalfa is going to be high in N. You will want to mix it with something high in C before you compost it.

Conventional wisdom on mushroom compost says that by the time the mushrooms are done with it, there is little in it left for the worms. I would start with a smaller amount and see how the worms respond before committing to truckloads.

Thank you, understanding that now, and this helped as well,

http://www.compostjunkie.com/compost-ingredients.html

it seems rotting hay is a good C ingredient, and I have access to some old very rotten wheat straw.
pictured is my pile of rotting alfafa hay. small shredded pile to the left, is already heating up nicely (think I will outgrow this chipper/shredder soon) . larger pile is about 6 ft high.

Please note: leachete is not tea.

First time on THIS forum. I am new to this and I have had my bin for about 1 month. I have seen the word "leachate" a number of times. What is it?

"First time on THIS forum. I am new to this and I have had my bin for about 1 month. I have seen the word "leachate" a number of times. What is it?"

Mainly dirty water. Just excess water that runs thru the bin contents. It "leaches" some things from the bin....mainly color....and is worthy of tossing on plants because it probably has some minute qualities of the things it leaches thru.

CarlosDanger

Please note: worm tea is not leachate. Leachate is most often but not always a waste product. Worm tea is a living product of a mixture of micro organisms which are oxygen needing. Thus it can not be purchased in a container which has been sealed for more than a tiny amount of time. Worm tea is brewed in non chlorinated water with air over hours or days. Worm tea is made not from Leachate but from worm castings. Exempted from this is the one, two or three on this forum who harvests their beds with water harvesting methods. Something different than molding rotting exfood dripping leachate.

Welcome. Nice first post. I hope you have the rabbits the rabbit manure came from. That will make the whole worm thing way easier.

My issue is vermicompost is heavy. I think it is heavier than the system supports are designed for.

On the other hand the building you are vermicomposting in seems way nice. Lucky worms.

If I had a million dollars, I'd do a commercial setup like this: Form an LLC, buy a paper shredding truck, get contracts with local businesses to destroy their old paper documents (carbon bedding source that you get paid to collect with the added bonus of collecting old hard drives for high grade aluminum, small amounts of platinum and paladium and rare earth magnets), buy a garbage truck, get contracts to haul food waste from local grocery stores/restaurants etc (food source you get paid to collect) Then get several open top dumpsters to make your vermicompost and buy a Bobcat with all sorts of attachments to mix the stuff up and scoop it and dig holes and take off some sweet jumps.
I haven't quite figured out the packaging and marketing thing, but if you have a friend with a white lab coat and frizzy hair, he can say he's a scientist and go around to stores and garden extravaganzas saying the stuff if black gold that will miraculously make your vegetables grow.
Then I'd buy an airplane and put a hot tub in it.

thanks for the answer to what is leachate. Now I know !

we are doing rabbits as well. but it wont be enough to support the whole thing. I found a local horse manure supply as well. the barrel set up is just the nursery till i get enough breed to do bins.

I have rabbits too. Had two this winter and all of the sudden I have 21, well 20 since I ate one for supper. I've just been adding the rabbit manure right to the garden without feeding it to the worms.

this is my hot steaming pile of future worm bedding. horse manure and the alfalfa hay . the little pile in the back is the same except I shredded that hay. had a inch of rain on it so its heating up nicely.

happy bunny corral