No reason it needs to be full, just enough for the worms to live in. Sounds like you're off to a good start.

Your set up sounds like my original bin. It worked great and I have since bought a commercial set-up that doesn't really work much better, just has a few added convenience factors.

I'll pass along some things I learned through trial and error. I found that newpaper works well but works even better as a bedding when mixed with some other matter. A handful or two of dirt gives the worms some grit that help them break down the food scraps. Be careful if you add compost (no commercial stuff! it has chemicals and will kill your worms) and unfinished compost will generate heat, also bad for the worms. I also added some Coconut Coir to my bin. It helps keep the beds moist, but not wet and I found a cheap source locally at a pet shop at about $5.00 for three bricks. If you go this route add no more than 1/2 brick at a time because this stuff really expands when you soak it.

You may not notice much activity for a while, 50 worms is a relatively small number. The nice thing is the food will break down if they can't keep up and actually will help increase the feeding pace as it rots. So be careful with overfeeding. After a few weeks you will begin to see little balls that look like tiny BB's. These are eggs, a good sign you have happy worms, and will soon have many more worms.

Moisture is a must but too much water will cause your bin to get funky. I had this experience first hand and had to dump my bin on a tarp. The bottom chunk came out like a lump of wet clay and smelled like raw sewage. No surprise, considering I was dealing with poop. I saved the worms, rebedded and now add very little water if any.

Last thing is I started my bin with some "trout and panfish" worms from Walmart. They worked really well and are thriving 3 months later. A friend gave me a handfull of red-wrigglers, I added them and they are thriving as well. No turf wars between the two. I tried nightcrawlers, they all died off, and I tried worms from my yard. The yard worms really hated the bin and we had nightly "jail breaks". I would wake up in the morning to worms crawling across my kitchen floor. Found out later from others that free range worms will not stay in the bin. A good rule of thumb is, if you find more than a couple outside of the bin, you have a problem. Check inside the bottom of your outer bin from time to time for escapees as well.

Hope this helps.

having the bin overfilled is asking for escaped worms, otherwise perridale's advice is pretty much right on.

50 worms is really not very many to start a bin this size. Typically you would start with 1000 worms. If you are going to purchase worms in that kind of quantity, the pet store is not a good place to buy them.

I would say that you are off to a good start. The best thing to do now is just leave the worms alone for a week or so and let them get comfortable in their new home.

A 10 gallon bin should accommodate about 2000 worms. It will take a year or longer for 50 worms to grow to 2000 worms. You might want to check around the internet and see if you can find a wormer in your area who is willing to give up a handful of worms to help build your population. If you poke around in the archives here, you will find URLs for a couple of sites that list wormers who are willing to give some away.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I realize that 50 is a small number to start with, but not a lot of options where I live,..If I can keep these 50 alive-thriving I will probably mail order a # or 2. but didn't want to invest to much $ into worm murder....

I am trying to not bother them ever day...but so far I havent been able to leave them alone...at least I only look at them once a day for less that a minute. mostly worried about the bin drying out if I ignore it.

You mentioned feeding your pets. I assume lizards because of your name. You may be interested in Black Soldier Fly Larvae. I have some that I raise with my red wigglers. Let me know if I can help.

Thanks, but no thanks...flys are gross! worms are cool :)