Welcome to the forum!

Very interesting post, as I have not heard of many using a tumbler and worms. I've seen videos of a worm tumbler set-up that was on the ground. I also had a neighbor who pre-composted scraps in a tumbler and emptied this mix into a worm-bin below. He had thriving worms in his tumbler too, but they never finished the product. I could clearly see the worms in there after tumbling, so I am wondering if yours are ok.

I would think your compost, off the ground like it is, would slowly become the same temperature as the average outside air temperature. I don't think the porch would help much. If your worm herd is established, they may die back if too cold, but should recover when it warms in the spring.

If you continue to add to the tumbler, it may help generate some heat. It would help to add more browns also.
In composting, we talk of greens and browns in the proper ratio. In vermicomposting, we call greens food and browns bedding. The ratios should be about the same in either endeavor.

Cold weather outdoor vermicomposting is usually done on or in the ground, which helps insulate. The top is often covered with lots of bulk like straw or leaves. Beds that freeze usually recover in the spring when many cocoons hatch.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Pete

In bins with access to the ground, the worms 'winter' one way or the other okay and come back in spring. Or hatch from cocoons, don't know. They won't do much composting but they'll be okay - especially if native.

Don't know about a tumbler though. You might want to split and see / compare how each half survives.

Overall agree with Pete above.

I'm not sure the worms are happy being tumbled every now and then. Certainly not when they are having an orgie :)
It is believed that worms are happiest when left undisturbed.
So, you might want to set up a separate worm bin and "feed" this with the compost coming from your tumbler. This would be ideal since hardly anything will go wrong with feeding compost to worms.

Thanks everyone! I actually stopped tumbling the composter after I put the worms in, i just use it as a regular bin. Maybe i could put a bunch of bedding in for the winter, or how about moving them to the garage, if I want the bulk of them to survive? What's a way to check that they're still alive, by the way?

Thanks again!

Only surviving is less than the ideal plan. What you want to do is create for them an environment that'll cause them to be active in all things....all things being eating, reproducing, and producing worm compost.

Mere survival at just above freezing causes worms to basically hibernate.

If some temp controls are unrealistic, so be it. But if the garage, or a shed is possible, it'll be better.

chuckiebtoo

I have seen worms living in a tumbler in Northern Connecticut that was tumbled. I think they got into the bin on their own. I was surprised to see the bin was in full sun. ?!? I was so shocked at that I failed to ask about winter but if the bin was in the sun in the summer it was in the cold in the winter. To protect your investment you might want to use a free container between ice cream size and 18 gallon size and start with fresh shredded bedding and new kitchen scraps and put a portion of your worms into it. If you have a cellar they might slowly work there. If indoors maybe roommates would be fine with a small container bin secured inside a larger container. I know of no way to keep a tumbler bin warm when it is 13 degrees outside for a week. A separate cache of worms will safeguard your vermi investment.

Connecticut, isn'it horribly cold ? My daughter spent 2 years in Boston and she hardly survived the 2 winters ! And she was living in a heated condo and working in a heated lab ! I wouldn't expect Eisenia Fetida to survive outside when a young healthy mammal, with a personal organic heating body system, and all dressed up in thick coats, and with access to heated places, can barely make it alive !

Connecticutian, I wouldn't want to be bossy, but bring the poor guys in !

Or find some sort of heating, like the mats used for snakes and lizards, or Christmas lights, to put around the tumbler.

Or they're pretty condemned to a slow and painful death sentence, freezing from their outside skin to their inside intestines, useless in your bin as frozen noodles !

And also, I'm sorry that you, a nice vermicomposter, have to go through this cold hell from September to May ! Good luck and take great care !

A seedling heating mat strapped to the bottom and a water heater blanket covering the tumbler would probably make for a tropical paradise for wigglers.

Most say the EH are a little more hardy, we have been seeing nights just into freezing with open water getting less than a quarter inch of ice on them yet the Euros while slow are active in the top couple inches of soil.

A seed heating mat on the bottom -- in my case under the collecting tub, with the worm tub supported by 3 bricks (could be more ) -- and this is in a cold house comparable to an unheated garage --

resulted in

condensation on the insulating layer above and a wetter than wanted result.

Details to consider.

Got electricity? "The 2011 Halloween nor'easter "Snowtober"" "In some areas of Connecticut, outages lasted as long as 11 days." "Delays in restoring power led to the resignation of the chief operating officer of Connecticut Light & Power" You're gonna need a bigger boat.