Will this bin heat up to a temperature that they get cooked?

Probably. Worms don't usually like a hot active compost. If you want save the worms, you could attempt a cold batch of compost, heavy on browns. The worms could survive that, but it takes considerably longer to get finished compost.

Worms are not an important part of digesting compost, unless you are vermicomposting. If you have a large compost pile with close to the right C:N ratio of 30:1 the heat generated by the bacteria digesting that stuff will make it too hot for the worms and they will leave. People often do find worms in their finished, or even not quite finished, compost once the temperatures cool down to something comfortable for them to exist, but they are not significant.

Wow, thats a great price on the compost container. I cant seem to find it on the website. Could you shoot a link?

Thanks. A follow up question is do I need to turn it? If I don't turn it, will it stay cooler? What is the correct ratio for a cool compost?

I really don't have room to turn it so I've been thinking perhaps I should just turn this huge thing into a giant worm bin! What do you guys think?

The Costco site only has the 90 gallon one, which costs something like $75. I didn't want to ship it so I went to the store in Springfield, VA but they didn't have the 90G. Instead, they sell the 170 for less!

There is no need to turn compost, but not turning makes for a longer digestion process since the bacteria work mostly in the center of the pile. Turning compost can put the undigested material on the outside into the middle of the pile where it will get digested which does speed up the whole process. A cooler compost pile simply has a somewhat lower C:N ratio, not the 30:1 but somewhere around 40:1 or 100:1, but in nature vegetative material gets digested in time.

These ratios people talk about, are they by weight? I read in other places to put int equal parts brown and green. They might just be crazy. But this sounds like I can't have too much green.

When I've placed plastic worm bins outdoors in summer, I've excavated a hole as deep as the bedding/worm level inside the bin. Even in dense shade, the contents didn't stay quite as cool as surrounding soil, but the worms prevailed. I released heaping handfuls of them into various composting projects and beds all summer, then used to left-behinds to colonize a new bin for winter.

I use a catch-and-release method using worms from my own yard.

Maybe you could surround your bin with a shade-giving planting of something, or snow fencing, or a cloth panel on the south side to keep it cool.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

Worms are better off added to the compost bin after the active heating phase is over and the pile has cooled down. At that point of time they can survive in the bin. But added any time sooner they get cooked.

I find them fat and happy on the cooler edges of my hot bin. But it's a bind that sits on the ground, not a closed system. I've found them crawling way up in the middle of cooler piles. Even if they don't do as much digesting as the microbes, I sure get satisfaction from watching them crawl around and eat my garbage! Waste not, want not!

I am new to the "Compost World" but I know I need to be here! - lol Which do you think is better Compost Bins that you can buy or have my DH build one out wood?? I like the idea of buying the one mentioned at Costco but we do not have one near us.. Only Sam's and Walmarts...Does anyone have photos of your compost bins??

A lot of municipalities, soil and water conservation districts and extension agents have special days when they sell various compost bins. Walmart might have bins.

Attached is a link with some bin ideas I found through random searching.

Here is a link that might be useful: Compost Bin Ideas

O.K.
Here's my two cents on raising worms in a bin.
Firstly, I've had my best success with pallet bins. they are cheap (as in free for the having after asking) strong and for the most part, pretty easy to harvest from.
They can be heavy, and not all that handsome, but they will hold a lot and it's their mass and heat that make raising worms happen with out trying to make it happen.
I start bins when I need them but I always start one in the fall and here's why I think it works, when the bin first starts up, I admit, the center is too hot for worms, but the edges aren't. Lets say my bin is (on the inside)4x4x4 and the center temp is one hundred fifty, if you measure the temp progressively from the outside in, on a hot bin, you'll find that the worms will find a comfortable area in which to live, breed, and influence their friends.
So a bin started in, lets say, November (in MD-average temps by my recollection hover around 40f in the day and 30ish, maybe less, at night) So I would imagine that one foot sphere of comfort would feel about right for those worms, and about once a week I come along and rock their world with my fluffing method (which is why the wooden pallet is so important) and on some of these cold days as I fluff, it introduces lil bursts of "freshness" (they'd call it icy scary air,) which allows them the excuse to do it 'cuz we might die'. and as the season moves on the bin stays hot, but less and less, so by spring I can use it or if I choose, I can stop fluffing and just water the bins through the dog days of summer and the lil worms stay cool enough so that when I transfer a handful of them to next years bin the cycle continues.
Heck, when I had my compost mountains going, on the coldest day of the year (-3f) I had worms thriving six inches below the surface to 18 inches below the surface, but no deeper cuz from 18 inches down the temps would rise from 80f (in the area the worms hovered) to its hottest of 168f, five or six feet down.
so the long and short of it is,I raise worms outside in bins, you can too!
Worms are amazing creatures they'll take a lickin and keep on tickin.

Thank you Bob for posting the link. Ryan, I love the idea of pallet bins.. The price is right!

Oh yeah I forgot to mention~I never buy worms, you can use the same "red tigers" that thrive in the wild, AND they are every where. (no joke, it's the real deal)
And.. the pallet bin should have a pallet as a bottom, this lets it drain and allows for air flow and worm tea harvesting. The bins I made are just high enough up off the ground so when I feel the need I can place a "kiddie" saucer sled under the bin and as I water, whatever drips off is ready to use compost tea.
I also use the saucer sled to harvest worms to catch some grins or for the next bins inoculation or to give away.

ialbtc