This is what I would do:
Get a second container.
Put cardboard egg carton shreds in bottom.
With a tri fork dump from one container to another
looking carefully at each fork full
maybe dump each onto a large piece of cardboard
or into a soda 24 pack cardboard to shuffle
each fork full around for good observation
Then dump each searched fork full into the new bin
Is there a light you can leave on over them at night after bothering them?
Maybe cover them over with half an inch of harvested compost?
Or if you can havest the worms out of the compost or the compost out of the worms and put the worms into vermicastings you may have waiting for the eggs to hatch or all set to go for spring planting.
I think you were here before me and have way more worms than me so I can only toss ideas for you to weigh if they might work.

Could be sour crop or protein poisoning from over feeding? Produces acids and gases as it decays?

I had a similar problem. I guess I didn't let them get used to their new environment when I first put them in their bedding and feed them too much too soon. Tried to let the bedding breath and get better on its own. That didn't work for me, so I removed all of the healthy worms, rinsed them in rain water and put them into new bedding. I let them recover for about a week before feeding them again (bedding contains finished compost for food). Patience, patience, patience is what I learned.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

I have heard the term "protein poisoning" tossed around a bit, but I have never taken it seriously, since nobody seems to know what it is. The worms are fed kitchen scraps. They have had a lot of coffee grounds lately (Starbucks), and I have some WAY past pull date power bars that I have ground up and I sprinkle over the bedding just about every day or two.

I just did some poking around, both on the internet and in my bins. It just may be protein poisoning. The bins smell a little off, which means that I have been overfeeding. And sprinkling the ground power bars over the bedding was probably leaving too much uneaten grains in the bin, even though the worms seem to like it--there have been a lot of worms feeding on the surface when I sprinkle in the power bars. I haven't seen any mold, which I was taking as a sign that I was not over-feeding the grains.

At this point there are so few worms dying compared to the overall population, which looks very healthy, I'm not too concerned. I think I will hold off on feeding for a couple of weeks and see what happens. In the mean time, I'll keep an eye on them and make sure things don't get worse. I will also set aside a pound or so of worms that I can start over with, if necessary.

protein poisoning has been described as the worms looking like pearl necklace. Bubbles along the worm. Maybe it can also present as tails bitten off.

Even if the protein bars had salt in the amount added in relation to the size of the bin is tiny.

I agree with you on the protein poisioning not taking it seriously since nobody seems to know what it is.

I have been dumping in what I would think would be too much corn mean in a failed attempt to heat up the bin. I keep expecting to see protein poisioning but have not. Maybe it has to ferment and create bad things to do that.

Please keep us updated on the worms.

The other thing you can do if you're planning to leave the bin alone for a few weeks, is to move aside the current contents to leave an epty corner which you fill with 'safe' bedding- garden compost, damp shredded cardboard, damp coir, leaves etc. Then the worms have somewhere to go if things get tough while they wait for the current stuff to rot down to their liking.

I'm not seeing the string of pearls look. It is familiar to me, since I killed my first attempt at raising worms by overfeeding.

The power bars don't have salt in them. I don't feed my worms anything with salt in them.

I have been feeding after the last of the food is visibly gone, but the bedding was still a bit sticky, which means that there is still undigested food in the bedding.

I have a few more dying worms this morning, but not so many that the healthy worms can't easily reproduce fast enough to replace them.

"Could be sour crop or protein poisoning from over feeding? Produces acids and gases as it decays?

I had a similar problem. I guess I didn't let them get used to their new environment when I first put them in their bedding and feed them too much too soon. Tried to let the bedding breath and get better on its own. That didn't work for me, so I removed all of the healthy worms, rinsed them in rain water and put them into new bedding. I let them recover for about a week before feeding them again (bedding contains finished compost for food). Patience, patience, patience is what I learned.

Hope this helps. Good luck."

Mine smelled like something burnt.
Hope this link will help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Protein poisoning?

Worms are still dying. I have started a third bin, and I an seeding it with worms from my two older bins. I hope I'm not moving the problem over to the new bin.

It looks like the population in the affected bin is dropping. It is hard to tell.

I'm not seeing any string of pearls look, but I saw something today that is probably related. I had a worm crawling in the side of the bin that had a white tail. It looks like the tail is dying, then falling off. From what I can see, it looks like the tail is not regenerating. The worm dies instead.

In all my worm reading online I have never read about something like this, although it has probably happened lots of times. Because you are a good observer of your bins we are getting detailed information to work with. With half worms it is almost like something is happening halfway down the digestion track.

Yes. But the funny thing is that I have two bins that I feed exactly the same way, but only one of them is having this problem.

Yesterday I went to a local stable and got a bucketful of well aged horse manure. The worms will be well fed for the next few weeks.

How big was the 'tail' falling off ?
Cocoons are generally creamy to white colored and soft and mucousy just as they are shed off the end of the tail, then turn yellow, shrink and go harder shortly after.
I keep trying to get a picture of it, but I'm always too late!

The worms that are dying are about 1/3 the length of a normal worm.

Can mouldy bread be bad for the worms? first I put watermelon/cantaloupe that made it too soggy, the half a loaf of mouldy bread would have dried the bin a bit but the worms started to die and crawl up the sides of the bin, saved some and hope i can recover my bin population. good advise and thanks everyone.

Moldy bread is OK as long as you don't overdo it, or you soak it in water before adding it to the bin. Otherwise the mold will suck all of the moisture out of the bedding in the area around the bread.

BTW, you are pulling up a 5 year old thread to ask that question? It would have been better to start a new thread.