I still don't know if it's *supposed* to work, but it is working. :D Yesterday I sacrificed some of my bloodmeal, cottonseed meal, dry molasses, and a couple handfuls of vermicompost fresh from the wormbin, to "jumpstart" the pile. I mixed it up good and then sprinkled a couple cups of soil from the garden over the top. I checked it this afternoon, and it is definitely hot. I can feel the warmth on my palm from an inch above the top of the pile. I can feel it through the sides of the can. I don't have a thermometer to check, but I know it's hot enough that if I had worms in there, they'd be either dying or escaping. Pepper rancher, I'll try to get some better measurements for you. :) Arjo, one of the reasons the cans were cheap is that they don't have lids. I have just a square of cardboard loosely covering the top. This is good for air access, because I don't have a drill and I was too impatient to get started to wait until a friend could drill holes in it for me. I was hoping that stirred up well, loosely packed, with a loose top, the pile would have enough air to at least get started, and it seems to be working so far. I'll figure out a way to punch some holes in it within a day or two. It doesn't bother me to stir it up by hand. It might be harder with one filled to the brim. I'll find out with the next one. :) Kimmsr, what I have read about composting recommends the same moisture level as a good wormbin, "like a wrung-out sponge." A wormbin will heat up too, if I put too much food in at once. The main thing that keeps the heat down is the high proportion of "brown" carbon bedding to "green" nitrogen food. I seem to have gotten the moisture level right, and the air supply sufficient. Now I just have to keep it right. :)

I know it takes a little while for it to start really cooking and that once it does, if I add anything to it, I'm starting all over again, right? Because you won't be able to turn the pile, just fill the bin as you get materials ... keep topping it off with grass clippings, dead leaves and such, keeping a reasonable balance of "wet green" versus "dry un-green" stuff. End with a layer of dried leaves and pack them down in the fall. Let it sit until when you look about 6-8 inches down it's looking like dark crumbly stuff. If you aren't turning it and watering it, it takes longer to compost but it still gets there. By next spring you should have the center core of that bin as a nice finished compost. Here is a link that might be useful: Cheap Wire Compost Bin: Cold composting method

Thanks for the comments and questions. I'm just a beginner with worms but will try to answer some of rickd's questions based on what I've read. The whole idea of a continuous flow through bin is that food and bedding go in the top and vermicompost comes out the bottom. Eventually (6 months or more from now) I should be able to rake some vermicompost out of the bottom. I haven't had any excess liquid coming out of the bottom of the bin, but if I did it would just pool in the bottom and evaporate. I also haven't had any problems with worms coming out the bottom (I think initially running the newspaper up the sides of the bin for 6-8" helped with this). As for creatures getting into the bottom, that hasn't been a problem so far but I'm concerned about ants and roaches when it gets warmer. I do have my share of fruit flies in the top but nothing unexpected. I'll add a link that lists a number of good discussions of different sized flow-through bins. Also, the links I had in the original post will answer most of your questions. Here is a link that might be useful: List of Flow Through Bin descriptions

I went in last night for a midnight foray to view worms, and now have some observations to make and assumptions I have to change. I had assumed I had received several juveniles when I received my quart of compost and worms, but now have to revise my figures of breeding adults upwards. First, on the size of the worms...I had thought that three inches was a good sized juvenile. Now, after observing the worms last night, my adults seem to be starting at around three inches in length, and can increase in size up to about four inches and a quarter, at best. Perhaps they continue to grow in length as they get older? Most of my adults were short and fat! not at all what I had thought to see. What I had previously considered juveniles were adults. The juveniles I observed last night seem to be downwards of the three inches, and the smallest I saw last night was just over an inch long. I am judging the age of the worm on the lack of part which creates the cocoon, the clitellum. http://biology.unm.edu/ccouncil/Biology_203/Images/Protostomes/earthworm.gif If it's clitellum was visible in any way, the worm was three inches long or greater, and was in the actual process or had just completed the process of reproduction. Now~ I did not go into more than about a third of the bin last night, wanting to leave most of the worms unmolested, mainly just wanting to make an estimate for feeding purposes. I discovered that all but two of the fifteen worms over 3" in length had egg cocoons, the two which didn't were good sized and had apparently either not begun breeding or had just shed their cocoon. Every other adult worm had a cocoon of some sort, though, and one was so obviously 'pregnant' I was surprised it hadn't shed it's cocoon. Some were actually in the process of shedding theirs, even though the cocoon was smaller than the one's I saw which was simply huge. On every adult I saw but one there was an outline of a cocoon sac, even if it was flat against the worm, and that was only on one of them. Perhaps it had just shed it's sac, or was beginning a new one, I was uncertain of this. Observations? That even though I had just added another quart of newspaper shreddings, and another double handful of red oak leaf litter to the top of the previous bedding, worms were now in the top layer and munching away. In the lower part of the compost, while there were about two thirds of the worms I had observed, most were in the middle layer. All but a very small amount of leaf litter from the initial bedding was consumed, about half the newspaper from the initial bedding was not identifiable, and the dark compost matter in the bin had increased considerably from the two trowelfuls of potting soil and sand I had thrown in with the initial bedding. The only food left I saw was a shred of banana peel and the onion skin, and this was from Saturday when I had made up new bedding for the bin! I am not up to spotting cocoons in the dark by flashlight yet, (hope I can be soon!) but out of the twenty five worms I saw in the third of the compost, I had fifteen adults, of which 13 were actually in the process of reproducing. This is far greater in numbers than I had initially anticipated! I need to continue adding soggy newspaper shreddings to the leaf litter I add to the bin. The worms need and enjoy the excess moisture, the leaf litter is way too dry to use only that. Even with soggy newspaper mixed in thoroughly the leaf litter was very dry. I am going to increase feedings to the bin as a result of what I saw. First, with the breeding population having such a good time reproducing, they obviously need more food. Secondly, I can't be feeding them enough if the leaf litter has been consumed that quickly by that few a number of worms. Remember, I only had about forty to begin with, and only about ten were larger than 3". I will have to take the increased feedings slowly, but imagine that having seen such a population explosion within the last month, (at least a third greater than what went into the bin, and a much increased adult population than what I had initially believed) they are going to need the food to support themselves. It does mean I was correct in tipping the bin and increasing the bedding amounts slowly enough to support the worms finding one another for reproduction. Very interesting~these little critters are more entertaining than I would have imagined! Gina