Yes, expectations, will always give way to the reality of actual life. The worm sellers, are always a bit overly discriptive, when stating the facts. How much they eat, in a given day, depends on their maturity, and habitat activity. New worm's, just like new people, need to settle into a new home, it takes time, and making reasonable judgements, as to what we can expect. I don't wish to burst your bubble, stomp on your expectations, but, everything being relative, as to how many worms did you receive, sellers like to use the number, 1,000 worm's to a pound. This would be a varity of worm's, in all stages, from hatchlings, through, adults. Also, the selection of worm's, by the grower, can vary considerably. Where in his batch/ colony, did he extract the worms from, mostly adult, or did he invade a nursery area, where there were more egg layers, than active, food consuming adults. The in between age groups, are probably the most consuming group of worm's. as they are too young to reproduce, yet they are growing at a rapid pace, for worm's, that is. The hatchlings, and juveniles, are the finishers, of the food group, just like nursing young humans, they are happy with smaller items, and not prone to attack large food items. Pulp in otherword.s, the (teenagers)junior's, are always hungry, and moving around, in search of food, the larve, or, hatchlings, tend to stay put a little longer. All of this is subject, to some speculation, of course. I haven't tried, to keep exact notes on the worm's activity, especially since they don't like light, ( I have resorted, to using a blue light, for feeding times)so when you open the top, they tend to scurry away, and this can really slow down the whole process too. All I can tell you is, that the results, are great, assuming you like eating fresh vegetables, from your very own garden, ie, by your very own effort. Keeping your eye, on the prize, is the only way to suceed at this venture. The sucess of your worm colony, will also depend greatly, as to what you feed them, and this is very important, stick with basic greens and shredded papers, avoid all acidic foods, citrus, tomato scraps, yeast (breads),egg shells need to be well crushed, maybe a little fresh grass cuttings, but, sparingly so. Two basic items, good air flow, and light moisture, I use a spritz type of spray bottle (like gentle rain). Even the type of water, like hard water, sulfer laiden water, can make a difference, plus the smell. By the way, if, your bin smells very strong, this would indictate improper feed mixtures, never add meat products, unless you don't mind some smell, because this will come with the meat by-products, and it doesn't really make the castings, all that much better, trust me on this. Bins containing meats, or, manure, will smell. If, you keep this out in the garage, or, some out of the way place, then its OK. However garages and sheds, tend to be too hot, and slow the worms down greatly. All of this sounds rather picky, but, from experience, I can tell you this, OK? The best growing enviornment, is the stacking bins, if, you don't already have these. Keep in cool and dark area's, max temp 70-75 degree's, and no lower than 60-65 degrees, at 50 degrees, or lower, all activity will cease, for the most part.covering with newsprint is ok, But, punch holes, for air flow. In the bottom tray, water colection area, put shredded paper, to fill the space. Worm's are somewhat clumsy, and they wiil fall into the space, adults can climb back up, but, junior's have trouble with this. If they are going to the water tray too much, this maybe a sign of needing water, or more air. They can drown quite easily, and they need to breathe air, they will also move down, to escape over heating. I have soil thermometers placed in my bins, too keep track of any heat buildup Many chapters, could be written, about all of this, but, if I can say this, patience is everything. By my own experience, starting up a new colony, with about 2,000 worm's, it took approximately one year, before the whole thing became really established, and consumed about one, to one and half pounds of food per day. At the one year stage, I guesstimate, I had about 8-10,000 worm's, in all stages of growth. Now, three years later, I have two stacks of bins, and consumption is quite brisk. How many worm's now?? Hard to know for sure, they don't exactly apply for green cards. At the moment I have about 50 lbs of castings in storage, for the new growing season. I use all of my product, minus any given, to my friends, for the making of hydroponic tea, as application for my garden plants. But, keep in mind, this three years later. Lest I forget, I haven't mentioned all of my Rose's, strawberry plants, friends flowers and gardens, that I tend to all summer. Its a toil of love, and I will never get rich in terms of money, from it, but, I have uddles of great picture's and fond memories, an, yes, maybe I will be missed someday, when I shuffle off this earth, that's nice too. All of my castings, are allowed to rest, before actual use, I have found, from time to time, several worms, who managed to survive on their own, and I take them from the stored castings, and put them into the established colonies. I never store my castings, in air tight containers, and there is always, a certain amount of undigested food, still in the mix. No doubt, these survivers, were just hatchlings, when the castings were removed from the colony. Wow, I know this a lot to take in, when first starting out, but, if you stick with it, you too, will learn all of these things. I'm always glad to converse, about this, and other gardening items. Like?? MY garden has no soil, in it, its a raised bed, yet, all of my plants go nuts, over it. Yes, I have a water collection tray (very large)under the rasied bed. My oldest bed is now eight years old, and still going storng. Its covered with vinyl siding, to match the house, and is kept covered in winter, plus a heat tape system, runs all through the compost.(Thanks to solar panels and a large battery storage system) Not biult all at once either, but, over time, and money available. That same battery system, has also been called on, during power outages, backed up by a (donated)garden tractor (stripped of its junk mower pan, It now sports a snow plow, and rear scraper) with built-in altenator(old truck part, bought at flea market, runs off of the old mower pan pulley) How about collecting rain water, and using it, instaed of tap water, OH YEA, baby, the results, tell the whole story. Besides, my indoor worm bins, I have a high population, of Earthworms, also. Higher the worm count, per cubic foot of material, makes for a fanastic garden yield, too. over the past ten years, I've probably added 500 Canadian crawlers to my lawn and garden box, plus another 500, cheap garden variety crawlers, as well. My lawn never browns, even in the hottest months, very little in the way of commerical chemiclas added. Very sharp blades, a grass hight of 3 1/2 inches, less mowing during July, August, even into September, sometimes. Adding Random bean plants into my garden box, not so much for eating, but, to add natural nutients to the soil. Thats an old farmers trick, sowing beans among the corn stocks. Resting a field, for one whole year from corn, and planting soy, for a plow down crop, yep, it works. Yep, a lot of talking, I know, but, if you love flowers and grass, like I do, there is never an end, of things to say. Enjoy spring and summer?? Its coming soon !

I read somewhere that bedding that is too acidic could kill worms. I did notice that a good bit of my worms are now not moving -- I figure they must be dead? Do worms sleep? Are some lazier than others? I wasn't sure if the acidity was a problem, so I mixed in some garden lime. The instruction sheet that came with the worms said that canadian peat moss, cow manure and shredded paper are good bedding material, so I emailed the farm to ask if I am doing anything incorrectly.

I think maybe? you started with too small quantity of worms. You said $30 for them. So you purchesed 1 1b probably or maybe 2 1bs at the most. I think you should have bought 4 or 5 pounds for one of those big bins. They will mutliply in the right conditions but you have to only feed them as they will eat. I would add some new bedding and feed them zukinie squash and pumpkin or butternut squash and some corn meal. But only give them a 1/2 cup every three or four days for 1 1b. at first and make sure they eat it before giving more. I always start out with cardboard and compost and dried leaves crumbled up and soak the leaves and cardbaord before adding to the compost. If you can buy more worms that would be good so you can feed them more. It does take more than one try for some of us to get the hang of things. That is not too much water in the bedding and not too much food to soon. Do you have any books on worms like " Worms eat my Garbage". I bet that book would help you out alot. Check your local library, it is an old book still available though. Good luck and keep posting your questions. I wish you had more people respond to help out. Bill C

Actually, I just guestimated the size of the box last night because it was late and I was sleepy. The box is 16 1/2 inches by 12 1/2 inches by 9 inches deep. I read some more on this website before I finally went to bed, plus I followed a link provided for a children's website on earthworms (since I don't know much about worms, other than they are an organic gardener's best friend, a child's website did seem an appropriate starting place to learn). Anyway, based on what I read, I think I've figured out a workable battle plan, but could sure use more experienced folks insight on this. Here's my plan, unless you folks have a better solution to share: I'm going to get a second plastic tub that is the same size. I'm going to drill a few 1/2 inch holes at the bottom, placed to facilitate drainage. I'm going to go inside the box with some of this plastic screening that looks like window screening but is made of flexible plastic, and glue patches of this screening over the drainage holes so that the worms can't crawl out. To facilitate air circulation (which the folks my husband bought this from say is important), I'm going to take the lid and cut a big 3 inch by 4 inch hole in it, and then cover that hole up with plastic screening too. After I prepare the new plastic bin with the drainage and top holes, I'm going to move the batch of worms and peat moss from the box I already have to the new, properly prepared bin. Then I will put the properly prepared bin in a drip pan, raised an inch or two in the air by wooden supports (which are taller in the back of the bin than in the front) so that there is a slight angle to the way that the worm bin sits in the pan. This is to facilitate draining. The drain holes will be placed so that excess water will drip out the bin into that drip pan. I will then place this setup in an extra bedroom closet, where it will be dark all but maybe 10 or 15 minutes each day, where I will feed them their Worm Chow once a day and moisten as necessary. I will then put holes in the plastic bin I currently have, and about 6 to 8 weeks from now when the population is grown in the bin, I'll move half of the worms over to the new box and put more moistented peat moss in both boxes to fill them up. I can understand the suggestion to just put the worms outside, however, my garden sits in the middle of Sunstroke Acres and -- despite the fact that it is not even officially summer yet -- we have had 90 degree plus days every day for several weeks now. This is the hottest "spring" on record in these parts. Those little critters would probably bake out there if I put them out right now in these abnormally harsh weather conditions. Plus my garden is completely full of plants right now that have full root systems at this point. Everything is big and coming up fast. I don't want to go disrupting my earthen beds right now if I can help it. You know what they say "Don't mess with somthing that is working quite well." I figure on waiting until the fall, when I prepare my beds for next spring. That's when I routinely fork the organic mulch I use during the growing season (a mixture of shredded leaves and shredded pine bark - a "brown" when it comes to composting) into the top 5 or 6 inches of soil. At the same time I add in some Starbucks coffee grounds (a "green" when it comes to composting, placed into the soil so that I can compost my mulch over the winter). After I have forked in that mulch and coffee combination, I routinely wet it down till it has the moisture consistancy of a wet sponge. This will cause the sheet composting operation to temporarily heat up, so I will have to wait a few more weeks I figure to add the worms in. But the initial heating up of the bed will discipate in a week or two, after which I can wet the bed again to the consistancy of a wet sponge. At that time, I should be able to add the worms into the soil safely, I figure. It will be a cooler climate by that time, and they will have plenty of fresh "eats" and the same soil moisture content that they will be used to. I figure on covering the beds with a crushed oak leaf "winter mulch" after the worms go in, to protect the worms and other soil microorganisms from any harsh winter conditions that we might experience here in the mid-south. Anyway, that's what I'm thinking right now. Any suggestions for improvement in my scheme, or valuable insight you would be willing to share with this newbie?