Uncle Jim is a crap shoot. Some people have done well with Uncle Jim, and others not so well. I wouldn't take the chance, especially with that many worms.

sbryce is a kind, polite, gentleman. Others would not of been so cultured in word choice. Uncle Jim might also sell under different names you may also be wary of as many buyers have wondered into this site burned to the color of suntan mom. Take some time while the bedding and some starter feed is maturing to shop around. You had worms before. What happened to them? If you gave them away maybe they have some to share. If you have a compost heap time to buy a watermellon. In a couple of weeks you may have the worms vieing for your bin.

If purchasing online I would look for a company that uses the latin name for each type of worm it sells. It should also show a picture of a single worm with the name. It should give both a weight of the worms and a weight of the worms and bedding you will recieve. It should give an aproximate count of the worms. It should say if they are all adult or a mix. Give preference to someone near you. Maybe they set up at at farmers market? Then you can drive them straight home. With 10000 worms you could purchase 1000 from ten different places and make one great Youtube. You would be famous! It would be like a science project. Order them all in the same hour. Do an excel sheet with price. When they arrive weigh the package, then seperate the worms and give the true weight. Sort of like Consumer Reports for worms! Then by all means order some from Uncle Jims and a next of kin to include in the results. If it has improved it has to be from people finally knowing what it is a pound of worms should look like. Oh, and since worms dehydrate maybe put each pound into a pound of wet bedding for 24 hours and then reweigh so as to not gyp for worms packed a bit dry but healthy. Compare a pound dug from your own compost heap. A pound from a nearby friend. etc. I would also look for tip offs of circus type sales tactics. Yes worms do great things. Maybe use your worm purchase as a chance to visit 5 worm farms in your area. E-mail and give it a try. You mentioned wanting to write. A topic would seem to be needed. Worms may crawl slow, but they can go far. I almost think worms should be like sour dough bread starter. One should be gifted it. Or capture one's own from the air. Purchasing a start somehow just does not seem right. Start saving your egg cartons and coffee trays. Have fun. Enjoy. Fourth times the charm.

If wormes weary, and cease to satisfy, there is always BSFL, honey bees, mason bees, mushrooms and permaculture.

I was extremely pleased with the personal service I received from Matt, the owner, at Worms Etc. He was terrific. I have since reordered.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worms Etc

sbryce, I read the amazon reviews. Thanks for the tip about uncle jim. Thought I would have been able to purchase the whole lot for under $200.

Equinox, I got tired READING your post! Whew, if i had time to do all that I'd - well, you know! On a more serious note, isnt there a regulatory organization all those people can go to to get refunds? Even penalize the guy?

Dowbright, thank you. Just the sort of recommendation I love. Wonder if I can get a quantity discount even though 10k isnt a wormload. Get it? Wormload?

I wish I could run my business that way. Problem is a small one: I have this stupid thing that constantly keeps me honest and asleep: integrity.

I was surprised to see the negative comments regarding Uncle Jim's, but I'm fairly new to worm composting myself. I had a bin a few years ago, but the worms I bought from a different supplier arrived in poor condition and never did very well. Then my life changed and I just didn't have time or energy for gardening or composting for a few years. I just started again and I have bought from Uncle Jim's 3 times. Each time the worms came very fast and were in excellent condition. Well, this is just my personal experience with Uncle Jim's. Wherever you get yours, I hope you have good luck and your job and health situation improve too.

As I said, Uncle Jim's is a crap shoot. Sometimes you do fine with Uncle Jim. Other times you don't. For an order over 5 lb, I wouldn't want to take the chance. You may do fine, but if you don't, you are out a lot of money.

Thanks so much for the info. Don't know what kind of worms I got from Uncle Jim's. Although at first I was having problems with them trying to escape the bin, they've stayed put since I solved the overheating problem. And that's with the lid off the bin! Hopefully I got EFs and not PEs. I plan on purchasing some night crawlers, which I understand can cohabit with the EFs. Has anyone purchased from Texas Worm Farm that advertises here? Are they reputable? I'd like to purchase from someone in Texas if possible. Thanks so much for the info. I wish I had found this forum before I bought my worms and set up my worm bin.

The best way is to pick up your worms in person. The chat with the seller being maybe more valuable than the worms. Note: One pound of worms should look pretty much like one pound of hamburg. Rather than putting the worms on top of the new bin, new vermicomposters should inspect closely what they purchased. Video's welcome. Worms will loose some weight in shipping. Without seperating out that pound of worms from the bedding and putting it on a postal scale how does anybody know if they actually got what they purchaed?