Hi Steve, We don't use wood chips so I can't comment on that, but 1. Try adding dry shredded newspaper to dry things up. 2. Can you put something over top of your set up so that the rain can't get in? You still want to have ventilation though. 3. Is it possible to leave the cover off during the daytime to dry things up? 4. Make sure that it is not in the sun or it will get too hot. Soon, you will see lots of cocoons and babies! Beth

Hi and welcome, 1-yes you can, but they will take a very long time to break down so it might not be worth it. 2-worms sometimes take a little while to get used to a new environment and escape attempts are common right at first. Instead of trying to clamp the lid down, you might be better off leaving the lights on in the room with the bin until the worms get used to their new bedding. 3-worms are light sensative which explains why they seem to try escaping at night and why a light will help keep them down in the bedding. Exposure to direct sunlight for long can kill them. 4-Worms can squeeze through just about any opening, probably even through screening so it is unlikely that your holes are small enough to stop them. Keeping the environment in the bin as hospitable to them as possible is the best way to keep them in. Screening is more to keep flys out though they are pretty good at finding ways in too. Holes only in the lid of the bin may not be enough air but play it by ear (or perhaps nose) and see how it goes. If the bin starts getting smelly, it is either a sign that you are feeding too much or there is not enough air and the bin has become anarobic. Some people don't even have lids on their bins, they just lay cardboard, newspaper, burlap, or something over the bedding to help keep it moist and dark. 5-If you have pets, you may need a sturdy lid (I've caught the kittens sleeping on top of my bin.) Make sure to bury food under bedding so the smells don't attract flys, fruit flys, or other creatures. Also, be careful of overfeeding. Don't feed again until the last meal is gone, worms will happily eat the bedding too so don't worry that you are starving them. The apple core and lettuce are fine, don't feed them again for a while. Make sure the bedding is moist (like a wrung out sponge) but not wet and be patient. Worms are easy to farm.

You may not see much activity for a few weeks. The microherd of composter animals has to be built up first. This takes a while in a brand new bin. I would not add anything until you see activity well under way in the original foodstuff. I don't know the climate in the UK or even where you are. If it is cold at all they will slow down to a crawl in their munching. Give us a little more detail. Is the greenhouse heated, what is your average low temperature, etc?

Otis... Hey buddy, revived this thread did you? I've been meaning to eventually update with my current thoughts based upon more recent observations/experiences but somehow I can't quite seem to find the time with all the different things I have going now that its summer (well, almost summer). However your posting causes me to pause and make some time (a good thing)... not for the all the things I want to write about but rather just long enough to answer your posting. Hope things have been okay with you (and the worms). The Koi are doing excellent... probably the easiest transition from winter to spring ever. I'm in Michigan and our winter this year was amazingly mild, so I was able to start the pond pumps (and filters) two months earlier than I normally do. I think this made the difference, really. Did you bother to powder up those pellets? I don't know if that helps or not, it just happens to be the only way I've done it. Fishy smell? I guess everywhere must be different as they must formulate the mash with whatever's economically available in the locality or region. Do you live near the water? I assume they start with a target nutritional profile and a target price point to meet and then begin searching for bulk source ingredients to create their mash. I don't do it anymore but for a while I was adding fish emulsion (sold as plant fertilizer) to the worm food and I guess the worms loved it but it was stinky to mess with and probably not as economical as applying it directly to the plants. Originally my thoughts were to have it pass through the worms first and let them take whatever nutrition they need and what comes out the other end would be very slow release but I got to thinking about it and fish emulsion is slow releasing to being with as it requires soil microbes to break it down before the plants can utilize it so I guess feeding to the worms first just made it sort of redundant. So how do your worms like it? Have you been feeding it long enough to notice any differences in the worms? Hopefully you'll notice a positive effect on their castings when you harvest it and your plants then use it. I harvested the bins before splitting them so they weren't full... before harvesting I would say better than 3/4 full (about 12" perhaps). The population of worms (of all sizes, in all stages) was prodigious in relation to what I started with and I easily have enough to justify the splitting. Was it the nutrition of the feed or something else? I don't not know... but I suspect the high calorie content plus high-protein had something to do with it. Since I have each pair of bins is two locations, I've been quite surprised as to just how much activity levels are affected by the internal bin temperatures. The basement bins could already be harvested now while the bins in the garage really need another month or perhaps longer. Though I've had few occasions to pick-up a fully loaded bin... yes, it is quite heavy, especially with all the moisture the castings do hold. The bins haven't cracked nor do I actually expect them to. They are not exposed to UV (as in sunlight) and since they are made from HDPE, they will not contain plasticizers that can migrate out over time. (In case you're wondering, I've taught properties of polymer materials for over 30 years now, among other aspects of plastics processing... that's how I know this stuff about various plastics families, formulation additives and the associated properties.) I've recently ordered 2 pounds of African nightcrawlers (apparently there is a backlog as I've been waiting 2 weeks now and they still haven't shipped yet) so soon I will be preparing yet another bin... perhaps I should take a picture of exactly how I prepare the bins with the holes. A picture really is worth a thousand words in my case as I tend to be quite verbose in my explanations. The hole was make with 1" drill bit though I do have hole bits up to 4" laying around here. The size of the hole is not really important because of the way I construct my bins. In a few days, I will prepare a new bin and post a pic or two to show how I construct my bins and you will quickly understand why I'm saying the actual hole size doesn't really affect the structural integrity of the bin. How wet? I've not seen any leachate coming out since back in early January, shortly after I started this thread so... moisture moves down through castings, meaning the closer you get to the bottom the wetter the castings. When I screened the VC I didn't have any issues with clumps holding together... the castings easily separated once on the screen. I think if I'd tried to harvest too soon (meaning a smaller percentage of the VC was actual castings) then I suspect the clumps would have presented more of an issue. Interestingly, I have one 6 gallon bucket sitting in the garage right now that is still moist even though I've not added any moisture to it... vermicompost has just amazing water holding capacity... that is one major observation of mine that has really surprised me. I'm thinking it is a large part of the secret of why adding VC to the garden or potting soil seems to make such a huge difference in the plants grown in it. Okay Otis, that's it for now but I will be back.