I want to thank you all for participating in my Round Robin. I hope you all had fun. Maybe we can do it again sometime. I know I have enjoyed reading what everyone was receiving. Treasa, Fedex ground probably would have been cheaper than US mail. Diene, Yes fedex "ground" takes about the same amount of time as Parcel post...but most times costs less if shipped from a fedex station (not a mail boxes etc type location) and the tracking on fedex is much better and the insurance does not cost anything. Where USPS mail charges for both tracking and insurance. FederalExpress (not ground) is really fast but costs much more. I love the new USPS flat rate boxes. A specially marked flat rate box is only 7.50 priority. Cant beat those prices.

multi tier worm bins are real bad for brand newie worm wranglers. The trouble is they seem like simplicity itself. open lid and throw kitchen scraps which are 70% water in top tray and sprinkle with water. Over time these kitchen scraps 'decompose' and the worms eat upwards on the food, fungi, organisisms all muching away at these foods. The water and moisture from the kitchen scraps follow gravity to the bottom of the bin into the sump. So this bottom area tends to mainly be moist and smelly since new worm wranglers tend to not empty the leachate (which is toxic and poisonous) off enough, so the worms tend to dislike this bottom area since it has yucky stagnant water pooling there; its basically a swamp since it also contains worm castings. Thus new worm wranglers often drain off this foul smelling soup and flush the system with more water, but by 'overwatering' now they are compacting the upper layers with water molecules. this is because water acyaully is very heavy and it clings to itself, so the overwatering tends to compress the food bedding layers and the water clings to itself and displaces oxygen. So now we get anerobic decomposition and instead of aerobic methane that quickly disapates off in a well balanced oxygenated worm bin we get a compressed mass of food that slows down its decomposition due to lack of oxygen. Now we get ammonia gas and this gas kills worms real dead, so the worms must run away (into the bottom sump) or do a worm run and leave the bin entirely to avoid being gassed to death. So, to dry, to wet? the newbie worm wrangler tends to lighten up on how much water they add, so gravity tends to pull down moisture into the bottom layers and water sump. So now the upper layers of newer food tend to dry out more and worms breathe through their WET MOIST skin so they tend to move to where the water is (into the sump) luckily. AS long as they have a ladder to reclimb back up to the bedding layers instead of drwoning in the sump. Remember they need moisture to breathe so they dehydatrate if they stay up top. If it rains then they worm run away to the refreshing outside rain and die from sunlight or lawn fertilizer or whatever. So this is why (especially) with a sudden unplanned for run of hot weather that evaporates or transpirates your top layers of moisuture away your worms flee to the bottom sump layer for the life giving water. Remember without water worms are dead, dry bedding to a worm is the same as you crawling over broken glass or sandpaper without protection; it would not be nice so do not 'neglect' your worms. These factors and others are why multi tier worm farms are not the greatest for newbie worm wranglers, but remember worms are very resilient and people learn if they lose or hurt their babies (worms), so over time humans get better at 'listening' to what worms "like". Generally worms like being left alone to do their thing and mainly new worm wranglers try to hard to 'help' the worms with to much food or water but we humans usually get better over time, but of course you have to take note of the weather since worms cannot learn to drink from a tap; how could they turn it on ? ;)

Having the bin feel a bit warm is fine. You did the right thing by feeding in one part of the bin, leaving room for the worms to stay away, in case conditions aren't right for them. If you're unsure, you can leave the lid off, any heat would dissipate. If it's hot to keep your hand in there, it's too hot for the worms. Otherwise it will be fine. When you feed, do not mix the bedding into the food, that will create heat. I'm sure your bin is fine. I fed rice to my guys once and the bin overheated..........I mean really overheated. When I lifted the lid it was literally steaming! I lost a lot of worms. On the other hand, in the heat of summer when it's over 100 degrees, a lot of people put frozen bottles of water in their bins to cool it down. This is when the bins our outside. If the temperature is comfortable for us, it's comfortable for the worms.

Again, I thank you two for your input. I have begun to do some research based on the things you guys had to say here and I am becomming very excited about the possibilities and potentials I have in my present situation! I also followed that link you gave me, tclynx, and found the most remarkable articles down at the bottom of the page called THE BURROW. It has the story of a guy's experiments with his worms and his findings, which already gives me some understanding of why I may have all these worms after all. I am also getting a feel that it isn't brain surgury and that I can actually improve my overall soil condition while getting rid of my little bit of food scraps. This is exciting! I also located pictures of what other people are doing to make their worm beds, plus, I lurked through all the things I could find in the forum and I have a much better idea of what a bed of worms consists of. It seems that any bed I can build for plants is potential as a worm bed as well. Also, plank pathways with leaf debris or shredded paper as a base will also encourage the worms as that is what they were doing when I found them, laying under stuff. I think I am going to purchase one of the containers / or perhaps make my own container and do some real experimenting. But, now I know that I can keep them outside...and if they don't have enough food with shredded paper and leaf fall and downed rotting trees...then they never will have enough food. I will keep that bag of leaves and test for worms in the spring. I think that the worms may have crawled in there by themselves already and I will report what I find. I also wondered if I could put bedding in a gallon plastic milk carton, punch holes in it all over, keep it damp and throw in 3 pairs of worms to see if I can get a carton of soil and a bunch of worms. I actually fixed up that experiment about a week before joining the forum and I dated the milk carton. I just had to know what is possible as my main interest started out being plants. Again, it is appreciated greatly that you both have responded. I can't tell the difference between species or breeds of worms and may never be able to, but as long as they eat until my soil is beautiful, that is enough for me, at this point. Thanks a bunch of worms! =o)