Charlie I have to agree there are many variables. In the beginning even if you start out with 1000 or so worms they have to become happy with their environment. I would just put a little dab in corner with food as it is just sitting there letting time work and boy is that every slow. Then you learn that food needs to be as small as can be , in other words if you have a food processor , juicer or similar asset will help. Early on you may only need to put down 1/2 lb of food but once the worm machine gets going you can put down more, its a learn as go process by how fast the herd is eating the food. Before the worms tear into the food if you look closely you will see the top surface covered with bacteria/microbes which will start the breakdown process thus the term "teaming with microbes' comes into play. So to make a long story less long how often do I feed once a week. I do not put new bedding down everytime I feed. I always keep hand shredded newsprint on top to cover food and help keep any smells down and fruit flies away. Keep in mind bedding is also food and when the food supply is low they will be eating the paper so I try to keep a good supply of newsprint which I will long strip by hand. This covering is much easier to maneuver than machine shredded. This cover is kept moist. I will add that when I ordered my factory 360 and I got an extra tray free and in this tray I keep dry shredded paper which is to keep unwanted fruit flies from getting to the food to lay eggs. This tray is on top of the actual feeding tray. Keep in mind my systems are inside if yours are outside its a different ballgame.

Hmm, how much do you feed a week? Have to ask again and is my main question right now as I feel I'm missing something. And to double check. Your pics show one years worth of bedding and food in a Inn where NOTHING has been removed or harvested ever, correct? It is really weird, here's my thought process so for. You said it's been a year and nothing has been harvested and/or removed. Normally I'd have said it was few worms and tiny feedings so population hasn't grown (or something keeping them down) and the VC amount is so tiny. You've seen my pics and I'm one person who doesn't cook that much. But you mentioned you have lots of worms. So maybe they are not the right types. But then the feedings would still have to be fairly small as after a year, I'd have thought just rotted food would give you more black stuff (hence the feeding question). Then again, never seen the results of bins with basically no composting worms. If they are the wrong worms, would explain why bedding is untouched and they haven't grown in population much. Also explain you having lots of fruit flies, food sitting uneaten until it decomposes. BTW how long until a feeding is fully eaten? With decent number of worms, bedding not being eaten, food being slow and lack of VC.... I'm leaning to wrong worms, looking forward to your pics. Not going to be easy though, telling from a photo is never easy. That would be the 'nice' problem as then it would be, just get some worms and off you, go as opposed to anything you've done. Here's a vid about worm quantities just to quantify worm amounts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ4uYXHydoo equinoxequinox Yeah I never got newspaper to work well in a bin, too wet and it would just clump up. Professionally (large scale) I've seen it used, but those are in flat beds (not that deep and drier). Works better in the Inn also, but even then I prefer it on top so it doesn't compact too much.

“LONG post. Looking for advice from folks who have lots of experience with medium scale worm breeding and casting production” Most of us here do smaller scale. “I can already tell that much of the advice out there is like the advice on regular composting - easiest case advice that has been reprinted enough times that certain things become 'consensus' thus must be true.” The same thing happens here. Since you are asking questions about things we may not have experience with, expect more of that kind of advice. “the advice out there that says a worm population will double in 90 days is silly - under ideal conditions they could increase 100 fold in that time period.” The WEIGHT of the worm population can double every 90 days. The numbers will more than double, but many of the new worms will be babies. “My assumption is that the fastest way to get a large population going is to master the right conditions and then to have very low density. IE, a pound of worms in one bin is not going to yield the same population in three months as will the same pound of worms spread across 2,4, or 8 bins.” I have no idea how you come to that conclusion. Worms only breed so fast. Separating them from potential partners does not speed up the process. You want to avoid overcrowding the worms, but one pound in the kind of bin you describe is far from overcrowding. “Is there a minimum number you experienced breeders have found to be the minimum effective dose to ensure worms are finding one another and doing the horizontal worm mambo” Two. “or have these suckers been around a few million years because if there are two they will track one another down and ensure the survival of the species?” I don’t know if anyone here has really researched that, but conventional wisdom says that if your population is not dense enough, you will have less breeding. “For Bins, I am building continuous flow through bins using plastic garbage pails since they are cheap and large.” But are not strong enough to hold the weight of the VC, especially if you have cut a hole in the bottom large enough to facilitate harvesting. Bins made the way you describe tend to collapse under the weight of the VC “I figured the cranked spinning bar would likely just dig a groove above the grate and require some hand loosening anyway” That has been my experience. “I was thinking I'd use 'unfinished' hot compost. By unfinished, I mean it has been turned a couple times and there are still identifiable chunks like leaves that are blackened but largely whole.” This would make great bedding. If your hot compost has a balance of C to N, it would also be great food, and would require no additional food. “Am I right that unfinished compost, so long as it doesn't heat up is more or less perfect and would spur breeding since it would represent a mountain of perfect food source and stay pretty constant in terms of temp and moisture level with minimal effort?” Probably. “Food: I will quickly have more worms than I will have food scraps suitable for feeding them,” You are being optimistic. You may be right, but there can be a lot of surprises when you are raising live animals. “One of my favorite composting ingredients is to get coffee grounds in mass quantity from the coffee shops” This is not ideal worm food. Perhaps you would do better to put it in your hot bins and precompost it. “I have read that too many coffee grounds are bad for worms due to acidity.” A lot of people say that. I don’t buy it. “Is there another reason they would be bad?” Besides that worms don’t like to eat them until they have decomposed a bit? “I don't want to make feeding the worms a full time job so if I get sufficient numbers I know a nursery that will sell a truckload of horse stall compost cheap.” That may be the answer to getting them to breed faster as well. “It's a tad warm usually but I'm thinking that spreading an inch on top of the bins and lightly watering it would prevent heating and I've read that there is no better food for feeding compost worms and getting them to breed/mature quickly?” Correct, and correct.

Since no one has yet replied to your opening posting I will offer things for you to think about... What kind of worms did you get? Africans are okay with those temperatures... red wigglers? not so much. If the bin temperatures are exceeding the air temperature then either its in the sun, lacking sufficient air movement or too much greens and it is hot composting. If you've got a lot of garden trimmings try composting in a traditional compost pile... then after its cooled down you can feed a portion to the worms when they require more food. Bottom line: excessive heat will kill your worms. If you do have red wigglers, strive for temperature in the 70s... bin temps above 84F will definitely stress them. Fly larvae? What kind of fly we talking 'bout? Bottle flies? Blow flies? I would not want these in my house. Larva eventually become adult flies... If you are referring to Black Soldier Fly larva, then they will not be a bother in the bin, however I doubt you'd want the adults in your house... but really, since they would need earth (actual soil) to burrow in to transform into the adult (pupate), you're more likely to find dead larva lying around every where in the house as they dried out after escaping the bin in search of soil to burrow into. Outdoors the BSF larva would not be an issue, however know that the larva are voracious eaters and will thus compete with your worms for food with the downside being the BSFL consume much more and yet return far less of it as castings, which wouldn't be an issue if you used them to feed to chickens or fish however if they instead escape the bin to pupate then all that nitrogen (as protein) etc will be lost from the castings left in the bin. BSFL can slip through tiny cracks seeking the earth they need to pupate in to transform into the adult form (metamorphosis)... this stage simply CANNOT be achieved in the bin, they MUST escape to burrow into earth. Now for suggestions... I would suggest doing whatever you need to do to maintain bin temperatures below 80F... even if you have to dig a hole in deep shade (backyard), put the bin in and cover over with either plywood or a kiddie wading pool (with an inch or so of water). Traditionally compost anything in excess of what the worms can consume and use the partial compost that has cooled to feed the worms later if need be. Finally, I suggest that unless you have a need for BSFL, you don't want them in your worm bin as they are very inefficient if you're trying to simply recycle garden wastes into castings. And if you have any other type fly larva in your bin... Eeeeww. Hopefully you will get other responses soon....