Another update. Just to clarify: I do not surface-feed; I bury the food at 2 litre (+-2 quarts) ice-cream container sized locations. As mentioned earlier, I worked out that I needed to feed 42 (6x7) times before I got around to the first location again. It turns out that I sometimes have more food than 2 quarts, in which case I feed two (or even 3) locations at the same time. So last week the feeding "wrapped around". The food in spot 1,1 is completely gone except for the corn cobs. There are lots of cocoons, some (about 20) of which I moved to the side to see how they mature. I really would like to see and hopefully photograph a "birth". I also can't wait until all the cocoons have hatched so I can start processing my crass clippings. Some other critters that have taken up residence: 1) mites - are still around but not in huge numbers 2) spiders 3) a small caterpillar 4) a single ant The rat is definitely history. I left the bin open to dry it out a little and the next morning the newspaper on top was completely undisturbed. That's it for now. Alex

I tore apart a couple of buckets I had with egg cartons on the bottom for airflow and vermicomposting happening above. I used this material to fill my homemade flow through. It is about 9 inches wide. So yes I have bedding and raw food throughout the whole 24 inches of height. I even tossed in a sinful amount of cornmeal tempting fate. Boy does the level sink down quick. In just a couple of days it goes from above the bucket rim to a few inches below it. (In my whole one week of experience with flow through.) And being bad and just having to know where all those worms are and what they are all doing... I tore apart the week old flow through fork full by fork full tonight. The worms were indeed all throughout the bin. I think that is an advantage of a flow through. The whole idea of square foot can be cubed and worms can live on more levels and more worms per square foot of floor space can be maintained. That is my theory, right or possibly wrong. With the very wet bedding (I had added bottles and bottles of water.) the worms were very wet and juicy plump healthy looking. In a bin there would of been problems and smells. And death. I was going for a very wet flow through to try and get some of the advantages of vermiponics. But I'm not quite sure what the advantages are. So I guess I am trying to move towards vermiponics. We previously determined on this board worms can live underwater if the oxygen level is high enough or the carbon dixiode level is low enough. So I'm trying not to be afraid of too much water like I would try to avoid like the plague adding in cardboard like a mad hatter in a bin. I loved adding cardboard. I am thinking the second main advantage of a flow through after the air exchange is the advantage of keeping it wetter. I am thinking more composting of all types happens that way. But that is not a proven scientific fact. With how quickly the stuff shrinks down (gets processed?)in a flow through I can see where it is difficult to get the depth one wants. "if no overfeeding issues come up" and there is that temptation to tempt fate with that too. There is much more food available then two months ago when the cupboard was totally bare. I will agree, not that anybody has said it, that a thicker level is better to give the worms grace to retreat to for any operator errors. Presently my worms have just turned into breeders. No eggs yet. I would determine the harvest by if no or few eggs and babies remain in the vermicastings removed from the system. That would seem to be a the determining function of depth of vermicomposting bed. "I will probably do a major harvest soon just to find out how well processed all their food is, even if I have to put a lot back in on top." Do it! Do it! Sorry. When you do do that harvest, please tell us what all the worms are doing. And how each level of the vermicomposting system is doing.

As far as the sides of barrel collapsing under weight using wire, cord or rope there is a way to solve that. You use a small piece of PVC pipe maybe 1/2" or so and cut them to length to be installed. The PVC pipes are cheap and you can cut them with a hack saw or a band saw easy. Also they will not rust and last as long as the barrel. Sample image below I will make PVC a "red color" for reference and black lines represents rope,wire or cord. Tie the rope into a knot at the end first, if it is a wire then make a loop whatever it takes to STOP the rope from pulling through that first hole it will be going in to on the barrel. So again pull that rope (cord or whatever) through the first hole of barrel into the barrel but now you thread it in and through your PVC pipe you have cut to proper size, go ahead and pull it through (push it with a clothes hanger wire if it bends) an as it pops out the other end of PVC then grab it and now you feed that out the other hole in the barrel, now completly through the barrel. Grab it and pull it tight and make a knot or secure it with a clamp like a snap tie. It won't come though because it has a knot on the other side right? And that PVC is ridged so it can not bend to easy so you end up with a stiff piece of "plastic" pipe inside instead of metal. So hen you secure that rope or cord or wire on the outsides just make sure you pull it as tight as it needs to be and then secure the outside ends. If rope (cord,wire) is pulled tight then that PVC has no place to go see? So no collapse on side of barrel at that point. You do all of them that way and the barrel sides can not come in on you now because all those PVC pipes will not bend. Grab a piece of 1 or 2 foot PVC pipe in store sometime and bend it, this will give you idea on how stiff you think you might need it.

I have a bin where vermicompost does not fall through 3" by 3" holes on it's own. I have a bin where vermicompost does not want to fall through 7" by 7" holes on it's own. When I can entice the vermicompost to fall through, flow through?, it wants to fall in a column from the bottom all the way to the top. My vermicompost is not reading the instructions of how I am imagining my flow through to work. Huge flowthrough systems solve this by using precomposted cow manure. This flow through concept has not caught on in my toss in an apple core, toss in an egg carton flow through system. I do get the benefit of air at the bottom of the system. Moving bins around with 3 and 7 inch holes in the bottom is always exciting. I see your system is attached to the base with ties. It would be cool if the base was inches bigger and you could push the bin around back and forth over the base to harvest. This would take the place of a harvest bar.