I, too, like many on this forum have gotten into vermiculture, worm bins ....
I started my worm bins back around the beginning of the year, I can't remember exactly when ... Feb or early Mar. I had 2 bins half full of newspaper, cardboard, a little soil and sand, leaves, etc.
It took until about the beginning of July before I could finally harvest all that worm castings from both bins. In the process, I moved all the worms to 1 bin. Maybe that was a mistake, but I did it because of limited space. I have to have my worm bin on the screened in porch to keep rats, raccoons, etc. out of them. Those critters eat worms, along with the birds.
I started a new bin at that time with the usual fillers. Here it is a month later and the worms have already completely broken down everything. I feed them corn meal and blended food (I use my bullet to break the food down and freeze it). But now the worms are eating faster than I can feed them (it seems). I find I use the corn meal more often than veggies, fruit, etc.
What do I do now? Any suggestions?
@Dave or anyone with experience, I'd love to hear from you as to where I go from here. I love, love, love the worm castings and so do my plants! It's the best stuff, of course! But removing thousands of worms to harvest more castings is a real chore! I need advice on how to better do this whole process now that I have quite a large colony of worms that do a very efficient job of composting. I don't cover the bins with a lid, instead I put down burlap to cover the top of the compost to provide air flow and darkness. (But they are eating the burlap, too, now!) The worms do not try to escape, they are obviously very happy in the bin eating and reproducing! Help! I've achieved success, so what should I do next to make it easier to maintain this growing population. I started with 2000 worms and probably have 4-6 thousands or more now!
Bin:
Closer look at the worms and corn meal:
