Guide to Taking Care of Your Worm Bin & Compost Worms

Once you've set-up your worm bin, bought your compost worms online, and settled on a feeding and watering schedule, there's not a lot of work involved in taking care of your worm compost bin. In fact, compost worms prefer to work in silence and in the dark, so they are happiest going a few days without seeing you. And even then, they prefer to see you only in short, brief bursts :).

You'll notice that when you lift the lid or cover to your worm farm the worms will usually scatter or start moving. This interrupts their eating (and breeding) so it's best to avoid bothering the worms as much as possible. They will eat, mate, and breed better the fewer interruptions they have!

Here's a quick checklist of to do's to ensure your worms stay healthy and happy:

• Feed 1/4 to 1/3 their weight and only feed after all food from the prior feeding has been processed by the worms. If you see food in the bin or the worms are still congregated en masse in the area where you last fed them, check back in a day or 2.

• Verify the top of the bed is damp and there is no water accumulating on the bottom of the bin or in the base of the bin. Lightly mist the top of the bed if it is getting dry. If water is accumulating in the bottom of the bin, adjust (decrease) your watering schedule and amounts. Pro tip #1: We recommend watering your worms on a set schedule, around once a week. But it's good to check each time you feed and verify the bedding is slightly damp.

• As the worm farm's bedding begins to get fully processed, it will start to look like wet dirt and should have the look of felt from a pool table. Compost worms can't live in their poop for long so when the worm farm bedding gets fully processed you will want to either: 1) mix in at least 50% new bedding (top soil, compost, coco coir, peat moss) and carbon (e.g., shredded cardboard or shredded newspaper) to the bin or 2) start a new tray with fresh bedding, put a small amount of food there, and let the worms migrate to the new tray (we recommend option 2).  Once you stop feeding the 1st tray in the worm compost bin, the worms should migrate to the new tray and begin eating and processing the new bedding.

That's really all there is to caring for your worm bin once it is up and running. Compost worms don't require a lot of TLC once they are established in their worm farm, and as noted above they prefer quiet and solitude to do their work. 

If you have any questions or comments, shoot us an email or check the other tips and how to articles on our blog. Thanks for reading and Happy farming!