worms

I examined the depths of my worm bin. Just wanted to know what was going on down there. Pleasantly surprised that it appears more or less fine. The bin stills seems too full so I removed the top layer of bedding- which had very few worms in it- they were all in the lower layer. Put the loose bedding from the top in the second, empty bin. Then fluffed up and mixed around the lower layer of stuff. It wasn't as gross as I'd expected. Most items unrecognizable, not much mold, just a few fruit flies, even the smell was tolerable. It appears to be damp enough- the worms all had glistening moist skins- and no pools of water in the bottom of the bin. But it was a bit compacted down there so I fluffed it all up thoroughly, using some old utensils that have been set aside as garden tools. After mixing it all up the existing bedding + food waste + worms filled the bin 2/3 again so I didn't put the old bedding back on top. Just recovered with cardboard sheets. Will save that top bedding for when I need it later. (On the left here is the fluffed bedding, on the right the reserved bedding off the top layer).

I did carefully sift through that several times to find the worms that were in it- found a dozen or so- and transferred them back over to the home bin. My two-year-old wanted to help find the worms and insisted on holding each one before it went back in the bin.

I am not sure how big they are supposed to get, but they appear healthy enough.

There only seems to be the same amount of worms that I started with- or less? - I saw no signs of baby worms or cocoons. I added some eggshell, ground into as fine a powder as I could. Kid helped with that too, she liked sprinkling stuff in for the worms.