dogwind,

I think it depends on the size of your bin and the kind of worm you have in your bin.
If there is enough food for the worms and your bin is large enough so the worms can find a hiding place say, if the ambient temp. is low they can find a warmer place inside the pile, they would stay put. However, they would not survive if your pile heats up. Their comfortable zone is 70F.
If vermicomposting is what you are after, I would say using the pile with worms will definitely works faster than starting a new pile.

BTW, do you shred your oak leaves?

Otis

Otis
Both of my bins are the round steel fence wire type, 3 feet diameter by 3 feet tall with a liner to help keep the moisture in. I've thoroughly soaked the leaves in the pile with a hose while adding the leaves. Since the nitrogen that I add to the piles is small when compared to the total volume of leaves, any heating of the pile would probably be slight and not life threatening to the worms. Even though I add nitrogen in some form daily, I only add it to the top of the piles - hence I'm mostly doing "cold" composting. I suspect the worms I have had in the past (and presumably the future) are the "red wiggler" type - but I'm not 100% positive about that.
I live in a neighborhood where many oak leaves are thrown away every winter, so this year I grabbed some bags from the neighbors to help fill my bins. I've shredded some of them with my mower to help speed up the process, but as a "casusal" (lazy) composter, I haven't done it much. Do the worms prefer shredded leaves? Our winters are relatively mild here, so I am hoping I'll be able to maintain a healthy herd of worms next year using the compost I generate this year. Shouldn't my keeping the worms/compost and castings for a worm farm help speed up future composting efforts?
Thanks

I have been doing a regular routine involving the oak leaves I receive from a neighbor. He picks them up using a vacuum which also shreds them. After dumping them on my property near the garden in the Fall, I lay them down in between My raised rows where I plant my veggies. During the following season they act as a mulch, being a few inches thick, and in many places I put down cardboard underneath. By September, all those leaves and cardboard are pretty much composted. Then by late Oct, Using my hoe, I pull that layer of compost onto the rows. When I have finished, you can see many worm holes where they have come up to feed on the rotting leaves or compost. Then in Nov., when the leaves are all down, I start laying the next load of leaves for the following season. I only use my tiller around the outside perimeter of my garden to keep back the weeds and grass. Works well for me.