forgot to mention they are EF's and indoors on the back porch, they get lots of indirect lighting and keep fairly warm where they are. I think that's one reason I am still getting worm squirm increase....although I haven't learned how to identify worm capsules, yet, I know they are in there, when I buried the food this week I found lots of 1" long newbies. Yay!!!!
Gina

What you are doing now sounds just right.

Yes, you have identified the browns and greens.

As for ratios, what you are doing is perfect. Bed the worms with lots of high carbon material, and add high nitrogen material as it is eaten.

The worms will eat anything that is decomposing in the bin. That includes the bedding. If you are doing everything right, the bedding will disappear along with the food. If most of the bedding is being converted to castings, you might want to add a little more bedding. We call them bedding and food, but really, both are both.

The worms won't have any trouble finding each other, since they are all attracted to whatever portion of the bin has the most decomposition going on. And they can move pretty fast. I have put horse manure in my bin (my worms' favorite food) and found it loaded with worms within an hour.

Bottom line: add a little more bedding and keep doing what you are doing.

Gina, you want a lot more carbon in the mix than Nitrogen. Something like 20:1 to 40:1, aim for 30:1.

That said, the hardest thing for me to get my head around was that everything has some carbon and nitrogen in it. The 30:1 ratio can be the ratio of one item. For example the ratio for just coffee grounds is 13:73. Thirteen parts carbon to 73 parts nitrogen. And the ratio for cardboard is 377:79. But the ratio for both mixed together in equal amounts is 27:64. I would never be able to figure it out by myself. So i use a C:N Ratio calculator.

It is most definitely not mandatory to use a ratio calculator but it helps to give one an idea of how much of what needs to be in the bin. After you have used it for a while you will just 'know' how much is right.

This is a link to a calculator. Pick a food/bedding item. Punch in the amount added in Cubic feet and it will give the ratio. You want to try to keep the balance at each feeding. No biggie if your balance is off. But it is always better to have extra carbons as a buffer. The worms really do need a steady carbon supply.

Oh, 7.49 gallons in a cubic foot.

Here is a link that might be useful: C:N Ratio Calculator

here's a tidbit for ya ... fresh grass or leaves is a source of N ... dry them out and they're C. sounds like you get it already. there are all kinds of best practices out there but i think you'll find that worms take a pretty wide range of wet/dry, acid/alkaline, etc. learning the basics and then playing is part of the fun.

I don't think there's a need to be exact about it. If your worms are consuming the C faster than the N, add more C. In practice, it's easier to monitor the wetness of the bin than the consumption rate of the various elements, and I find this to be a reasonable proxy for the consumption rate. So if my bin is too wet, I add more C, and if it's too dry, I add more N. It's an art, not a science.

If the food from the last feeding is mostly gone, I add more N. If the top layer of bedding is getting thin, I add more C.

It is pretty simple.

This may help you:

http://www.klickitatcounty.org/SolidWaste/fileshtml/organics/compostCalc.htm