congratulations bloomin:)
welcome to the madness and yep you will get strange looks when you accidently blurt out "did I tell you I have worms?"

just feed them a small amount about 1/2 to 1 cup is enough because they wont eat much at first.Once they start working on it then its time to feed them again and just keep ahead of them with the food. if the bedding starts drying out then just give a sprinkle - you dont ever need to mix up or turn the bedding, they dont like being disturbed like that.

good luck!

Thanks for the info....I will go feed lunch now!

Congratulations on a good start. I'd put some food in for them now so it can start decomposing and will become appealing to "Wormy."

Everyone's situation is different, but I almost never need to add liquid to my two bins. The food provides enough. However, my bins are started with peat moss, not as yours are started.

I find I need to feed more often in the summer as the whole process goes much faster in the warm weather. We had a few freezing nights here in CA last month, and the worms seem to be ok. You will know if you are overfeeding because it will start to smell.

I don't think it is necessary to stir your bins, but I do it occasionally just to see what's going on, and they don't seem to be any worse for the wear! LOL!

Your grandson is a lucky boy to be able to participate in a project like this. You don't say how old he is, but there is kind of a cute book called Diary of a Worm which he might like. Also, more for adults but very helpful, is Mary Appelhof's Book Worms Eat My Garbage. Have fun!!!

My grandson is 4 and having a blast with this country living. We moved here after my father died in August (this is the house I grew up in). So far, the grand (that my husband and I have custody of) has 2 pigs, shares a horse with his papaw, just got a Blue Tick Hound puppy and has his worms. He helps me with my outside compost pile and makes every step in the garden while papaw tills it. (yes, I know, some say tilling is bad.....but this has not been turned in about 7 years and has a beautiful stand of nut grass....we had to start somewhere!)
He is a happy little boy!

He's getting quite an education with you. I bet you never thought you'd be sharing your childhood home with a grandson! We never know what life will bring us, and this for you is definitely one of the better things. Have fun!

Hi Blomin,

'Glad to hear you're having so much fun with the worms.

I'd been using top soil both as bedding and to cover the worm 'food' so that it would not smell, until I re-read my research more carefully which says that I can place the worm food UNDER the bedding.

I started in mid-Oct with 1/2 lb of worms. I went easy on them for a couple of weeks but after that, I put in small buckets of food and they have no trouble chomping through it. Now I've been putting in large buckets of food without any smell problem and they're getting throught the bucket in a couple of weeks.

One of the things I've learned is that the food we put in the bin has invisible hitch hikers on it! I now have a huge population of what seem to be mites that I have to wipe away from the top rim of the bin every couple of weeks. So, one of the things I have not come across in my preparatory research for wormy-composting was what other critters end up living in the bin and which, if any, may be harmful. This is on my to-do list.

Don't stir the bin, you could end up with a hot composting situation, which would kill the worms.

Deanna