With newspaper: clumps happen. They will be processed over time, but try adding a few other things to the shredded newspaper bedding. Shred some junk mail (paper density is different than newsprint). Rip up some cardboard or cereal boxes (they will absorb liquid slower than the newsprint). Some people throw in whole TP/paper towel cores to aerate the bedding. And once you get set up, be very careful about adding additional water. Too much moisture is the #1 problem in worm bins.

Good luck. You are going to have FUN!

Excellent. Now another question. How about additives such as vermiculite. Is it of any value. Can the worms process it with any additional value to the end product? I know there needs to be a soil like material to provide for grit. Would vermiculite be good. Would sand be better, or would ordinary garden soil be the best?

As for bedding: try running some corrugated cardboard through your shredder and add that to the bedding.

If your worms are arriving tomorrow, you will want something in the bin to get the microbes going. This would be something that was sitting on the ground. Soil, leaves, manure, compost, etc.

For grit don't use vermiculite. Try garden soil, fine sand (I have sand in a cheap salt shaker) or ground egg shells. Worms cannot eat vermiculite.

Shredding cardboard is good but it is hard on the shredder(especially corrugated). I already broke mine and wasting shredders on this project is against principle of going green. So now I take a olfa knife to make the strips. Ripping corr. cardboard is hard unless you soak them first.

And don't use bagged soil you bought because they might contain chemicals harmful to worms.

Otis

I use a lot of corrugated cardboard. It is good bedding and it puts to good use something which would otherwise be thrown away. It doesn't seem to pack down like shredded newspaper, although I put some of that in my bins too.
I leave the cardboard outdoors in the rain to get it wet, then rip it up.
Grit (dirt, sand) is not a necessity in the bin. I had a worm bin for YEARS before anybody ever told me the worms were supposed to have grit. Put it in if you want to, but the worms will be all right whether you do or not.
For a brand new worm bin, I think some dirt is good to bring in microbes if you don't have a shovelful of the vermicompost your worms were living in when someone collected them and sent them to you.
Good luck, and have fun!
mbetts

Basement, I raise my worms in a bedding mixture of approximately 50% shredded newspaper, 33% shredded cardboard, 17% coffee grounds. Plus I add some sand, ground egg shells, and cornmeal. (small amounts)
The newspaper/coffee grounds complement each other really well. Newspaper holds water, coffee grounds don't. Newspaper clumps together, having the coffee grounds mixed through it prevents that from happening. Plus, the worms LOVE the coffee grounds! After I mix the bedding, I let it sit till it becomes "biologically" active. Don't worry about the clumps. Try to break apart the bigger ones but leave the little ones. You will find that when you sift/separate the worms from your vermicompost that there will be many babies and smaller worms in those remaining newspaper clumps.

My shredder handles cardboard just fine. It complains a little if I try to shred a full-width piece, but handles a 6 inch wide strip with no problems. My shredder is only rated for 6 sheets of paper.

I go through a lot of paper, which goes in the bin, but I also shred a lot of cardboard to prevent the paper from clumping.

Thanks for all the good advice. I put in a shovelfull of soil. I would like to shred cardboard, but my shredder will not handle it. It's a pretty bottom of the line shredder. Hopefully my worms will come today. How long should I allow them to settle in before adding kitchen scraps?

You can add a small amount (1/2 cup? Maybe 1 cup) of scraps now. Wait about a week before adding more. When the bin is first started, it will take about a week before food added to the bin is available as food to the worms.

Some people will advise you not to feed at all for the first week.

The two biggest mistakes you will make in the beginning are overfeeding and poking around in the bin too much.

Don't forget to throw in your used up teabags(which I cut up and sprinkle over the top) They love this and I add these daily without a problem.

Crushed eggshells is great in the bin and put it in as often as you have them. the smaller the crush the better since they wont break down @ all so if you put in big pieces that is exactly what you will get months later.

I've never put soil, sand, or any other grit in the bin for my worms, and they're doing fine. One bin has multiplied into 5 bins.

Deanna

If you have an outdoor compost pile or access to one, you can feed your worms with partially proccessed material from the CP. That will be more readily available to the worms than fresh scraps.

Otis

I really like shredded corrugated cardboard as worm bedding but you do need a really good shredder to handle much of it. We broke two cheaper shredders before we got the one we use now that is really heavy duty and seems to handle all normal thinner weight corrugated cardboard.

The corrugated cardboard not only stays fluffier but has food value as well as being good bedding that helps keep bins aerated.

If you don't have a shredder that can handle the corrugated cardboard, just wet the pieces down and rip them by hand into chunks and mix through the bin. Worms love to crawl into the corrugations of the cardboard.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

I'm new posting, but not new reading these forums. Or composting with worms!! (ten years and counting)
My best tip to keep bedding and food separate (especially at the beginning when you just want to get in there and muck about with your worms)- is to put a small amount of bedding with the foodstuff into a loose mesh bag- like an onion net or- my favourite- a laundry bag for delicates- and lay it on top of the rest of your bedding. Then the worms can find their way to the food, but you can lift the bag and easily see what they're eating/ rejecting, anything that's going stinky, and dig around in the bedding without mixing in feed. You can also mix bedding to aerate it (in a non-ventilated bin) without mixing in food.

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

cathd66 great suggestion! to control the bin situation and yet still give people the chance to explore in the bin without heating things up.