Its not uncommon for the odd worm to find its way through the holes you drilled in the bottom. I wouldn't worry about it unless lots are falling through in which case perhaps the holes are a bit big. You could try placing a piece of plastic or wire netting/mesh on the bottom of your top bin to keep them from falling through.

In time the worms will be having kids and there will be sooooooo many worms that losing a few really won't matter.

Adding more water probably isn't the problem. There's a good discussion in this forum around Feb 18, or a little later, about adding water to the bin. I've never found I had to add water to my bin since the initial set up.

Chris

I too have a double rubbermaid bin set up. I only had a couple of stragglers head down, and I have twenty five or so large'ish 1/4 or 1/2 inch holes drilled around the entire bottom of the top bin.

My first concern would be how much moisture is in the top bin. You say you drilled small holes in a couple of places, make sure that is enough....pull the bedding aside to make sure the bin is actually draining. Too much moisture will cause the worms to flee. If you have good drainage, the bedding is moist like a wrung out sponge, the food is present and breaking down, I'd imagine this should settle down once everyone gets the idea that this is the new home environment.

The other question is how thick is your bedding layer. I started with 4+ inches of bedding put the worms on top, added some food, and then put a couple more inches of bedding on top of them. I felt this would help keep them above the drain holes until the system got into full swing. It seems to have worked, as I've not ever found more than a straggler or two down below.

What I do find much more often is the worm/baby worm that crawls up the side of the bin, stops, dies and drys up. I've finally come to terms that I can't save them....this is just their nature!

I'm a bit of a newbie myself, only been worming since October 2006, but i've kept the herd alive and growning. There are a ton of pro's here who can give you really good advise!

I'm still having to rescue the worms from the bottom bin. I guess I'd better start adding more bedding, it's maybe only 4 inches deep with bedding & food (which is breaking down very nicely) I'll add more bedding. And yes the bin is draining very well, maybe I do have it too wet, how much should be draining? How many air vent holes should I have around the top of the bin?

Thanks

My bins never really drain. The bottom bin will have a couple spots of moisture, but never really a puddle down below. See pics for my bin set up!

Bedding should be damp like a wrung out sponge, and fluffed a bit for air circulation. Squeeze bedding tight in your hand and you'll get some drips.

That is a starting point, just remember that your moisture will mainly depend on what type of food you are feeding. Melons are especially juicy when they break down and will increase your bin moisture substantially, so things could get mucky. If I feed bread products and coffee grounds, my bin is much dryer.

Lots of folks say they don't ever add water to their rubbermaids, because the plastic doesn't ever let the bedding really dry out.

It's a fine balance, and you will find it soon! Hope this info was helpful. Check out the link below, these folks are nuts about their worms and extremely helpful!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Other Rubber maid bin Questions answered