Greetings,

I am new to this forum. I have been lurking around this and a few other places for about 6 months.

I started worming about a year ago using a continuous flow system which is similar to the COWs you have. They are essentially a 70l (about 16US gal) refuse bin containing a series of bowls with holes cut in their bottoms to facilitate vertical migration. When a bowl is full one merely places a new bowl on top and continues feeding. The lower bowls are further processed by the worms at their leisure. When the bin is full of bowls the lowest is harvested and so the cycle continues. I currently have 7 of these bins as well as a different type of continuous flow bin (not yet a successful design) which I use for experimenting with different feed types etc. My question is as follows: what would the worm densities LOOK like to determine if it is time to split the bin into two? I have no idea what my original mass of worms was or whether they have been breeding at optimal rates (I very rarely see capsules but do have a lot of juvenile and baby worms present). My intention is to maximise the population in order to have enough to compost most of my garden's (1/2 acre) vegetable waste and to be able to supply worm farms to schools and friends for educational purposes. I do find that a lot of worms migrate down to the bottom of the bin which is quite wet and feed on schredded paper which I put there to ensure they are at least fed. The migration downward started before I started putting paper at their disposal.This is despite the fact that there is always a supply of well rotted kitchen waste food present in the top bowl. This group that collects at the bottom is returned, with the attendant sludge, to the operating (top) bowl approximately every fortnight and fresh paper put in the bottom. Please note that the bin bottom has holes for draining excess exudate -this very seldom happens as the paper absorbs most if not all. I understand that the maximum population of a given bin is limited by space (area?) and food availability and do not want to restrict their population growth by delaying splitting the bin until too late.

Kind regards,

JohnK