I just got my worms in the post today. I have been reading up for the last few days to try to avoid beginner's problems. It seems as if a lot of people lose quite a few of their worms when just starting thier bins due to the stress of shipping and possibly the sterility of the new materials- lack of benificial bacteria etc... Is this what most people experience or am I just reading the problem posts?

I'm also wondering about the pros and cons of different types of compost worms. I notice most people on this forum seem to use red wrigglers. I have Dendrobaenas and just wonder about the difference with using different worms- or do they all pretty much do the same job at the same rate of time?

Also- I am using the double bin system but it doesn't seem like the population is big enough to use the second bin yet (i have an 8 gal. plastic bin and about 400 worms). Is the second bin only really used when it's time to harvest?