The worm inn is a flow through, so in a working system you should be able to put in the top and just harvest from the bottom. No turning should be required. Smells other than nice earthy are normally from adding meat and or dairy, or from just adding too much food with not enough carbon based brown material to balance the system.

The finished compost in the bottom of the worm in does compact a little from everything I've seen, but if you harvest somewhat regularly it should not be an issue. Do you have your worm inn outdoors where the rain will be soaking it? I would keep it indoors because it is designed to not smell and the temperature inside will be more constant.

It is outside, I have it covered with wood so that rain doesnt saturate it. It is under a tree. I have a thermometer in it and it stays 80 all the time or about there.

If you are 80 year round keeping it outside should not be a problem for temp, the only thing you actually want to keep an eye on would be if it gets too dry. If you have it covered and it really only gets moisture from the air and maybe rain splash worms will be fine. If it is ever very dry out I would add some water every day, enough to keep the bedding wet.

Hi I am from Trinidad & Tobago and I am new to vermicomposting. As a matter of fact I have not heard of any one in Trinidad, worm farming. I tried to import worms but was unsuccessful so I decided to see if I can get them locally.so I started a bin since February 2012 and have since harvested the bin. My concern though is that my worms don't seem to be reproducing as I would like them to. Today I went to a manure pile which had lots and lots of little red worms but they are not vigorous and wiggly as those I have . They are very thin, so I am wondering if have the real deal and how to fatten these worms....

I've got one and haven't had any issues or any reason to mix. I certainly do see that the wetter it is, the more compact it gets. But for me this is a compaction of finished VC so no smell or anaerobic processes going on.

I wonder if being wet, rained on (wind from the sides..), or high water content feedings (or a bit of all the above) that some leachate basically washed down into your lower VC and then started to stink. VC itself shouldn't stink.

If it has a tendency to compress down due to being damp, you could always increase the amount of bedding you add with your feedings. I always lean to adding more than less, if some comes out of the bottom still while harvesting it's fine as I just put it back on top. Should help keeping things aerated, corrugated cardboard doing a better job than regular paper.