wood bins are excellent, they breathe so are less likely to be too wet, and that 'transpiration' also keeps them cooler .... for the screening, it works well to use it to move them up/down rather than side to side - as you get a level of worked over bedding for them, lay the screen on top [flyscreen works, they can get thru very small spaces, or use 1/4 mesh "hardware cloth"] - add some bedding and continue feeding above the screen and the worms will move up over time to the new food - harvesting then can be lifting the screen and taking the material below, dump the screen into the bin and replace it on top that fresher material, repeat

Bill

I have wood bins, and I keep them in my shed outside. During the summer, the bins are below my work bench with a fan above blowing towards the roof to keep the air moving. I do have to check every couple of days, and usually give a few sprays of water to keep it moist. The more serious problem has been during the winter. I probably need some way to better insulate the boxes. I have used a light bulb below the boxes to allow just enough heat to keep them alive. Last winter the bulb burned out on a 20 degree night, and mostly all the worms from one box froze. So I'll need to work out another way to keep them warm.

Have you tried adjusting the carbon/nitrogen ratios of the materials in your box? I'm not sure how long the thermophilic microorganisms will act as a heat source, but if the box is insulated enough, the heat will last.

Speaking of insulation, have you ever tried surrounding the outside with insulation foam, hay or even shredded newspaper or cardboard? You could wall off that insulation material with another larger outer wall.

As you mentioned, Takadi,my plan may be to frame out something where I surround it with foam, or some insulating materials. Last winter, I did wrap the boxes with a roll of insulating material used for water tanks. Another point that I learned is to NOT harvest the castings in the Fall, as the worms like to get down in that for keeping warm during those colder winter nights.

Ok. I need a quick rundown again. Tell me if this is correct. I've read that recommended is a pound of worms per sq foot, and I also read one sq foot for every pound of food waste. So, is that a sq per pound per day, or per week? Because those numbers don't seem to make sense.

I got my basic box frame built, although I still have to add the top, bottom, and drain holes. It came out to be 6.94 sq ft. So, essentially, I should have 7 pounds of worms in there.

My important question relating to size, and #, is how much will I be able to process eventually with a 7 sq ft box? Relating to space that is, not number of worms. I have about 4 pounds of worms now, if I calculate right, that should mean I can process 14 pounds with the worms I have. I suppose I'm wanting to know what to expect my maximum processing capaticy to be.

you're gonna have as many as 7000 adult worms laid out on a flat surface smaller than my desk??

don't overthink it - what counts is cubic feet, worms go up and down they don't lay about on the surface .... and space isn't what processes waste, worms do, as a base figure, worms [adults] might consume half their weight per day, including bedding materials like paper, and the castings they may prefer to whatever you're adding that day ... and the material has to be microbially active before they even know it's there

the way to go about it is watch what you add [small amounts to start] and see how fast it disappears, and pay attention to what you add, some things will virtually dissolve in hours from microbial activity, some things will be recognizeable for days or weeks ... and everything will be adding water

Bill

Thanks bill. I'm a little overparanoid about adding too much food, so I'm sure I'm feeding them less than they really could consume.

I'm just planning on transferring the 2 small bins I have into this one. All spread out, it would only be about 5 inches depth in this bin I think.

So I wasn't hallucinating then, the numbers I read about size vs waste really weren't useful. I couldn't figure out any way that those numbers made any sense. LOL

I'm trying to determine if this one bin will be big enough for a permanent solution to my waste-disposal needs, and am overthinking it a bit. Since it takes so long to have finished compost, I want to make sure I have enough space.

I've been collecting my shredded paper and cardboard. I seem to end up with a 13 gallon plastic bag full of shredded paper approximately every week-10 days. I guess I'll just have to see how long it takes me to fill this bin, and go from there.