One of my current favorite ways to separate worms from castings is to remove all of the castings, worms and all. then I put new bedding and food in the bin and put in a large piece of window screen -- large enough to come up the sides of the bin. Then I put the castings and worms on top of the screen. I leave the lid off so the castings can dry out some and stir it around every now and then. The worms move down into the new bedding and I'm left with nice fluffy dryish castings and (eventually) no worms.

There are lots of other methods. Try some and let us know your favorite.

Mariann

rembetika...What kind of bin do you have your worms in now?

a standard rubbermaid bin... and i'm not sure whether it's ready or not, because there's still some remains of paper & cardboard... are you supposed to wait until it's all castings, or just mostly?

It sounds like you are ready to harvest..or..You could get another bin and drill holes just like you have for your working bin now. Take out the recognizable food and paper. Nest the second bin inside the first bin making sure the bottom of the 2nd is in contact with the surface of the 1rst. Do not feed that lower bin ever again. Put fresh food in the top bin and cover with shredded paper (this is now your working tray). The worms will begin to migrate through the holes in the bottom of the 2nd bin to find the fresh food. When that 2nd bin gets full of compost, you can add one more tray the same way. When that tray is full the bottom bin will be "virtually" all vermicompost and the worms will be in the upper 2 trays. You would then take your bottom bin out and dump the compost in a container until you are ready to use it. If you are dying to use your compost right now, then the screen method, although more labor intensive, is the way to go.
Have fun!

i like this 2-bin method, i just found out about it yesterday, so thanks for the detailed explanation. i don't understand so many websites say to "start feeding on the other side and they will migrate".. it just does NOT work, because as i said, in a few days all the bedding you put on the clean side just gets all decomposed with the "done" side again, and you can't keep them separated. (unless i'm missing something!)
anyway the worms are starting to escape through the bottom holes so i guess it IS time.

thanks guys!

one more question,, once i get the new bin inside the old bin, if the old stuff is about 80-90% composted right now (and it's been working for about 3-4 months, with stuff added to it occasionally- but it's still wet & clumpy with some newspaper/cardboard remnants, definitely not dry and fluffy)... about how long does it take for them to finish with the old and go into the new? i hope it won't take a few more months!.. although i'm trying to be patient and remember that it takes a while to really get established (by then there's more worms & it goes faster, right?)

I would remove anything recognizable and put it in the new working tray. A good population of adult and baby worms will move pretty quickly into the upper bin. There will always be those that are happy to stay below and finish redigesting material. There will also be cocoons hatching. You might consider using a 3rd bin and the separation will be most complete. I do all different methods of harvesting. It just depends on what I want it for. I build complete worm bin systems with people here in Raleigh and use the active compost to "seed" their bins, so I don't try to separate the castings. When I want castings I work out of the 3 tiered types to have less sorting to do or use the screen method, which works very well too.

Another option is to buy a six pack of beer, get a bucket and just sort by hand. Its a few hours of mindless work for a standard rubbermaid bin, but then you're done.

Don't get anal about every single cocoon and tiny wiggler or you'll go insane. Doing it this way is instant gratification for those of us doing the small scale bin.

Really good to see your post, Joe.
Hope all is well with you.

bruce

I like Joe's way, only I believe wine would work better.

rembebtika,

Not sure if I am reading your post correctly or not but it seems to me that there is no sepatation between the two sides, that is the fresh and the ready side.

:: i've been trying to separate the worms from the material which seems ready to use, to a bed of new material on the other side- but when i open the bin later, it's all just mixed together again, and the worms are still on both sides.::

The link below will give you an idea of horizontal migration method.
Personally, vertical migration via the screening method for me is easiest.
Both methods have one thing in common though, PATIENCE, you cannot hurry this process along, more worms will help, but worms know what is best for them and we cannot push things as much as we might like too.

http://members.shaw.ca/borealwormer/#17weeks

In answer to your last post, if you continue to feed, however little, you are prolonging the finish, the worms tend to select the optimum location i.e food availability and living conditions, that suits them best and that can mean the freshly started side or the finished castings (finished castings is actually a relative term).
It can actually take as long a year for castings to be left alone by all the worms.

Glad to see your post, Joe -- I know there are lots of us here who have been thinking about you!

I like Joe's idea to. I can be productive and drink my beer. LOL

Harvesting by hand with the assistance of a cooler iced with Miller Lite has become a tradition around my house. I especially like...no plan, to do it when my grandkids are visiting. The little buggers get to play "find the baby worms and eggs and whoever finds the most gets a secret prize" which is based, somewhat, on their efforts. Most of the time the prize is a trip down to the ice cream parlor for massive amounts of artery-clogging worthlessness, which the kids love better than life itself...obviously. They are getting older, though, and I may need to take them to a place a little more grown up-like the daquiri express place....virgins for them, experienced for me.

At any rate, I get my vermi separated, the kids get to get filthy dirty with Grandpa, and play with worms, and eat ice cream with wormy-poop little hands.

Chuckiebtoo

Tcdutch,, sorry i didn't answer your question earlier... i had nothing separating the sides, because everything i read on the net- about the easiest way to harvest- said not to... supposedly you're just supposed to start feeding on the one side- and they will migrate to that side- then you can scoop the finished stuff out of the old side.
and this info is circulated all over the net-- but have any of those people actually TRIED this method?? because if they do they'll see it doesn't work!

I think our expectations of instant response by the worms is where we become disillusioned about worm migration. When the food runs out on the "old" side, they will move to where food is....but, it may take time.

A little off topic, but interesting: I've begun putting a much smaller plastic bin with nothing but veggie scrapes covered with a few newspaper strips into a larger, closer- to-harvest but not totally ready one. Of interest is how quickly the BSF larva migrate..overnight. Could be an effective way to separate worms from larva, although I can't imagine why anyone would want to. UNLESS, a person wanted to convert an outdoor bin into an indoor one, which is what I'm doing now. I'll report the results of the effort.

Chuckiebtoo

hi chuckie,
what happened is that i started putting food on the "new" side, but in a few days the new food (and hence the worms) would just end up getting all mixed up again, and there really were no "sides". maybe i didn't do it for long enough...?

oh well, i guess experimenting is half the fun, eh?

When going for the lateral migration, some people put a piece of window screen between the old and the new bedding, or something stiffer with holes in it. That way the two beddings don't get mixed toghether. However, for me, it is much easier just to lay the screen on top of the old bedding and put the new bedding on top of it.

I use the lateral method and it works, more or less, if given enough time. A few days is no where near long enough, but a few weeks ought to be long enough for most to have migrated to the new food side. Then I pick through the old food side and harvest the castings. I am not too concerned about harvesting a few worms or cocoons because they reproduce rapidly and with only one standard size Rubbermaid bin, I only have so much space for them anyhow. Often a few little pieces of egg shell or bedding or coffee grounds get harvested too, but that isn't a problem. Never tried drinking as I pick through, but I do pull up a little stool for comfort and it takes me about 20 minutes.

When I am done, I push most of the material from the 'new' side over to the 'old' side I just harvested from, and it then becomes the new 'new' side. I only put food on that side until I harvest again. Over on the new 'old' side, the worms finish up and gradually most move over to where there's more food.

Never had the new food get mixed up on the old side of the bin, and I can't quite see how that would happen because I am the only one doing any mixing. I just layer new food on top, put the bedding back over it, and it stays there until the worms eat it.