if the worms were alive and active then you are OK....you should start worrying when you find that the temperature is too high...too high meaning your worms try and escape. do you have a thermometer to measure that temperature in the bin. If not get one. This will make it easier for you to control the temperature. Be careful of adding too much fresh green material...they heat up fast and can cook your worms. Do you have drainage holes in your bin to help drain of excess moisture?

I've had part of my worm factory heat up, but the worms were okay because they kept away from the hot area. I think it happened because I put sweepings from the floor of the chicken house in. After a few days it cooled down again. If the worms have somewhere to escape to they should be fine.
mbetts

No, it was a starter bin I got from a local lady who breeds and sells the worms and compost. It has ventilation and lid. Its made of wood. I was thinking of getting some small legs from the home improvement store and attaching them and than drilling a few drainage holes in the bottom.

If you turn the bedding when there is hot composting materials in there (like the chicken feed you just mentioned), the bin will heat up more because you are spreading around the hot composting stuff. For example, when working with a regular outdoor compost pile which decomposes through heat generated from microbial activity, when someone's pile is cooling down, the conventional wisdom is to turn it to redistribute the materials.

You should not turn the materials in the worm bin when there is food in there that is nitrogenous material, unless we're talking about an insignificant amount, like an apple core or a banana peel. That won't heat up the bin when turned. It's best to keep food that has the potential of heating up the bin in one area at a time - pocket feeding.

Deanna

FYI, for anyone who adds chicken poo to a compost bin, it is the hottest (highest in nitrogen) of any animal waste and will get very hot. We use it in the regular compost bins along with all the hay and straw sweepings from the floor of the coop. I don't add anything fresh from the chickens to my worm bins, although feathers would probably be ok in moderation. Cheryl