If you over feed the only thing you are likely to get is an anerobic worm bin which will surely kill them. There are many references as to worm population expansion in the archives. Do a search and you will get many good answers.
Worms have to adapt to their environment before they settle in and start major repoduction. If you give them the all the same environment and that is what they are used to they will do well. There really is no exact formula to tell you at what rate they "will" reproduce due to all of the conditions involved.
Consider these: the amount of time in a new or different environment, type of food, heat and/or cold, type of worms, and many things we just don't understand.
Many places will offer you numbers in 'optimal' conditions. When we can figure what is 'optimal' we could raise worms without a worry and have millions in no time. This is to help educate you not discourage you. I have read many post here and all over the internet and still don't know an answer to your question.

Worm reproduction can't be expressed in terms of "how long to double" unless you have a uniform population of all ages from fresh eggs to mature adults. If you start with breeders, there will be a substantial delay before the first eggs start hatching and another delay as those reach maturity.

Over feeding will likely reduce production, not increase it. Spreading adults too thinly will also reduce reproduction since they need to bump into a partner.

Species makes a huge difference, a decent reference is

http://mypeoplepc.com/members/arbra/bbb/id14.html

gerry

I've read that commercial operations have been able to acheive population doubling every 2 months. While that depends on the age structure, as gerry g says above, I guess that once you have a cycle running maybe 2 months to double would be under optimal conditions. They state that the worm density is important (see the link).

After an almost utter failure with an indoor bin (overfed, as warned by billr), I'm having huge success adding compostables to my raised (no sides) garden bed, with 6" plus of pure castings. (I noticed all the castings- started out planting in 80% 1/2 composted material, and now they even ate all the mulch) I'll grow the beds out laterally, then split them and move the vermicomposting operation to a new bed elsewhere in the yard this spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: commercial vermicomposting- great link

>I'm having huge success adding compostables to my raised (no sides) garden bed,

How do you keep the worms at a happy temperature outside in the winter? (Assuming you are using worms common to vermicomposting)

gerry

They haven't spent a winter out there yet, so ask me again in the spring - LOL!

Last winter I just piled up lots of compostables- shredded leaves, garden waste, etc. etc. Part of that heated up. In the spring I had a good crop of worms where I had seen few before (beds were built on compacted sand and gravel- the worms took a while to make it to the garden and to get a population going well). Anyway- it seems to have wokred as they not only lived, but their populations expanded. This year I'll get many bags of OPL (stolen bags of other people's leaves), and whatever other compostables I can find, pile it on 2' thick, with a few cores of greener material to provide some heating from composting. Seems to be what the commercial folks do.