I recently flipped my worms from one COW level to another and added paper because the bottom was all wet and mucky. I was expecting homogenous progress of the bin and misread what was going on. Should have harvested the wet stuff.

Now my worms no longer come to the surface as much- avoiding me possibly. It could also be that the food pretty much ended up deeper in the bin than I usually put it. When I GENTLY brush aside the surface, I'm seeing several worms that are either pale on one end or just now one that is pale on the top and normal color on the bottom. They are also somewhat lethargic- kind of shocky looking.

I'm assuming this is due to physical trauma. How do others dig in their bins without hurting the worms? I flipped the layer because I thought it might be less traumatic than digging by hand. Previously, there were so many worms that when I scooped with my hand, some always ended up getting hurt.

Thanks,

Maggie