Tammy, you shouldn't have any problem. Sounds like you may have over done the food a little bit for just starting out. But, as long as your worms aren't leaving the bin, you should be ok.
I have heard of those that put used kleenex, used paper towels, dryer lint, cotton clothing, etc. into their bins with no problem. I don't do that myself, but it should be ok. I personally use a mixture of shredded newspaper, shredded cardboard, and coffee grounds with a little sand or ground egg shells as bedding and then add the food scraps as I have them.
As for your excitement (and wanting to "check" on the worms every two minuets) I believe everyone does that at first. But after awhile you get used to them and you change. However, I remember, it IS exciting when you see your first mating, or egg capsule, or baby worm! Girl, I believe you've got the "fever"!! :)
Welcome to the club!

I was very excited with my first worm bin.. What I did was put down a thick layer of wet torn up cardboard... then topped that off with composted cow poo, added my 1 lb. of worm, covered that with about 4 or 5 inches of wet shredded newspaper.. and let it set for about a week. Then I began to feed them melon rinds that I had pureed in a food processor... Now I add a bit of chopped or pureed lettuce, plus banana skins, and melon rind, (I kept a bunch of that frozen for my new babies), and I only look at them when I add food... When I feed... I make a little trench and place the food in the trench, and cover it over... Oh and BTW, My red wigglers as well as my Euros love apples skins... man o man, they were all over that stuff... like a huge worm ball... how cool is that?

Good luck with your new venture..

Carolyn

I never read the book when I started, I just read what was posted on this and other websites. I put dryer lint, kleenexes, paper towels, and a pair of boxers that weren't going to be useful anywhere else. My worms are thriving.

I have a 30-something gallon flow through bin, so I don't mind if things take a long time to process. In fact, I've only just started harvesting, and I've had the bin going for 8 months. At first, I was poking around, seeing what they were doing. After a few months, I found that just leaving them alone accomplishes more.

New foods in the bin will make it smell a little bit, for a while. Just keep the lid on for a week, and the smell will go away. Take it easy on the food for a while, until they get settled in, about a month or two. My worms didn't really kick into gear for about two months.

I would also stop adding any water to the bin/bedding now. Moisture will be your #1 problem as a new person, and the food you put in the bin will keep it wet enough. I haven't added anything to my bin in months, except for the occasional 1/4 beer that got hot, and it's still pretty moist. I find I have to add quite a bit of paper or cardboard to keep things under control.

Tammy, you just described how i started my first bin. 18 gallon bin and all. Except the cabbage was cauliflower and i didn't use Fabrill i used composted cow dung. I also started with a half pound of worms.

The smell went away in 72 hours. Just started smelling a little like wet paper the next day and in three the cabbage smell was gone.

A week later i put in some bad tops off some radishes and the next week a cup of frozen chopped mixed food. The third week the first two feedings were both gone. I have feed them slowly increasing amounts each week since.

Except for when i decided that the worms were old enough and over fed. I feed too much watermelon rind. Things got nasty quick. Worms love watermelons but a watermelon rind can add up to two gallons of liquid to the bin. And two of them four gallons and so on. Not pretty, an over wet bin draws house flies, gnats, fruit flies, a ton of mites and can go anaerobic quick. Do keep things on the dry side adding the cardboard and paper. That was the hardest lesson for me to learn.

Before i shifted over to a flow through i had finally gotten a handle on the over wet thing and started putting a coconut cior block into the bin unsoaked. When the bin got too wet the coir soaked up the excess moisture and a little crumbled off making more bedding and keeping moisture levels just right. I wasn't going to buy bedding but i found some cheap and it worked wonderfully. Worms just love coir and i always keep a bit on hand now days.

Hi, I'm also a beginner with my worm bin. My problem is my worms continue to climb up the sides of my bins to escape. I've already lost a few. I have shredded damp newspaper and have added carrot peels, apple peels, egg shells. The worms are very active but continue to climb up out of the bin. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sailjo,
It's very common for worms to crawl on the sides, especially in a newly set-up bin. They like any moisture that might be on the sides, and they also might be looking for some food, if there's hasn't decomposed yet.

Leave the lid off, and a light on, and they'll soon stay undercover.
If you've got hordes of worms on the sides and top doing a mass exodus, then there's a problem!

I have worms on the sides of my bins periodically.

I almost always have several "investigators" on my lid. On the days they aren't any on the lid, I see evidence that they have been there. It's normal for them to move around a lot. The majority of them should be down where they belong, feeding. I always get a kick out of seeing a balled up mass of them feeding on some tidbit.

I've found that cabbage, cauliflower, and green peppers can smell quite strongly for a few days. They'll decompose quicker if you shred them up in the food processer first. I now tend to add those particular items in smaller doses, although I didn't really have a problem with them getting nasty. One time I had a bunch of green peppers go bad,so I fed them shredded up to my worms. All I could smell when I walked in the room was green peppers for about 3 days.

Go easy on spaghetti, cereals, or flour products. Add those in small quantities. The worms love them and get quite fat eating them, but too much at once will make your bin smell pretty badly for a week or so. They tend to get gluey, and unless you like sewer smell, go easy on it. Freeze portions of those and dole them out gradually. I usually mix them in with chunky pieces of celery and carrots.

I always put a thick layer of shredded newspaper, (or other paper), on top of all the food. Then I sprinkle some water on it (lightly) to moisten it. Keeps the flies, etc. out of the bin.

It's very satisfying when you finally harvest your first batch of compost. It's also fun when the worm family grows and there are all sorts of ages of worms in there, from tiny, tiny, babies to big fat adults, and everything in between. I noticed a lot of the worms that roam around in the lid, etc. appear to be what I would classify as teenager size.

Sandy

Sailjo,
like jasdip said, a mass exodus might indicate a problem with your bin OR you might have gotten the wrong worms. The place where I got my worms from told me that the "night crawlers" are not the right worms for bin-composting, and the will escape if kept in bins. Nightcrawlers are the ones used for bait (fishing). The right ones are found in old manure.
I wonder if I go to places where they sell manure, will they let me collect the worms? What places charge for worms are really expensive (in my oppinion anyway), the lb. price is more than filet mignon!
Otis

Hi Otis,
Worms are expensive here in Ontario I find. I've bought them and they go for around $45/lb. You can certainly go rooting in some manure piles. I did a few times, but the only worms I found (different farms) were dew worms---Canadian Night Crawlers.....real fat fishing worms. These aren't good composters, so I ended up by buying my worms.

Sandy808, When I feed my guys a lot of greens, especially Kale, the smell is strong for a couple days, then it peters out. Hubby always says "they stink" when I feed them a bunch of herbs, kale, etc. He knows it dissipates after a day or two, so he doesn't get upset.
I've picked up produce from the grocery store when my personal supply of food for the worms was low, and that's when the smell is strong, using the greens. With my potatoes, broccoli, carrots etc etc there is no smell at all.

A also have observed my worms crawling around the sides and lid when they are hungry. I've taken particular notice of this the past few times it's happened, and it's happens around the time when it's feeding time again. They're obviously spoiled, because there's bedding in the bin for them to eat, but they like the actual food. I feed my bins (4) 3 to 4 ice cream pails of food per week.

I have two bins for vermiculture. One has European Nightcrawlers and the other has red wigglers. I ordered a pick up load of composed cow manure to add to my bins. I started out with shredded cardboard on the bottom, then some potting soil I had left over from last year. I checked to be sure there was no mildew in it and then just dumped it in... I put some old lettuce leaves that I had run through my food processor and buried it in the soil along with the worms. To that I added about 5 or 6 inches of composted manure. I added about a 6" layer of shredded newpaper and soaked it down with some water right out of the tap. We have city water and I was worried it might not be so good for them. But they don't mind a bit. I don't let them get too dry, but I don't allow them to get too wet neither. Damp it good and they are multiplying faster that a family of rabbits. I took a look in the bins this week after not messing with them for about 2 or 3 weeks and I had about a kazillion little baby worms. Oh happy day !! They are happy in their home. I keep one of those energy saving lights on above the Euro bin and they do like to move around in the dark. The light keeps them down in the bin, like good little woims..

Good luck with your new venture..