I am a teacher. Just before the end of the school year, I harvested the finished compost and decided to set up a new bin . Knowing that I might not get back to the bin much over the summer, I decided to load it with a bunch of organic material. Here is what I did:

1) I filled a rubbermaid container about 1/3 of the way with moist, shredded paper.

2) I added a few apple cores and a couple of banana peels.

3) Then I added a few handfuls of outdoor dirt from the garden, along with some leaves/grass. I also added some finished compost from the old bin.

Then I just let it sit...In fact, for two months, I didn't open it once. In fact, I had completely forgotten about it upon my return to the classroom in September. Lo and behold, when I opened the lid, the bin was completely finished. There wasn't a hint of paper left. It was, by far, my fastest cycle. I think a big factor was the fact that I wasn't opening the lid all the time - like I do during the school year. Also, it is my belief that the worms don't eat the newspaper as quickly if you are continually adding new food.

I wonder why people are usually told not to add organic material such as outdoor dirt, leaves, and grass. For me, it worked well. I guess there might be a potential insect issue, but for me it worked well.

Here is my next question.....I recently decided to try a new harvesting method. I pushed all of the worms and finished compost to one side of the bin and filled the other side with fresh bedding. I added some apple cores to that side. My thinking was that the worms would migrate over there since that is where the food is. However, a week later, they seem to be perfectly happy in the finished compost section. I have only found a few worms in the new bedding.

What can I do to get them to migrate?