I've also noticed a lot of worm eggs in there. but I can't seperate the eggs out. at least it seems like a very tough task to do so.

Different people put different things in their compost, and that may affect how it dries.

But apart from a slight dry crust on the surface, I've never found the stuff hardening or congealing. Instead it becomes dusty, crumbly, loose as it dries. I doubt you need to do this thing with the spreading out and the newspaper. Why not leave it in a bin or a bag and see what happens?

I've got two cubic feet that I disinterred from my lower trays last week that looks like what you show. It's sitting in the finishing bin (with worms still active in it). In another week the top layer will be dry enough that I can pull the bin out into the sun and skim off compost to plant garlic with.

Once it's more dry it's easier to flick out the cocoons if you notice them and put them back in the bin. Some folks go to great effort to collect their cocoons; I confess I don't worry about them.

great, thanks for the advice! Not too worried now :) Once it dries up I'll attempt to harvest babies as they hatch with something on top to catch them and return to the worm bin.

I just completed my first harvest on the 1st, and my vc was as wet as yours. I let it sit in cones on a large garbage bag for a couple of days, slowly taking out the worms, and it was fine. Dry and crumbly. I'm storing it in doubled up plastic shopping bags, loosely tied in a bow, lots of air around. I found it a lot easier to wait a couple of weeks and check the harvested vc for baby worms than to pick out cocoons. Still not clear on id'ing those.

This would not have been a popular choice if I had roommates. *g*

Or put it in a bucket with half a pumpkin flat on it. By spring the babies will be all right up underneath the pumpkin ready to scoop off and the vermicompost should be evenly moist not wet.