Capt. Pete -- What kind of worms do you have? Did you buy them or harvest from your garden? It looks like they are not apt to wander away from home. Are the sides of your in-ground worm farm solid wood? How often do you feed and what was "too much"?

Barb, I was given a 2 gallon bucket full ir red wigglers (maybe 1000) from a fellow vermicomposter who inspired me with his inground bin with NO walls approx. 50'x10', covered with carpet. It was a beautiful heap about 12" tall. He claims to harvest several tons of vermicost yearly, and by the looks of his orchard and community garden I believe him. The walls of my bin are 4' solid redwood (4"x6" posts stacked 3 high) and worms stay where the food is. I usually feed kitchen scraps every 2-3 days (whenever really) and occasionally heavy feed with copious amounts of aged horse manure with native red wigglers and probably cacoons, starbucks UCG, and pumpkin. Too much food woud be 30 lbs manure +1 15 lb bag of Starbucks + 3 jack-o-lanterns + 2" of green leaves and lots of cardboard at once. I built a hot compost pile, but they survived and thrived! Maintenance is about 10 minutes weekly when I feed and fluff the bin with a pitchfork. I harvest by stopping the food on 1 side for a month. Then I pull the carpet back on that side, rake the bedding off and let the light drive away the squirm for awhile. I then sift 3" shovelfuls at a time, allowing time for the light to drive out stragglers. So far so good!! If I were to start over I would line the bottom with hardware cloth to prevent a mole or gopher raid. So far the solar powered gopher stakes have kept them at bay. I don't know if it matters much, but I live in a very mild climate and the box is mostly shaded.

Cool! Your bin sounds really wonderful. If I had the space, I would love to have an outdoor bin. I really would like to create more usable compost.

Thanks for the information about the gopher stakes. I've often wondered if they work. Do you have a lot of gopher problems in your area? What about voles? (That's what plagues me).

I have been using gopher stakes for about 10 years now. In 1998 I helped build a half-acre grass heliport for dust abatement. It worked well for the first summer but by the second summer we mowed over gopher mounds every few feet and the dust was back. Firefighters are resourceful and many common and uncommon eradication method were tried to no avail. I then bought and installed 2 gopher stakes about 100' apart and a month later the critters left. Some of the crew was disapointed as gopher erradication had become a challenge! Anyway I have 6 stakes around my yards. I am trying my first solar powerd stake as the batteries must be replaced annually. $25 Home Depot. I don't have expierience with Voles, buy if they live and burrow in yor yard I bet it would work.

Nice mendopete, very nice.

I also have two hot compost heaps, which I stocked with a hanful of worms a year ago, and they seem to love it in there. I think they have plenty of room to move if it becomed too this or that. Works well.

I like you're bin size though. Might have to look into this myself (maybe old railway sleepers... mmm)

Cheers

I have been thinking about adding a few shovelfulls of baby worms and surrounding compost to my compost piles. Maurader, do you actively manage your hot piles by turning? I was afraid that turning the pile would be disruptive to the worm mo-jo. I may try some in my lasagne beds and a big pile I built that I don't plan on turning untill May.