Mary, that's the value of a site like this. Thanks for putting some reality into my plan. I hadn't thought about the heat generated in the composting process. Thankfully I hadn't ordered my worms yet.

wolverine, you could introduce earth worms instead of red wigglers. EW's are better suited for outside composting because they can burrow into the earth if the pile is too hot. RW's on the other hand, live in the top 2" of the 'soil' - or whatever. HTH. m

Mary, that would work since there's no bottom to the bins.

Mary's advice is excellent. I would also add that, from my own experience (As well as quite a bit of what I have seen on the web), if you create happy conditions in your compost or garden, worms will just naturally gravitate there without you adding them. This assumes you live someplace with a native worm population, but the sense I have gotten from previous discussions is that for most of the country, there are probably already worms in your yard, and when your compost reaches the tasty stage, they will migrate into it, assuming the pile is sitting on dirt.

I was just out, turning and consolidating the bins into one, and found some really nice soil at the bottom. I have a large leaf pile right next to the bins and every year when I move the leaves to the garden I find quite a large population of EW's.

I can attest that there are loads of good munchies in that one bin now, so let the migration begin!!

Thanks for your encouragement bassopotamus.

Red wigglers in a compost pile are like kids in a candy shop. It is hard to get them out of there!

As the piles cool just keep them damp, dark, and protected from the many predators.

Good luck!

During the warm/not hot weather the red wrigglers will stay home in the compost pile if conditions are proper, i.e temperature 60-80, damp, not wet, lots of good food and a way to get out of the light. The problem arrise during cold weather. Red wrigglers live in the first 3 inches of top soil/compost. Hard for them to stay alive through a cold winter. My comments are those of a novice who listens to the experts.

I've had compost worms live very, very well outside in a pile, and they love it and seem to speed things up. I've also had them live through (very long and could) winters no problem - although of course they're not active in winter.

Hot weather I think is more of a problem than heat in the pile - but as long as they have somewhere to hide, they should survive. Mainly in a good-sized pile, there should be enough 'cool spots' for them.

This is just my own experience, might depend on local conditions and worms. I'd also say it's far more likely to work well if you can find local worms in a manure pile - they're almost certain to be adapted to local conditions.