I know little about raising worms but I've been reading and you may have too much food in such a small bin. How many worms do you have in there? I've watched youtube videos and it looks like people only add a small handful of food at a time, placing it in one corner of the bin. Next time, they place the food in another corner, working their way around the bin with each feeding. Perhaps you could try removing some of your food and see if that helps. If it's getting too hot in there, due to the food breaking down, the worms might be trying to find cooler air.

Hopefully, someone else will be along shortly who can help.

Mary

I'm gonna guess the bin is too wet. I think too wet is the reason more often than not.

Adding shredded papers or cardboard can help but also takes time. In addition you can leave the cover off and use a fan to gently move air over the bin. But only until the bin dries out some and the worms are happy.

Good Luck

Personally I don't think anything is wrong in your bin... I think your worms are behaving perfectly normal... for worms. I had the same issue until I realized the worms would not leave the bedding with the lid off, even in the dark they stayed put under the bedding. I very strongly believe it simply has to do with humidity levels in the air above the bin (and of course it must be dark). I've seen this same thing time and again on watching youtube vids... when a lid is taken off you see worms either crawling around every where or in the few cases where you don't see any when the lid comes off... you can tell they had been crawling around by the worm castings stuck all over the sides and top (very likely the person making the video had already lifted the lid prior which had caused the worms to retreat back under the bedding and then replaced lid again just before making the video). I leave my lid off all the time now and worms are never crawling around on the sides or even seen out from under the layer of shredded cardboard on top of the bedding.

I reason it like this.... worms in nature need to travel to find new food sources or they would die out as they are always multiplying and would be in trouble when the food ran out especially since these guys often live in the manure pile of some grazing animal and these guys don't burrow (not very far nor fast) and would never get to the next manure pile if some in the bunch didn't have the urge to crawl around to explore.... well, the only time its safe to do so is obviously when its very wet outside, warm with high humidity conditions and its dark out, that way they can travel quite a distance without drying out (meaning suffocating). Low humidity means they will have a hard time getting oxygen through their skin... since worms don't have lungs it would be the same as having COPD for a human, a condition where you struggle to breath... that would be enough to discourage any worm from foraging around in anything be high humid conditions. For myself, I can prove this over and over again in my bin... all I have to do is put the lid on and in just a couple hours if I lift the lid a few worms can already be seen crawling around the sides just above the shredded paper and if I wait a couple more hours there will be many more joining them and found "walking" all over the top as well... but shortly after I remove the lid they go back into the bedding (as the humidity drops again)... this is an exact repeatable behavior. In fact I watched a youtube where this guy (with a southern accent, maybe Georgia?) during a thunderstorm he visits his open worm bins in the barn with a flashlight to show masses of his worms escaping his open worm bins, they are crawling all over the place... its because obviously the humidity is at or near 100% with that night time rain storm going on. To prove my point leave the lid off you bin tonight and I'll bet your worms stay put under the bedding. I'm sure if conditions in the bin is actually terrible the worms will want to leave but I maintain that even if the bin conditions are perfectly to their liking some will still begin to go exploring when the humidity gets high enough...

BTW, being that your bin is so new, the worms essentially have no food to eat because its microbial action that creates food for the worms and that takes time to get going... so your worms are probably starving however I will still maintain they will not leave the safety of moist bedding if the humidity above that bedding is low.

If the bin is plastic its a good bet the bin is too wet and maybe not enough aeration, both are key. Also you dont say how many worms you have but since you just started 2 lbs of food sounds like an overload and could eventually turn your bin anerobic, and you will know if it does as it will smell really bad. Go easy on the food untill they worms are using it up .

Two days. They are still acclimating to their new environment. 2 pounds of food sounds like a lot in a 10 gal tote. 1 cup in the corner would be a good starting point . When they are all over that... another cup in a different corner. They won't starve. They will also eat the bedding. Best to start slow and watch how they respond. They won't probably eat very well for a couple of weeks.

Yep, 2 lbs of food is a lot food at once even if you have 1000s of worms in the 10 gal note. Plus their gathering at the top indicates the environment is not yet right. Do you have plenty of aeration? Is your bin moist? Leave the lid off for a couple of days if its outside or leave a light over the bin if its inside. These are reasons why its best to let your bedding sit for a week before adding worms so the environment can get right and even if a person does that you still should leave a light over the bin the first couple of days,,,, good luck with your bin.