That's awesome, it's the same exact color I painted my bathroom. Not sure what I was thinking..

I have to say, interesting as it is to see various life-forms emerging in my bin, I'm rather fed up with the lid design of the Worm Factory - Original Recipe, which differs from the Worm Factory 360 primarily in having a flat lid that sits on top of the bedding in the top tray rather than the domed lid of the 360. (It used to be, also, that the "worm ladder" - basically a flange that sits in the collection base which is supposed to allow the worms to crawl up out of there - was only available on the 360, but it comes with the standard Worm Factory now - mine has it.)

I didn't want to pay extra for the WF 360, but the lid really is annoying. Every time you lift it up it's covered with bits of bedding sticking to it, as well as the inevitable "ceiling worms" that like to crawl across it, and their castings. I basically had to get in the habit of lifting up the lid with one hand while I have the yellow plastic "scraper" in the other hand to remove all the stuff sticking to the bottom of the lid. Otherwise, I can't set it down without wet bedding and worms falling off all over the place. A domed lid would probably still get walking worms on it whenever condensation forms on it, but at least it wouldn't be quite such a mess of bedding scraps.

The instructions say to put a piece of newspaper across the top of the bedding under the lid - which I've tried, but it also sticks to the lid, comes apart in time, etc. A square of cardboard works for a while, but it also deteriorates and gets bedding stuck to it - and, apparently, gathers enough moisture to support giant slime mold patches. I'm about ready to get some burlap and try that, or else McGyver the lid in some other way so that it doesn't sit directly on the bedding. I'm looking for a scenario where I don't need three hands in order to lift up the lid and add scraps.

So I decided to disassemble the bin and get the oldest tray on top and start harvesting. I didn't want the slime molds to take over and I was also seeing an increase in gnat populations, so I wanted to work over the tray contents a little. Jeebers, those trays full of wet castings and worms are HEAVY. I'm not actually supposed to be doing heavy lifting, and I'm really feeling the effects today.

I also get bothered by the "dangler" worms coming out the bottom of each tray as I lift it up. I don't want to set the tray down right away, and squish the danglers. But I really don't have the strength to hold a filled tray up in midair over a light until the danglers retreat.

The other problem I'm seeing is that the weight of the trays on top of each other really does seem to compact the material together, to the point where I don't think the decomposition is happening effectively. I knew my bottom bin wouldn't be 100% ready to harvest, not enough time has passed - but I was ready to pick it over and sieve it, because I wanted to get enough vermicompost to use on some of the plantings in my tiny patio garden. But I still think there are too many recognizable large clumps of material after this amount of time. The worms don't seem harmed; I think the spongy granular quality of accumulated castings holds enough air for them to do fine, but some "pockets" of undigested material still remain.

I don't know what to do about the heavy-tray problem, but I'm seriously considering introducing some kinds of wedges or spacers between the trays so there's less compaction taking place between the trays, and a little more air circulation to help keep the mites and gnats under control.

Just to close the loop on the yellow slime mold, apparently I'm not the only person to find such a being in my bin:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2203236/yellow-fungus-or-mould?n=6

Ok, here is my experiment with adding "risers" between the trays. I cut egg cartons into thirds, with 4 egg compartments each. and put one in each corner of the tray, on top of the bedding. I know that eventually the bedding underneath will compact, and the egg carton material will get damp and break down, but my intention is for the "risers" to give just enough temporary wiggle room (heh, heh) between the trays to allow a little more air to circulate, avoid compaction and let the worms work over the very top of the bedding material more effectively.

I know the Worm Factory instructions say that the tray bottom has to be touching the bedding in the tray below in order for the worms to commute between the trays. However, from many past discussions here and also my own observations, it seems pretty clear that worms can and will walk up the sides of bins any time they feel like it. They probably also have no trouble stretching themselves across a gap if it's not too wide. You can't see this too well in the photo, but one day after adding the risers, there are definitely dangler worms coming through the tray above, so I expect the worms are able to come and go with no problem, and will be perfectly comfortable crawling up the risers when they get a little more moisture on them.

I witnessed them bridging a 3 inch gap when my worms were escaping. They can do amazing trickery.

@theparsley wondering if you have the problem of castings dropping down to the drainage tray? I sorta peeked into the drainage tray of my stacked bin and it looks like I might have castings (its brownish in colour) in that tray as does not look like the coir I put in (or anything else for that matter).

Definitely - almost from day 1 there were worms and castings down in the drainage tray. After a while, a good pile of castings builds up. I think it's mostly left by the worms that go down there rather than falling from the tray above.

From reading past postings on this board it seems that most everybody sees their worms go down into the drainage tray on the Worm Factory. I don't think it's a problem unless they are dying down there, and I haven't seen (or smelled) that happening. I think they just like to hang out down there, but they've got to come back up to eat before long.

Finally I did what several others have done - put a couple handfuls of bedding into the bottom tray to catch some of the excess castings and moisture. Every so often you can take this bedding out and put it in an upper tray, worms, castings and all.

Okay now I'm less worried about the worms not liking their trays. In any case I think the newspaper I put at the bottom must have broken down that castings are falling thru already.

I'm actually hoping for worm tea, not so sure it will work if I throw bedding into the drainage tray