Separating cocoons from the castings is almost impossible. It's like picking out dozens if not hundreds of tiny beads from potting soil.

You can just leave them in there if you are putting the castings in the garden. If you want (relatively) cocoon-free castings, other than insanely picking over all the vermicompost by hand, you can leave the finished vermicompost in a bucket for a month or two and then separate the baby worms from the castings.

It's never been clear to me how commercial producers of vermicompost keep cocoons out of their finished product.

thank you i am trying to find some answers before i actually set up my small worm farm rather than a panic if a situation arises.

If you simply want additional worms to sell or up production of castings,separating cocoons isn't really necessary. Worms will only reach a certain population in a bin before slowing but can do it very quick given ideal conditions. When I want to start another bin,here's what I do. Separate worms and put them in a new bin. I then return 25 to 50% of castings to old bin,add fresh bedding on top,hold back on feed until repopulation is underway. When bin is full of castings the process is repeated.

The darker coloured ones are close to hatching and have to be handled real gently. Just a little pressure and the baby worms will pop out. No idea if they survived.

BTW, why would you want to harvest cocoons?

i just thought it would help me to understand their growth rate as i will be a 1st time wormie. i dont expect to be sorting every cocoon out but would like to gether a good amount that i can keep separate and then return them to the main bin.