Some people will say to leave them alone and others think that will add oxygen below the surface. As long as you do not disturb them too much I think that should be OK. Not upending the bedding, just pushing them aside and look what's below that. We have to check that the bin is OK, right? And catch the problem right at the beginning.

Thank you both. i think i am just trying to make sure i dont leave them without food. and now it is getting warmer here i dont want them to dry out.

onec i get to learn that the worms a quite capable of looking after themselves and i learn how much food and how long it will last same with the moisture i will relax.

Tipytoes11, I am the same way. I love to peek in on my worms. It doesn't seem to effect them that badly. I don't go rummaging through EVERYTHING, but I definitely see what foods they seem to be preferring, adjusting moisture level, adding bedding if necessary, etc. Glad to hear I am not alone and that most of you don't think it is overly detrimental to check in daily .

Just keeps them on their Tippytoes! ; )

Harry

hay..... i like it lol lol

Emily Leuba i am hoping a fussy wormer will make a good wormer. thats my husband not me. he says i fuss over them. any newbie would fuss right we want to make sure we are doing it right right we dont want to over feed right Emily i can't hear you RIGHT!!!

harry757 i creep up on them trying to catch them out. lol lol

Its just human nature , we ask ourselves the questions , are we doing this right, are the worms ok , what should I be doing different. In the beginning we may worry that they dont/wont stay in the bin as they should. In time once we realize that the worms are happy , eating the food we put in, and staying in that environment then we no longer worry and dont bother to check other than to add a new tray or more food, its takes some time but one should not should forget about them completely , but checking them everyday is not necessary. In the beginning I did all these things and once newbies are convinced theyve got it down and the worms are fine they will not worry and not check as much. We evolve in the process just as the worms do.

During the winter (the bins are in an unheated garage attached to the house) I sometimes go more than a month without checking in on them... however during the summer I feed them weekly and also occasionally remove some to feed my koi... I know what you're thinking but hey, koi gotta eat too. The first few months into the hobby, I was always poking around in the worm bins to satisfy my curiosity... I'm sure there's no harm to the worms in doing that... just refrain from over-feeding. Eventually as you get more confident that the worms are just fine and interest begins to wane, you will begin to neglect the bin... to me that's the bigger danger. Always check in at least every month... but if you are doing it every day that is good too.

My routine is to take the lid off every morning and replace it every evening. I don't advocate this as a necessary thing to do, but I feel like it helps regulate the moisture in the top layer of the bin, condensing under the lid at night and then evaporating as needed during the day. I don't always peek in at the worms, but I at least look at the visible portion of the top and edges and would notice if something major was happening (or smelling). It's part of my daily routine to go down into the basement every morning and every night before bed, at which time I also do the cat's litter box and generally glance around the basement to see if anything's leaking or exploding or whatever.

And you don't get flies?!

I mean I take the plastic lid off. I keep the netting cover over the bin all the time, removing and replacing it each time I go in.

Now days I try to feed once a week but it most likely is not necessary, just because we dont actually see food does not mean there is nothing for them to eat. I have even realized they have moved back down into lower trays to finish those .

I am learning quickly through trial and error that this is simply a process that you have to give time.

It sucks that my freezer doesn't have more space and in the short term I still have to throw some scraps away, but I know with time that these worms will be able to consume much more.

I got so excited about "reducing my carbon footprint" and wanting everything to go into the bin ASAP. But I lost sight of the fact that just taking the first step is pretty awesome.

Definitely turning into a worm nerd and I love peeking in to see what breaks down fastest. Also learning that overfeeding does nothing but create icky smells and flies.

my 500 gram (about a pound) of worms came in something that looks a lot like normal gardening soil, I've put that in the lowest box, mixing it with some paper bedding (which now I think it over, probably wasn't necessary). Then I put more bedding in a second box and feed them in this one. Here I put also all the worms that I saw... The idea being that the worms can get into the lower tray if I do something wrong...

One thing I noticed that some of my worms like to lounge around in the liquid collecting tray. I check about every day (except for weekends, when I am not at home) and there are most of the time a couple I have to 'rescue' and put in the upper bin.

There are always some worms lounging in the lower collection tray. Always. You should hopefully not have to rescue them - if they got down there by themselves, they can get back up by themselves. As long as they are not dying down there (you would smell something horrible if this were so.)