'Aerating' the worm bins - 2023 12 24


I did not look up what it means to aerate the worm bins. I just did what I thought would work. My bins were looking a little too wet and I was having some bug evidence that might the case. The bins smell fine. A nice, fresh earthy smell.

When I shifted the worms into the new bins I laid down a new bedding in each bin. At that time I did not know the difference between food and bedding and I mistakenly put a layer or two of food into the bedding layers. I also did not mix the layers of bedding so the material was stratified rather than a mixture. 

At the same time, I have not actually removed any worm castings from my original worms. Each time I have moved them into larger bins I have just kept the previous clump of unprocessed material and worm castings in one piece. I lay the clump at one end of the bin on new bedding. 

This time I was curious to see if I could differentiate worm castings from unprocessed material. I also wanted to know where the worms were in the bin and how they were looking. 

I have since learned that alfalfa pellets are considered worm food, but the coffee chaff is considered bedding. Not for the first time, I mixed food and bedding into the worm bedding. On the new side of the bin I put down a layer of alfalfa pellets and a layer of coffee chaff and then mixed the section from bottom to top, which gave me a chance to find out if there were any worms on that side and how they looked.


It was gratifying to find clumps of worms in the new side of the bin. They were right down at the bottom of the layers, in the leaf mulch and alfalfa layers. It was definitely quite wet down there. I mixed everything up, including the worms, as they got tossed around a bit with the mixing. On this side I finished up by covering the bedding / food with a layer of damp cardboard to keep things moist.



It was the same situation on the old side of the bin. I was able to see where I do have worm castings mixed in with unprocessed roots. There weren't many worms in this layer. Down below that, there were worms near the bottom of the bin. In particular they had found the bit of manure I had put in last time. On this side I also added the alfalfa pellets and coffee chaff and mixed the worms in the process. I finished up by covering the bedding / food / castings with a layer of leaf mulch from the garden.

The only difference between the old and new sides of my bins is that the old side also has the original clump of castings and unprocessed roots. 

The process was repeated in each bin. They are all back on their shelves now, all is quiet in the worm barn.




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