I have tried flooding, picking, sifting , heat lamps, vibration, low level current and trapping and this seems to me to be sufficiently effective for me since my worm population has so increased and so easy (you don't have to seperate at all). After finishing of the casting bin with only water additive for the last 2 weeks of composting, push all medium to one side of the bin to dry, while at the same time putting enough moist fresh bedding and food slurry in the other half of the bin so the two parts touch in the middle of the bin. Put a piece of plastic over the fresh side , while leaving the finished castings and worms exposed to the air to dry for a couple of days (during the drying, take the lid off the bin, thats why we use the black plastic sheeting over the bedding to retain moisture). As the finished side dries, the hungry worms migrate to the moist side and food. I've tried this on a couple of bins and have had less than 1% or so of my stock stay in the finished cast and dry up and get processed through the sift table and grinders. After seperation, remove the black plastic sheet , replace the lid and start active composting (turning , feeding and watering ) again.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 09, 2001

Answers

Jay, what size are your bins?

Thanks.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), March 11, 2001.

marilyn, They range from a 60 qt recycled cooler to a 2 1/2 ft x 2 ft x 5 1/2 ft truck tool box. When I move them out of my office into the storage building, I intend to build some plywood bins like are described at the site I posted in the prevoius thread on easy worm ranch bins.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 11, 2001.