Types

• A worm bin can be made of any shallow container, from a plastic storage tote to a salvaged bathtub with a cover, that admits air and keeps the bedding dark as the worms prefer it. A moisture meter can tell you if the bin is too wet or too dry, and a three-tined cultivator helps open up the bedding to admit air or pockets of food scraps.
  
  

Function

• While harvesting can be conducted by heaping the compost on to a plastic sheet, the work goes much more easily if the bin contents are dumped into a cement mixing tub or similar container for two to three weeks to dry out. Final harvesting can be done in a homemade harvester made of ¼-inch or 1/8-inch screen rolled in a cylinder and fastened to a 5-gallon bucket cut in half horizontally.
  
  

Considerations

• If you live in northern area, you can warm an outdoor bin with a homemade rig. Run pond tubing from a bucket containing heated water, an aquarium heater and a pond pump through the bedding and back to the bucket.