Carpae Heatem -Free Outdoor Heated Worm Bins In Buffalo NY ?

I have the opportunity to control the composting and use of stable waste from an 18 horse operation just outside of Buffalo, NY. I tried a little experiment and it seems to be working.

I have gone with a passively aerated (black perforated pipes on the ground) windrow design. The windrows run east - west and are separated by a three to four foot high and three to four foot wide row-berm of more advanced compost. I intent to plant in those berms in the very near future. Hope you get the picture.

The experiment was an effort to keep heat in the thermophilically (huh?) composting rows and at the same time keep them from getting saturated over the winter and early spring. I did the following:

I placed old blue tarps over the windrows of fresh manure and, when I ran out of the tarps, I started using 0.7 ml plastic drop cloths. On top of the barrier (either the blue tarp or drop cloth) i shoveled six to ten inches of either fresh or partially composted stable waste. I then hit it big time by finding a local coffee brewer which is letting me have its old burlap bags. I have placed the burlap bags (sides and bottoms still sewn together) on top of the compost that is on top for the water barrier tarp or drop cloth. This basically created a sandwich if you will of bread made of the tarp - drop cloth on the bottom and the burlap bag on the top, with the meat being the stable waste.

It was a decent day (okay for Buffalo standards) last weekend and I wanted to see how things were fairing. Bingo! Composting wormns are active in the manure sandwich layer! I like this but was really surprised by it. This might be a neat catch of the heat that would otherwise be lost - outdoor heated worm bins in the winter in Buffalo.

I have not had looked under the "bottom layer of the sandwich" so do not know how that is fairing or if any worms are active there. Some of these windrows have been there for a month or so (I am still trying to catch up with the old stuff that was just dumped at will and keep the new stuff organized so do not yell at me I know that is not good).

Any thoughts?

I will report back once I get into the interior situation