What's the best way to harvest castings?

I have been feeding the worms, then when they move to the feeding trench I scoop out the castings and worms left and put it on 1/8 inch hardware cloth. I then pick out as many of the remaining worms as I can then move it back and forth across the hardware cloth to sift it into a container below. My problem is there are a lot of baby worms almost too small to pick up. I don't want to sacrifice them. What should I do? Any suggestions?

Hi This is what I do. I have a tote lid, and I turn it up side down so when I load it up with worm casting it don't fall out. I turn on a light about 2 feet over the casting, Half hour later I clean off the top of the pile and the worms keep moving down into a ball at the bottom. I start a new bin, I find that the babies and bigger worms move down into a ball or pile at the bottom. when I clean off the top off the castings I look for worm eggs, put them in your new bin. I have been doing it this way for the last 6 years. I am sure others have their own Ideas. Hope it helps you out. Phil

Thanks, Phil. I will give that a try.

I use the same method as Phil. The brighter the light the faster they move down. Do watch the temp and moisture. If the worms are foaming heavily at the bottom they are stressed and need either moisture or lower temperatures. Don't use a big spot light, it can cook them.

Today I tried a very similar method for harvesting compost. I have a tower and use all 4 bins at the same time (I do have too many worms at present) and I could never harvest much. I spread a big plastic garbage bag out on the garage floor and dumped all of the bins in a big pile. Every 20 minutes or so, I scoop the compost off the top of the pile which was pretty much worm-free. I'd wait another 20 minutes or so and scoop more off the top of the pile. I can do other little chores during that 20 minutes so I'm not sitting around waiting. I still have a little more to go but I have never harvested so much compost at one time with so little effort. I didn't even have to use a light to make the worms move down into the pile. Brilliant idea with thanks to Phil and Oregon.

I'm glad that it's working for you, It's time to get into the garden, so I harvest all 5 of my bins to use on my tomatoes and peppers. I have a outdoor compost pile, It just sits, you have to turn it over to get any compost, I think it is so much easier to let the worms do it. Phil

My compost pile is in the shade and doesn't get hot so it does have weed seeds. I will use it if I run out of the "good" stuff (worm compost).

19flip44 I have been using a large sheet of plastic on my driveway with about nine little piles - your method so much better. So logical I missed it!
Any of you know how to best start a new bin once I have a pile of worms? My worms are having such a 'good time' they are reproducing faster than I can feed them. They need to get harvested be shared with others before they become cannibals. lol

Ruddswood - are you talking about starting a new bin?

CindyMzone5 - I need to harvest compost/worms from a bin. I think I really over filled my first bins with inches of bedding. I felt I was composting instead of vermicomposting! I had layered soil, newspaper and cardboard. The cardboard was a big mistake. It didn't breakdown. I also didn't fluff my newspaper strips. Ugh what a mess. Luckily the worms were still happy.

What bedding material is best when starting a bin and deep does it need to be before putting in the worms?

Do you have one big plastic homemade bin or a tower? I have a tower only because it takes up less space. My worms have multiplied to the point that I use all 4 bins on my tower. I never found that worms migrate up into the next bin so I figured I'd use all 4 (you can add as many as you want to this system). I use strips of newspaper - just tear and let it fall into the bin. If I have coir bricks, I'll soak some and use that as well and add some ground up egg shells (although you can use pumice or dirt). Since my bins are shallow, I only use about 3 inches of bedding. And I don't soak the newspaper since I find that the veggie scraps add enough moisture although if you're laying newspaper over the top of the bin, you can dampen that. I used cardboard the first couple of times but now I just use several sheets of newspaper (not torn) on the bottom of my perforated bins. I still get some escapees down in the liquid reservoir but just add them back to the bins. I put food in all 4 of my bins and rearrange the tiers when I feed them. If the newspaper is being consumed or composted, just add more newspaper strips. I find it's not necessary to cover the food with newspaper strips since the bins stack. I wouldn't worry about using soil and I'd only use cardboard if I was trying to prevent the worms from moving through perforations on the bottom. I hope I explained my method ok but I'm sure there are more knowledgeable folks when it comes to vermicomposting.