Wormbin with design issue

My current wormbin doesn't drain like it should. I'm looking for opinions re: why. The first problem is that the cooler it's made from wasn't made with a drain. It's floor doesn't slope to one low spot. I put in a drain, but I had to get it high enough that the pipe would clear the floor of the cooler. So I took a guess and drilled a hole. Water/ leachate has to fill the floor half an inch or three quarters in order to reach the pipe.







Those problems can hopefully be solved by switching coolers.







The gray cooler used to be my worm bin, but the drain it came with wasn't designed to last. The plug was lost immediately, and nothing I replaced it with would ever seal. Now I've enlarged the hole and siliconed a PVC coupler into it, the same size as the one in the blue cooler. I may silicone a little cap-seal at each end and let it dry before using it.

There's another problem: Even when the blue cooler has liquid above the drain, sometimes it drips a little, but that's it. The bedding never dries. It goes anaerobic. All my worms seem to have died. It wasn't full, so I mixed in a lot of shredded paper and dried it out. I put in more worms. It seemed a little too dry, so I added a little water. It "drained" down into the bedding and I couldn't see it anymore. The surface dried again. Since I thought it was all fixed, I added liquid again. Then I dug a hole to bury some vegetable scraps and hit nasty water and anaerobic smell. I think all the new worms are dead. I want to be able to feed any and all organic material to worms, but I need to be able to keep it aerobic. It has to drain. At least with my current design, shredded paper doesn't drain.



My best thought is to put an inch or two of gravel in the bottom, put a sheet of weed-x style cloth across that to keep the gravel free of the bedding and preserve the air spaces in it. I think the gravel would drain well. Would the larger surface area for drainage get the bedding dried out and breathing? Or do I need a whole other idea? Another design?

I’ve successfully raised worms for over a decade in bins that were plastic and had no drains at the bottom. Some even had tops on and only air holes in the sides (the ones I started in my father’s garage). They are harder to keep aerobic—but not super hard.

You are right, paper does not work very well to dry the bedding.

What to do with a small plastic worm bin to keep it dry enough and keep anaerobic bacteria from taking over?

Make sure your ratio of greens/browns, food/bedding, wet/dry, carbon/nitrogen is good.

In my most favorite worm book, The Worm Farmer’s Handbook by Rhonda Sherman, she advises that the optimal C:N ratio is somewhere between 25:1 to 35:1. She gives wood chips at above 200:1, mixed paper around 150:1, food scraps 15:1 to 25:1. Coffee grounds are very close to perfect at 20:1, needing just a bit more carbon.

For vermicomposting kitchen scraps, at any one time I have several bins with a total surface area of about at least 12 sq ft between them. (Worm population maximum is about 2 lb per sq ft of surface area with enough food, before they get overcrowded.) One general rule is to feed about 1 lb per lb of worms per week. Another is to not feed again until the first feeding has disappeared.

The bin may also be too deep. At depth, not enough air may be getting down to the worms. I have switched to shallower bins than I used to have. One professional worm farmer I know of uses masonry/concrete mixing tubs. You can also just keep the level pretty low in the bin—more than a foot is too deep in a non breathable plastic bin, in my experience.

Shredded paper gets soggy and settles, so it doesn’t work super well as way to aerate the bin. I use it to cover my food scraps. (I used to bury each set of scraps instead like a worm version of Ruth Stout composting, and that worked out pretty well.)

Hope this helps a bit—worm bins can seem finicky at times. Try a few things and hopefully it helps.

One last thought—if anaerobic bacteria have taken over, it might be good to clean them out and prime the next bin with some aerobic bacteria and organisms from a handful of good garden soil or compost.

P.S. I feel your pain. When we moved and had another baby soon after, two of my bins got neglected and went wrong and most of the worms died. :(

T - sorry your wormbin is not cooperating with you.  It sounds like you are overfeeding.  
I tell my customers that if they have liquid in the bottom they are either over-feeding, under-bedding or both.
I think either cooler will work well.  

You could freeze/thaw your scraps and then pour off the liquid and just use the mush.
This would both prep their food and reduce the liquid you are adding.
Another option is to let your scraps rot elsewhere and again pour off the excess liquid.

I use everything for bedding - cardboard, newsprint, junk mail (not shiny), office paper, paper towels, kleenex, straw wrappers, etc.
Some is more absorbent than others.  Add more of the stuff that absorbs well if you are having issues.
If I do get liquid, I push corrugated down the sides to wick it up and make more worm food.

I would also make a small bin as a safety net using a small bucket or container for 2 reasons.  
Now not all of your worms are in one "basket" and in a small bucket they will find each other easier and do that thing they do.

Good luck.

I went back after two or three days to check the new bin. The connection seemed a little too flexible, like the silicone was skinned over but not fully cured. So on the outside I reinforced the drain fitting with superglue and baking soda. Then I tested for leaks. I found an elbow the right size with a few inches of pipe in one side and a little over a foot on the other. I put the short side in the drain fitting and the long side pointed straight up so I could mostly fill the cooler before it would start to drain. For about two hours, it didn't leak a drop. I was testing in the shower, so I rotated the pipe and elbow a little to start draining slowly. As it would slow down, I'd rotate a little more. When the cooler was empty, I tried to twist and pull the pipe from the fitting. The glue broke and the fitting came out with the pipe. I said some colorful words and walked away from the project for the time being.

In the mean time, I went through the scrap buckets. Anything I decided was not too gross to touch is in the dehydrator. What was too gross to touch is in an outdoor worm tower/ urinal behind the garden shed. I think the fruit flies are confused. If I like this solution, I may build a solar dehydrator.

Wednesday, I bought five pullets and a cockerel. (Buff Orpington) They can help keep up with table scraps until I get a wormbin going again. I'll probably just seal the cooler(s) and manage how much moisture gets in. That used to work for me better than getting it to drain out seems to.