Solution for a soggy worm bin

I keep my worm bin under our giant walnut tree. In the summer it sits in total shade, in the winter it gets sun to stay warm.  
I went to feed them, and discovered  broken bins. My son was trimming the tree before a bad wind storm and dropped a large branch on my bin.  He forgot to tell me. Unfortunately we had several good soaking showers.  Not only were the bins broken, but soaking wet.  Honestly I was surprised the worms were still alive.  Even more frustrating the castings are ready to be harvested, but no way to separate the worms from the castings.
I left the bins in the sun with the lid on sideways. This wasn't helping much, and then we were going to get more rain. I moved it to the greenhouse, so it wouldn't get more wet. I tried to fluff it up, but I always worry I'm killing worms. It was getting better, but quite slowly.
I bought coco coir from the dollar tree. It was organic, and I was impressed how easy it was to hydrate. I decided to to add it in small chunks in the bin. I didn't hydrate it.  It really seems to be working. The coco coir puffed up. It's really helping balance the moisture level.
I plan to leave it a couple weeks to let the worm incorporate the coco coir hopefully making the castings a more shiftable texture.  

My worm bins always seem to be soggy, but yours seem downright drenched! I use newspaper shreddings (when available) and sawdust. Sawdust especially adds volume and helps keep the bin environment healthier.

Hi there, @Jen Fulkerson and @Jen Swanson,

I feel for you. I have killed hundreds of worms in the past. And it's only by bringing them into a shed that I've been able to keep them from the rain. In a tool shed, it has been very successful for me.

When I have gotten it soggy, I have done the following:

Give it some time to dry out. Maybe in lieu of a shed, you can cover it in a large tarp?

Feed it dryer carbon-y things not so much nitrogen wet things. So paper, or sawdust, leaves as opposed to kitchen scraps. Just for a week.

Fluff it up every two days or so. OK, vermicompost experts will shudder at this thought because their main goal is to increase the fungal population in a worm bin and by fluffing it up, you actually break those fungal strands. Well, I say, "when a bin is too wet, you gotta dry it out and aerate it!" So I would do this to get it back to normal.

Use a compost toilet crank like this one in the link that follows. Or a pitchfork. I like the compost crank more. It's my favorite tool Compost Aerator.

Here's a photo of my bin:


Hope that is helpful.  I love caring for my worm bin and I would be devasted to find out it got out of whack one day so I commiserate!

Nicky

My poor worms have really had it rough.  The bedding did get better. Then I left the bin in the greenhouse way to long.  Not that it's an excuse, but 2024 has been an absolutely miserable year. One day I thought it had been quiet a while since I fed my worms. I took some veggie scraps out, and the greenhouse was 120 degrees. I pulled the bin outside. I thought all the worms would be dead. Surprisingly some survived. There wasn't a lot, and they were small.  I put the bin in the shade. Kept it damp, and fed. Today I finally made a new bin, and was surprised how many big healthy worms there were. In spite of my poor treatment I have a healthy new worm bin, and a nice amount of worm castings.

Besides the coco coir, I’d also try adding shredded cardboard or newspaper on top of the bedding. Both are great for soaking up excess moisture and will slowly break down for the worms to enjoy later. I might also leave the lid off for a few hours a day, as long as the air is dry enough. This can surely help speed up the drying process without harming the worms.