You should have your worm bin set up and ready to go before your worms arrive.  I ship via USPS Priority Mail, so your worms will arrive in one to three days (I ship worms on the Monday after your payment clears).

Worm bins come in all shapes and sizes, from plastic stackable bins to simple plywood boxes.  No matter which type of bin you decide to use, you need to ensure good airflow throughout.  Other than that, size is probably the next most important consideration.  You want a bin that is big enough to accommodate the food scraps and other organic matter that you produce on a daily basis.  A good-sized bin for a family of four that produces a pound of food scraps a day is about six square feet.

Worms breathe through their skin, and in order for oxygen to pass through their skin it must be kept moist.  Therefore, any bedding that you choose must be able to retain moisture.  You want the bedding moist, but not soggy (like a wrung-out sponge).  Good bedding materials include aged horse manure, followed by shredded cardboard, newspaper and office paper, leaves, compost, and peat moss.

When the worms arrive simply open the bag and dump the entire contents on top of your bin (you can also dump the packing material in the bin and tear up the box they came in and add that to the mix.)  Worms are very sensitive to light so within a minute or two most of the worms will have burrowed down into your bin.  You can help them out by gently separating them with your fingers and spreading them out on the top of your bin.  Keep a light on your bin for the first 24 hours to force them to stay in the bin and get used to their new environment.

Compost worms will eat virtually any type of organic matter, from coffee grounds and watermelon rinds to rotisserie chickens and coconuts.  Some people advise against adding meat and dairy products to worm bins, but as long as you are not overloading your bin with food this should not be a problem.  Bottom line: if it lived on land, swam in water, or grew in the soil, a worm will eat it.

In about two months your worms will have eaten all the organic matter in your bin (including the bedding) and turned it into rich, crumbly castings that you can apply to your lawn and garden.  The best way to tell if your bin is finished is to use your nose—if the contents in it smell like a forest after a rainfall then it’s done.

There are many ways to do this but the best way is to let the worms do the work for you.  Place a few large watermelon rinds face down on the top of your bin.  Cover the bin and leave it alone for a few days.  Come back and turn over the rinds and scoop up the worms and transfer them to a holding bin.  Repeat these steps until very few worms come to the top.  Then dump the castings, refill your bin with bedding and transfer the worms back to the bin.

 For more detailed instructions please read the Worm Care and Feeding Guide.

Compost tea is not the liquid at the bottom of your worm bin.  It is actively brewed with specialized equipment to extract and grow beneficial microbes from the compost itself.  Beware of companies selling worm bins with a spigot on the bottom that they claim dispenses "compost tea."  The foul-smelling liquid is called leachate, and it is not suitable or recommended as a foliar spray.  For more information see this fact sheet on compost tea published by the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.