Hand sorting is particularly useful if you want to give a few pounds of redworms to a friend.

Dividing the box is another, simpler method.  You simply remove about two-thirds of the box’s contents and spread it on the garden.  Then refill the box with fresh bedding and distribute the remaining worms, castings, and food still in the box.  Plenty of worms and egg cocoons will remain to populate the box.  The worms that you dumped on the garden will probably not survive there.

A better method of dividing a box prevents wasting so many worms.  All of the box’s contents are pushed to one side, leaving one-third to one-half of the box empty.  New bedding and fresh food are put on the “new” side.  No food is given to the “old” side for a month or so.  By that time virtually all the worms will have migrated to the “new” side.  Then the “old” side may be emptied and refilled with fresh bedding.

People in the North may want to use a worm box primarily in winter when other composting methods are inconvenient or impossible.  In this case, start feeding the bin heavily from fall through spring and then let it run without much new food until mid-summer.  By that time there will be only a few worms left alive in a box of castings.  The worms may then be separated from their castings, the box recharged with bedding and the remaining worms can be fed just enough to increase rapidly so that by autumn there will again be enough to eat all your winter garbage.

Garbage Can Composting

Here’s a large-capacity vermicomposting system for vegetableatarians and big families.  It might even have sufficient digestive capacity for serious juice makers.  You’ll need two or three, 20 to 30 gallon garbage cans, metal or plastic.  In two of them drill numerous half-inch diameter holes from bottom to top and in the lid as well.  The third can is used as a tidy way to hold extra dry bedding.

Begin the process with about 10 inches of moist bedding material and worms on the bottom of the first can.  Add garbage on top without mixing it in and occasionally sprinkle a thin layer of fresh bedding.

Eventually the first can will be full though it will digest hundreds of gallons of garbage before that happens.  When finally full, the bulk of its contents will be finished worm casts and will contain few if any worms.  Most of the remaining activity will be on the surface where there is fresh food and more air.  Filling the first can may take six months to a year.  Then, start the second can by transferring the top few inches of the first, which contains most of the worms, into a few inches of fresh bedding on the bottom of the second can.  I’d wait another month for the worms left in the initial can to finish digesting all the remaining garbage.  Then, you have 25 to 30 gallons of worm casts ready to be used as compost.

Painting the inside of metal cans with ordinary enamel when they have been emptied will greatly extend their life.  Really high-volume kitchens might run two vermicomposting garbage cans at once.