Moving On

I'm moving to a new apartment, one without a balcony, so I decided to "downgrade" my vermicomposter into a smaller sized bin and sell my original big bin including all of its contents on craigslist. It was weird saying goodbye to my bin as I put a lot of work into it, and had a connection to it. I don't really have a use for the vermicompost inside the bin anymore since I will no longer have a balcony garden. I still want to be able to compost year round, so I've opted for a smaller under-the-kitchen-sink size bin.
But my bin went to a good home and you can follow its journey on this lady's blog here. I'm sure the vermicompost will be put to good use in her garden, and the worms will do a wonderful job eating her family's kitchen waste. Oh boy, bin, you sure do get around!
So, before I sold the bin I made a much smaller worm bin and put a few worms in it. This is a photo of it above. Unfortunately all of the smaller sized plastic bins I could find at Canadian Tire were translucent. I want the bin to be able to fit under my kitchen sink nicely so I opted to buy this small clear plastic bin and cover the whole of the exterior with duct tape to make it opaque, since worms do not like light.
I drilled many ventilation holes in the lid, bottom and sides of the worm bin, just as with my original vermicomposter. Duct tape holds screen in place over top of the holes to ensure nothing escapes.
A few days prior to introducing the worms I shredded up some old newspapers, moistened them down in a large recycling bag and let them sit and fester. The worms like materials that have festered as they're easier for them to start breaking down. I added a handful of soil and some crushed eggshells to the bedding mix. Then I added the worms to their new home!
A couple of days after I let the worms settle in to their new home I fed them some vegetable scraps.

Beautiful stripy red worms!