Worms stay in bedding tray

[ginyeung]

I recently bought some worms and put in into my 2-tray wormery. The lower tray basically only has shredded cardboard/paper and some tea/coffee grounds. I put them in the tray and kept them moist for a few weeks before the worms arrive. The upper layer contains the coir block in the start-up pack, and I start to add some vegetables into this layer after they settle in.

It's already been there for one or two weeks. The food is not consumed (if any) as fast as I expect. It seems that the worms like to stay in the lower layer. Even if I grab a few to the upper layer, they will disappear soon and go back to the lower layer. Is it normal?

Below are some of the reasons I can think of.

1) Too cold. I added a layer of cardboard on top of the soil.
2) Ph is 5.5. I'm not sure whether it's too low. I added some grated eggshells.
3) Not dark enough. I added a black plastic cover on top of the cardboard.
4) Too dry. I tried to spray some water, but I'm worrying that's too wet as there is water in the bottom tank.

All measures above don't really help. Is there anything I missed?

[Lilwriggler]

Willy is far better on advising things than me, but at the beginning things do start a bit slowly. My recollection of when i first started(granted it was about 3/4 years ago) was i just started with the one tray. Coir tray at the bottom. Soon after i added a second tray above and that was the one filled with cardboard and shredded paper. Food goes in that tray, using the 4 corners feeding method and worms move up into there to get food. I always add trays in this way now, but add a bit of spent compost to bulk things up a bit more and get things moving a bit quicker. I don’t shred food as much as others so i reckon I add food every couple of weeks at this time of year, moves a bit quicker when it is warmer. Others no doubt will suggest more