No Worm Cocoons?

[Mick2me]

I set up my first Wormcity 5 tray wormery beginning of June.
I am using Coir as a bedding and feeding as advised.
The wormery is in the garage so out of the sun and at a constant temperature.
I now have bedding in the 5 trays and the worms are distributed at all levels.
The bottom 2 trays are like compost but still plenty of worms at all levels.

I have only seen a couple of young worms and I can see no cocoons?
Are they likely to be buried?

The bedding and compost is fine and does not smell.
I used to find the worms in the sump and on the lid when first set up but 
now they stay in the trays.

Will the herd die out if they are not breeding?
How can I encourage more egg laying? Food?

[Mick2me]

I spotted one lonely juvenile on the lid this morning?

[WillyWorm]

Hi Mick, it takes a while for a new bin to settle down and for the population to start to grow. The main thing at this point is to ensure your worms are healthy. Worms should look shiny and bright, be active if distubed or exposed to light. If your worms are like this they will be breeding soon. You seem to have got to the 5 tray stage very quickly maybe they have been too tired working on the new trays to make babies. The fact that your worms are no longer wondering would indicate they are now settled down and will be breeding soon. 
You ask about food for making babies. Many commercial breeders say feeding ground grain encourages faster maturity and therefore better breeding. 

HTH
Willy

[WormyMcWormerson]

I give mine a pinch of homemade aphrodisiac powder with each feed: it's a mixture of finely ground oats, rice and pasta. Randy worms ahoy!

[WillyWorm]

Hope you keep the lid on your bin. That's the sort of thing I mean. I hear barly is very energising.

Keep it up.
All the best
Willy

[Mick2me]

The worms seem healthy and the Bedding is fine.
My thought were that the worms would breed if there was more space and food.
I do feed them Wheat Bran which they love.

What happens to cocoons if they get buried due to disturbance of bedding? Do they still hatch,

[WillyWorm]

Hi Mike, if the cocoons are buried they will be fine. I regularly find cocoons in my bottom tray (I have 5 full trays). When I harvest I put the castings into a bucket and the cocoons hatch and I return the worms to the wormery. The cocoons are very tough, they seem to be able to delay hatching until conditions are right. They can even survive being frozen and still hatch.  The cocoons seem to be natures way of ensuring the continuation of the species when the worm population is is threatened. Worms are very resilient but their cocoons are even more so. 

Your worms seem to be doing fine I think you just need to give them a little more time.  

Please keep us up dated 
Willy

[Mick2me]

I harvested my first tray. There were numerous buried Cocoons.

[WillyWorm]

Congratulations on your first harvest. There is no problem in having cocoons mixed in with the castings. Some people pick them all out and return then to their worm bin. I tend to pick out the ones I see others get mixed in with the potting mix or spread round the garden.

Willy

[Mick2me]

Yes I returned as many cocoons as possible.

I have other trays getting close to harvest. What is the best way of storing Compost?
The first batch I dried, but thought afterwards perhaps not advisable?

Do cocoons survive drying?