West Sussex,
United Kingdom 
Wormery!
I have inherited a wormery with a tower of 3 trays which sit on a base where liquid collects and is drained off through a tap, providing me with worm wee as a fertilizer. I fill the top tray with kitchen waste and the idea is that the worms work their way up through the holes in the base of each tray to eat the waste. Then, as I understand it, I switch that tray to the bottom and put the bottom one on the top and start the process again.
My problem is that the worms have made a huge amount of worm casts in trays 2 and 3 which would be lovely for my plants but this stuff is absolutely crammed with worms who seem quite happy to stay there instead of migrating to the top. If I remove this mass of worm casts I will lose hundreds of worms to the garden and I couldn't possibly pick them all out!
Does any one else have a wormery and do they have any advice please? I'm sorry this question is a bit long-winded!
3 Mar, 2021
Answers
I Googled 'Problems with a wormery' and found several features, also some YouTube videos that look helpful for you. Hope that helps.
3 Mar, 2021
SBG, the wormery is circular,18 inches tall without the legs and 19 inches across. With the legs it is 28 inches tall. I can fit a 2pt milk carton at an angle under the tap and this fills up about once a week.
I think you might be right about the worms staying tucked up because of the cold weather because, now I come to think of it, there has been less worm wee lately! Perhaps they are in semi hibernation.
I'm not sure sieving would work as the worm cast mass is quite wet.
Thank you Shirley, for those references. I will certainly google them for my entertainment this evening!
I will have to solve the problem soon or the trays will become too heavy for me to manage!
3 Mar, 2021
I hope you have managed to solve the problem!
5 Mar, 2021
if they are in the lower layers that could be because it has been a bit on the cold side. where is your wormery kept? Could you put the wormcast material in a sieve then the osil will drop through but the worms wont.
just out of curiosity how big is your wormery?
3 Mar, 2021