Early this spring I started raising redworms. I was told that to
seperate the worms, seperate the old compost from the new and the
worms will "migrate" to the new pile. I did that two weeks ago, and
the old pile is full of worms, and the new pile has no worms. How do
you (safely) seperate the worms from the castings.

Xref: 127.0.0.1 alt.home.lawn.garden:5505

Will said:

Early this spring I started raising redworms. I was told that to
seperate the worms, seperate the old compost from the new and the
worms will "migrate" to the new pile. I did that two weeks ago, and
the old pile is full of worms, and the new pile has no worms. How do
you (safely) seperate the worms from the castings.

The new bedding should be contiguous with the old, with fresh food buried in it.

Under a bright light (which should drive the worms down into the bedding),
scrape a layer of old bedding off. The worms should retreat from the light.
Continue the process until all the old bedding is removed. Many of the
worms will retreat into the new bedding, but you may end up with a solid
mass of worms centered in the area where the old bedding was. Just add
more new bedding over them.
--
Pat K.

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)