The picture at left shows the rotational sorting table we have built,
please note the scale and the bowl of  tepid water for collecting the odd worms.
As most worms live in water, the compost worms can safely be collected in
the water, so long as there is plenty of oxigen.
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                                                             The right picture shows a heap of about 500 worms as they emerge after

Worms sorted out

Sorting table

Starvation method
The priciple here is, that worms will eat practically 24 hours a day, and if there is no food available, they will adjust their body weight, and
if it takes too long for food to arrive, they will hibernate, go to rest.
But before that, you can safely starve the worms for about three weeks to a month.
Then when you commence feeding again, the worms will soon find out where the new foodsource is, usually within 48 hours, and will
travel there en masse.
Do not wait too long with collecting them when they are feeding well, because the whole exercise would collapse as the worms travel
away from the foodsource after a few days.
Just wait two or three days, and you will see a wriggling mass of worms under the food.
The best idea is, to put the food in small trays, so that you can lift the worms food and all out of your feeding box, and transfer them to a new site, or sort them out of the food, but that is a bit messy !
This method is very suitable if you just want to shift the worms from one box to another.
You will not get them all, but the wormcastings are harvestable when you have removed the bulk of your worm population out of it.

Setting out the trays on top of the feeding bed, after starving the worms,
to entice them to go and feed in the trays, so that you can lift them out
for transfer to another feeding bed.
<<<                                                                                              The worms have collected in the tray, and when you
                                                                                                       put the tray upside down, you can see the worms.