Finally, I separated out enough worms to fill half a quart container. Here was my separating setup:

Setup for separating worms from their bedding.

It took about 45 minutes to separate the worms in the picture above. For reference, the trowel in the picture is 11 inches long.

Since I was using excess worms from my bin, my plan is to let the worms eat the hair and turn the entire bedding to castings, and perish. My investment in time and money was minimal, and both bedding and feedstock were free. If the worms turn the materials into castings, this setup could scale quite quickly. This is a summer only option for me, since these bins are water tight, but won’t keep the worms insulated in the winter.

I check on the worms periodically. As of early September, the worms are still going strong. The environment is a bit soggy, which I dealt with by leaving the bin lid ajar, and there’s still plenty of hair and paper towels. The melon rinds have almost fully decomposed, and the worms are spread throughout the bin.

As of late September, the worms are still doing their work, slowly.  The hair is there clearly, but the worms are present in it.  I’ve added some more wet newspaper and towels to the mix.  The bottom is kinda wet, but the whole bin smells fine.

I will update as the decomposition progresses.  When the weather turns cold, I may have to dump everything into the compost bin or bring it inside.