help! in addition to my dalek, I have 3 homemade compost heaps, consisting of old pallets with black plastic stapled round the sides and back, and a flap coming over the top. they are filled with a mix of grass cuttings, chicken waste (sawdust and poo), and more or less anything else found round the garden. not much veg waste tho, I tend to put that in the dalek.

have been quite good about mixing them up, but since adding the plastic and now the chicken waste, I find they are a haven for slow worms - as soon as you take the plastic off, they are all there lying on the top, perfectly happy.

trouble is, I want to give them a bit of a turn quite soon and add some more grass clippings - can I do this at any time, or would the slow worms be nesting or someting? is there a time of year when it would be better to turn them? if so I can just add more stuff to the top of each one, which I assume wouldnt hurt the slow worms?