Pocket feeding tends to be the more followed use as its easier to make sure all food stuffs are buried. Also as you mentioned it lets you dig around a bit and see whats going on.

Personally i use layer feeding as E. Hortensis really doesnt like to be bothered much.

Just throwing scraps on top could lead to problems with flies and fruit flies in an indoor bin. As you didnt specify where it was im just hazarding a guess.

Some specific bins are designed to be used certain ways. Pocket feeding usually requires a deeper bedding 10-12". If your bin is a stckable with 6-8" trays it would explain why they suggest that method.

Bryan

Worms demonstrate no preference for one of these feeding methods over the other, both are equally well received. Preference is only a concern of the human feeding the bin and whether they like digging in and meeting the workers, or prefer spreading over the top and not touching the worms or other critters.

Pick the one that feels most comfortable to you and I can pretty much guarantee the worms will be happy with your choice!

Kelly S

I agree with Kelly, depending on what I am feeding I will vary between top feeding and pocket. if I am putting a "bulky" load in my bed I will bury it and if I am being lazy, or am just putting a small amount, such as a few peaches or the like in, I will just put the food on top. I haven't found a real difference in the actions from my little friends.
Jim

I've used both methods, and sometimes use both at the same time in the same bin. The worms show no preference, nor animosity towards me for making their lives more complicated. Since they are basically IN their food while eating it, they probably don't pause to reflect on any disruptions in their routines, nor even care if they have routines.

Seems to me "feeding frenzy", if it can be called that, would occur more readily with what the worms would recognize as competition for "this piece of food me and these other six worms are eating on". That would give credence to the pocket-feeding method, whereas top-feeding could create a certain sense of apathy. An example of this theorem would be a pasture filled with grazing cows unhurriedly...grazing. But when Mr. Rancher puts some feed in the trough, cattle stampedes result.

Chuckiebtoo

Thank you all for your responses! I'll carry on with my mix of both feeding methods. Like Jim, it depends on whether I am in the mood for a bit of digging around and checking up on the clusters of worms around some buried banana peels and burying more. If I'm not in the mood, it goes on top. I know worms would prefer being left alone but ... I just cant ... resist.

So far, the worms seem pretty resilient. We were away for 8 days and before we left I put heaps of food on top in the wormbin (we'd just had a bit of a party and there were lots of leftovers) This in addition to the food I'd buried in the bin a couple of days earlier. I knew this was silly - but didnt want to waste the scraps ! When we got back, I opened the bin with trepidation. When I lifted the lid, the condensation that had collected ran down like a river. The large piece of turkish bread (which I hadnt bothered to break into smaller pieces) looked like an alien spaceship with long BLUE hairs. The handfuls of rice had turned bright red. The custard tarts were green. It was a scary, colourful and smelly jungle. Not a worm in sight at the top. I thought I'd killed them. But when I dug around, I found the worms, looking very fat and happy I thought, around the bananas & other food that I'd buried. Even more surprisingly, I found more of them at the bottom of the bin where it was quite wet rather than in the middle. I'm not even sure if they had bothered to go up to the top to see the buffet I'd put out for them.

Wormmad, Kelly has mentioned that even in a bin full of totally finished compost, it takes about 10 months for the worm population to decrease by 50%! I annoy my worms every few days out of curiousity, but I also don't worry a bit if I have to leave them for a week or two.

It was a... smelly jungle.

Smelly doesn't cut it with Mrs. Joe. So I don't add any extra feedstock before I travel. They don't notice that I've been gone.

to add to Joe's statement, I feed my guys on a weekly sched. Every Saturday I put the scraps from the week. Granted, I throw stuff in during the week too, like fruit from my trees that has fallen. and every 3rd or forth week I intentionally skip a feeding it gives them time to catch up. My guys are always aware when I leave because I pick out enough for a weeks worth of fishing to take with me whenever I go (lol)the rest all get to breath a relaxing sigh when I finish looking for the fatties.
Jim

I've never done layers, but am thinking about it for my next bin...

When you layer your compost, do you have to somehow remove the stuff on the bottom at some point or can you just keep adding it on? I mean if you buy a 30 ga plastic tub and start with 5" of bedding, and keep adding food with paper on top do you just keep going for years until the bin is full? I know weight would be an issue, but other than that.. ?

Thanks,
Jim

Eventually the bin will get full and the finished material will need to be removed, if for no other reason than to make space for new feedstock additions. Most folks are eager to "harvest" the castings from their bin for use in the garden and potted plants however!

Harvesting a top-fed bin is pretty simple, really. When the bin gets full remove the material from the top few inches that is still recognizable and contains nearly all of the worms. The material in the very bottom of the bin is usually pretty wet and dense, will usually contain a few worms but not massive numbers, and will contain little if any recognizable OM. This "finished" layer, which is usually a few inches deep, is removed from the bin and the unfinished stuff is placed back in the now empty bin with a few inches of space at the top so that top-feeding can begin again.

I've found several top-fed worm bins made from 18 gallon plastic storage totes that managed the kitchen output of a family of two for 6-8 months before being ready for harvest. This is good if harvesting the bin is not high on one's list of fun weekend anctivities, but was frustrating for those who wanted worm castings as quickly as they could get them, but then we've always heard that one man's feast is another man's famine.... ::grin::

Let me know if this explanation of harvesting doesn't make sense and I'll try to post some pictures.

Kelly S

Sounds pretty easy to me. I have a small (10ga) worm bin in my kitchen that I'll probably just keep digging around in just cause it's not very convenient to keep extra bedding around. I'm upgrading my other bin to a 30ish ga tote at some point soon, however, and I think I'll try layers in that one. It's right next to my fish room, so storage for bedding and chlorine free water are not a problem.

I'm not in a huge hurry to spend hours sorting worms, so even if it were to take a year to get full, you wouldn't hear me complain ;-)

Thanks,
Jim