Today I was asked for about a foot^3 of my plain compost, not urgently, to top dress a growing container (currently full of spent mushroom compost) that isn't doing well. I dug deep in the center of the pile, and found some black material that is largely but not completely broken down, and had a mild funk... probably went slightly anaerobic again.

I stuck it in a bucket, added some cucumber peel, crushed eggshell, old coffee grounds, and some vermicompost from my worm bin, including a few adults, juveniles, and some cocoons. Mixed it and fluffed it and I plan to let it sit for a week or two. Proportions are in the neighborhood of 35% underlying clay (already improved a lot by having the compost pile sit on it), 60% unfinished compost of yard waste/cardboard/kitchen waste, 5% vermicompost, negligible% other.

The relevant part to this forum, and the problem, is that my worm bin is not designed to be harvested quickly like that. The worms don't mind so much if I reach down to the cast level to investigate, but they freaked right the hell out and started trying to escape (both crawling up the side of the bucket, and slithering out the drainage holes in the bottom) after I dug my fingers in as gently as I could to pull some casts and broken down bedding off the bottom. I don't blame them, they probably thought I was a predator coming to eat them, I won't be doing that again.

I kept the top off the bin with a light on it, and kept replacing the worms until they stopped trying to run, then added some fresh damp bedding, replaced the lid, and put the bin away under the sink.

I want to give the worms plenty of time to settle down and relax before I interact with the bin again in any way. I'm wondering if my usual checking just a couple times a week schedule will be fine, or if I should give them a longer period to stop feeling threatened and get back to work. I'd like to hear some more experienced wormers' thoughts on letting a disturbed system settle.