Harvesting Compost

There are a few different ways to separate the compost from the worms:

The hands on approach:

Empty your worm bin onto several layers of newspaper or a plastic sheet in a well lit place. The worms will burrow into the compost to get away from the light so you can harvest the compost off the top of the pile. Wait a few minutes to let the worms burrow deeper, then harvest more compost off the top. Place your worms, any uncomposted food scraps and the remaining compost back into the bin and add fresh bedding materials.

The hands-free approach:

Move everything in your bin over to one side and fill the empty space with fresh bedding. For the next month or so, add food to the side with the fresh bedding only. The worms will finish off whatever food scraps and bedding remaining in the compost side and migrate over to the fresh bedding. Then you can simply remove the finished mostly worm-free compost. When you’re done harvesting add more fresh bedding to the bin and start feeding both sides of the bin again.