Not too long ago I received yet another worm bin for testing – this time a hand-made, single-compartment flow-through bin from Wood Worm Farms. Truth be told, when I happened upon an image and description of the bin on the site a little while ago I immediately emailed them to see if they’d be interested in having me do a review. I’ve been wanting to test a small single-compartment flow-through like this for quite some time, and this one looked way too cool to pass up!
As some of you (looooong-time RWC readers) may recall, I actually own another bin from Wood Worm Farms – a 5 tray stacking bin I’ve used for a few different projects, including the “Four Worm Reproduction Experiment“.
Here are a couple of other posts you may want to check out:
My New Stacking Worm Bin
Wooden Stacking Bin – The Return!
In all honesty, it’s not a bin I’ve been all that impressed with, however. My main complaint is that the trays are far too shallow. This combined with the wood construction (more “breathable” than plastic) makes it much more difficult to keep the contents nice and moist. This shouldn’t be nearly as much of an issue with the new bin.
At first I assumed this one was a stacking bin as well (with nice deep trays), but there actually isn’t a screen on the bottom of the second level – it’s simply added when you want to increase the volume of your “single compartment”. As you can see below (with my cat for scale), it’s not a huge bin – about 1 cubic foot of vermicomposting space with both levels added, but I think this actually makes it more appealing (nice and compact – great for those who don’t have a huge amount of space).
The screen floor at the bottom also seems better quality than the tray screens in my WWF stacking system, and it even comes with a nifty little tool for loosening up the vermicompost once it’s ready. There isn’t any sort of “reservoir” attached to the bin (as there is in Worm Factory, and similar, plastic stacking bins), but it did come with a tray that sits nicely underneath the unit (you can see it in the image with my cat).
Yesterday I decided to start getting the system ready for use. I mixed some (frozen-then-thawed) food waste and living materials together and added it over top of multiple layers of newsprint laid down inside the bin.
I then mixed in some shredded cardboard and wet everything down fairly well.
I’ll likely leave the system to sit for at least a couple of days before adding any worms. As per usual, I don’t have any specific quantity of worms in mind – but I am thinking it would be nice to hit the ground running, so I’ll likely add more than I usually do.
Stay tuned! I should have another update for you sometime next week.
8)
Interesting, looks and works like a beehive! Bentley is that harvest bar fixed to a rail and does it travel below the full bottom surface, or does it just move up and down in one spot?
Hi Bentley,
Is it not too late to put some 2″ of ready worm compost at the very bottom of the bin? The paper might become dry and hard to scrape later.
At first I thought it was pretty good size, then I saw your cat and now I think he’s pretty good size lol
I really like wood worm farms and the stuff they do and sell. And best of all they are Canadian.
I tried to go to the web page for the wormbin, but it seems down. Is the business still selling the wood bins?
LAURA – the harvesting tool is similar to one of those utensils used for spreading icing on cake, but the end is bent upwards, so it can be moved around all over the place. Should work very well.
———-
WORMBIN – not really sure what you mean. I definitely wouldn’t be able to put material like that directly over the screen (most would fall through). I will be sure to keep the bottom well moistened so it continues to break down. I’m not in a huge rush anyway.
———-
SHARON – Our cat (Monty) is fairly hefty, but I would still describe this bin as fairly small. Great for indoor use though!
———-
BRENDA – Yes indeed! They’ve been around for quite some time now and I’m happy to recommend them to others.
———-
BROOK – worked just fine for me when I tried it this morning.
Hi
This looks like a nice simple system. One question I have is – would it not be better to have the cutting bar below the steel wire mesh so there is not an opening above where works could vacate the system too easily ?
Thanks – Eric