I can't get an idea of the size, or how easy it would be to get into the compost...

But that's one of the coolest garden features I've ever seen. Really!

That's just too cool. I think you should just keep doing what you're doing, it seems to make your worm farm happy.

That is so neat! Why change a good thing. As far as how long would the scraps take to compost, I think it would depend on how many worms are there, and how warm your temps are. The more worms, and the warmer the temps, the faster the composition. But then, that is how this works for me down here in Texas, :)

Paul, I don't see why you couldn't manage it like a smaller worm bin. When you're ready to harvest castings, stop feeding at one side and make your additions to the other side. It probably won't be as complete a worm relocation as an indoor bin, but I always sacrifice some worms when I take the castings anyway.

As for how long, I think you'll just have to watch it and see when it looks "done" enough for whatever your purpose is. You already know that compost doesn't have to be completely finished to be useful, although I guess for tea you'd want it pretty mature.

Cool idea! Will you add new branches around it this year?

Your compliments have been passed along to the chef, she is beaming. She has already made a new bin like this one on the far side of the garden. The old one (funny you should ask Colleen) is dead and grey, so she topped it up with a ring of fresh spruce boughs, just for the looks. I'll see about getting a photo of both.

I forgot to mention - because I plain forgot; winter tends to wipe the memory banks - that a bunch of shellfish plant waste also went into the pile, and that I purposely diverted shovelsfull of manure that had red wrigglers in it to this pile, so a worm village should not have been entirely unexpected.

The problem of separating castings comes partly from the fact that these fine castings are mixed with stalks and clumps of roots. So I think I'll keep adding to the pile this year, give it more time.

The perspective in the picture is odd - makes it look like the pallet bins are far from the bird's nest, which looks huge. The wall of it is about 2 1/2' high - a little higher than the dog on the right if that helps. :)

How about somebody try this bin using other stuff - sunflower and/or other stalks - and tell us how it goes?

I do a lot of worm bin projects with the kids at my daughter's elementary school. We decided to try just building a bin out of bales of pinestraw that we had. We laid them end to end and then one across, making it about 6'X 2'. We add whatever food scraps they have from lunches and shred classroom/office scrap paper. When we want to harvest compost we take off one of the end pieces and make the bin longer and replace the end piece. We stop feeding the other end. The worm bin is moving up the school yard and we can move it back the other direction when needed. It's fun and works well, even through winter.

Susan that's brilliant. I'd really like to see a picture if you have one. These bins remind me of traditional Japanese packaging - eg. bamboo, paper. Or edible cellophane candy wrappers.

What is pine straw exactly?

I wanted to seek permission to show your picture of the bird's nest compost bin when I speak to a local garden club. If so, would you please email the picture to me?

Thank you so much. I think it is very clever.

I was looking through old posts and found this.
I thought it was very nifty. So I revived it.

Didn't realize it's an old thread until I came to your post. Thanks for reviving it.
It makes people think of new ideas to create DIY worm bins.