This is a hard question to answer without seeing your bin.

If what you say is true about soil? That really does not have any place in an indoor bin accept maybe a handful.

Your bin should only have Castings (worm poop) bedding (a place for the worms to hang out) and food. The food and bedding are the most microbial active and require the most oxygen, and the Castings require the least. For this reason I leave the castings at the bottom and enhance the bin with bedding then add food as needed. I am a top feeder because I like to keep an eye on the food to know when to feed more. Some people like to bury food in the bedding, this is ok also but again I would leave the castings in the bottom or harvest them.

I hope this helps a little.

Sierra,

I am a little too quick on the draw and replied to the first posting without reading this one, interesting point "the castings require the least" oxygen. Now that is a whole new point of understanding for me, perhaps you can elaborate, is this due to the humic acid being the most beneficial by product as compared to the microbes in the castings, or are the microbials from the castings less 02 dependent, are they different from the compost microbes? Ahhh So

Thanks,
Gardeniera

PS I am more comfortable with my currect methods but will probably convert to top feeding as well so as to keep an easy eye on things. I am brand new to this and when I picked up my used bin, the person selling it used said she "failed" at it and was "setting it up" for me and I noticed she was putting soil or compost in it. For now I may leave it but might try to start a second level with the bedding mix suggested at various sites and see if they migrate away. Thnx again