There really isn't any difference between the three methods you describe.

Worms are very forgiving. With most foods, the amounts we usually feed should not heat up. There are exceptions, but they are just that, exceptions, especially if you are feeding food scraps.

What you don't want is large pockets of just food. This could lead to conditions in the bin that can be unpleasant for you and the worms. But even with that, the worms tend to be very forgiving.

The two methods used most are:

1) Dig a hole in your bedding and drop in food. Bury it. Do this in a new location every day or so. You should rotate between six or so places where you bury food.

2) Pull back some of the bedding on top of the bin and dump in a thin layer of food. (it should cover about half of the bin) cover the food with the bedding you pulled back.

With either method you want to add more bedding periodically. With method 1, about once a week, or about the time you find yourself feeding back in the original spot. With method 2, every time you feed. In either case, try to keep the bedding depth between 6 to 8 inches.

If you start with method 1, you will soon forget where you are burying food and switch to method 2. If you are using method 2, every now and them you will have a reason to just dig a hole in the bedding and bury food.

Or just do whatever you like. The worms are very forgiving. But having a layer of bedding over the food will help keep things tidy. Any method you use will cause some mixing of the bedding and food. If you avoid feeding over the entire bin, then if it does heat up, the worms will have a place to escape to.

This post was edited by sbryce on Sun, Oct 6, 13 at 2:09

My simple version: you can have too much food like kitchen scraps, you can't have too much bedding (like cardboard). Food that's cut up breaks down easier. Don't add too much food at once. The rest, just experiment.

Thank you so much! I just added some chopped up watermelon rind mixed with egg carton and put the mixture on top of the bed. I then cover it with moist newspaper. Hopefully my worms will like their new home!

Watermelon rind decomposes quickly. The worms should be all over it by morning.

Oh, wait, you said you were still waiting for your worms to arrive in the mail. Well, then, this will be a good way to get the bin going. The worms will be happy to find food ready for them when they move in.

Sounds like you're off to a good start. I also bury my food in different areas of my bin and keep shredded bedding covering everything, like sbryce described. I figure this gives the worms lots of choices and keeps me from having to look at rotting food. The link below is a step by step using this method.

A different way of doing it is to lay a wet newspaper on top of the food instead of the extra shredded bedding. You lift up the whole newspaper to add more scraps. My husband manages our worm factory this way and thinks its the way to go. Different schools of thought...

Here is a link that might be useful: Starting a worm composting bin