Patent ID: 7422894

Claim:
Apparatus for use in a vermiculture plant, the apparatus including a treatment receptacle having a treatment chamber therein and a base upon which material within the treatment chamber is disposed, the receptacle being arranged so that when in use there is a space below the base, a harvester operable to extract material from the treatment chamber through the base and a collecting assembly including a flexible belt operatively connected to a rotatable drum so that it can be wound onto or drawn from the rotatable member, said belt being arranged so that it can adopt a collecting position when at least partially unwound from the rotatable member wherein it is positioned below the treatment chamber and harvester so that harvested material can be collected upon it, said belt being operable so that when the belt is wound onto the rotatable member material thereon can be transferred to a discharge zone, the apparatus further including a feed system, the feed system including a material distributor assembly for distributing the material into the treatment chamber, the distributor assembly including a distributor conveyor which is adapted to be wound onto or from a rotatable member, the assembly further including a carriage which is adapted to traverse over the top of the treatment chamber, the carriage including an idler roller thereon over which the distributor conveyor passes with its free end being anchored to a fixed structure.