How about some pictures? I am getting ready to make a vermicomposting bin myself and can use some ideas.

If the burlap didn't contain any cocoons being in a bin before, in about 8 months you will have ca. 1/2 lb of worms, a head count between 1300 and 1600.
This is my rough estimation because I may have missed some babies. Also the time varied. I picked mature worms (showing clitillum) and they may or may not have mated before I picked them.
At the moment, I have 50 of the 3 gal. bins going, NO holes at the bottom since I don't care for the mess. I cut out most of the lid keeping only the rim to keep the weed cloth jammed in place.

I am not sure what the reason is but the worms climbed the walls before/after/during (???) heavy rains leaving their trail as proof. Lucky for the jammed lid.

I have a 7 gal pail set up the same way. However, I didn't jam the lid tight. I found hundreds (it looked like hundreds) of them on the floor the next morning.

This did not not happen when I had them indoors. This year I have added a roof to the deck behind the house and reserved a corner for about 15 bins. The rest are in the furnace room. These bins didn't show traces of wall climbing en mass, only a few, here and there. Now that I think about it, it must be the damp environment that make them want to ""see"" what's going on "outside"?

Good luck with your experiment bbrose.

I can't put my worms in jail now :-(

Last year I started with a bottomless bin that I found on our local craig's list which is here The Good Corner, bought a bunch of fetida, andrei, and hortensis, rescued a bunch of lumbricus terrestris from walkpaths on rainy days, but I released them all in several compost piles in spring.

They have reproduced like mad I guess, or have been on the worms' Facebook system and called their buddies from around (dude, here, chemical free place, nice poop, no hens), now there are millions !

From a darwinian perspective, I don't feel any better than them. We just have different characteristics that make us best adapted to different environments. I love freedom. Life in a shoe box I would hate ;-) I guess they enjoy freedom and going from this pile of rotten stuff to that pile of manure too ;-)

to Francoise:

Worms, unlike some of us, like enclosed spaces: evidence: They swarm to melon bowls, half egg shells and the weave of burlap. I do imagine, as you do, the local worms migrating to my yard because the surrounding spaces are toxic.

Charlie:

There are lots of pictures on this site. Clues to pictures are the image of a camera at the post. I have four (4) worm compost arrangements and four more composts with only worms which mostly came up from where they come from.

In order for all of us to give you the best guidance, we would want to know:
your level of commitment ( I am an extreme ),
eg -- how much time you'll spend reading the site,
how much time you'll spend preparing worm food . . .
how much money you want to spend,
whether you have access to horse manure and burlap,
how much space you can allot to the practice,
and the climate where you live.
Chuckiebtoo is the shoebox practitioner. Put that moniker in the search box (bottom of posts page) and read as many as look promising , especially the ones with camera images.
When you post on this forum, try to keep track of the threads that are relevant to you. If you start with a single shoebox, which I would recommend to a beginner, then post to this thread.

Otis:

I've been a stingy wormer, usually checking each bin about once a week, relying on worms to survive mostly on horse manure. Do you imagine that the reproduction rate you estimate would want more food than that ?
Are your 3 gallon bins the Rubbermaid tubs ?
If they are messy, are they too wet ?
They are open to rain outdoors ?
Because the horse manure seems to hold just the right moisture, & because I feed pureed food , I don't get drips or drainage unless I actually add liquid -- and when I do that in hot weather, it is aerated horse manure tea.
( I can't go back to read whether I missed something without losing what's here . . .)

To everyone:

I did do a very small experiment with an extremely rotten (anaerobic) liquid:
All the worms crawled out right away. To me, this anecdote is evidence in the aerobic vs anaerobic issue.

bbrose:
I have no access to manure.
The 3 gal containers are not RM bins but white round (dia. ca. 8" or 9" and 12" high) white plastic bins for bulk ice cream, yoghurt, sorbet and that kind of stuff. They are translucent but not transparent.
Before I have the roof over the deck at the rear of the house, the 15 bins or so were inside the house in a carpeted spare bedroom. They are not TOO wet but wetter than VC in my FT bins. I have taken them back inside since outside temps are around 10C now. And no, they were not ""in"" the rain.

I used corr. cardboard to line the wall. First thought was to block light getting inside the buckets. It also helps absorb extra moisture and subsequently serves as extra "food". When the corr. cb start to break down, it is very easy to rip them into smaller pieces by hand and replace with new dry pieces lining the walls. I do like using corr. cb in the worm bins but have no means to rip them to pieces. I have no lawn, so, no lawnmower.
When starting/re-starting my no-holes bins, I lay rolled, ca.1" strips of corr. cb covering the bottom to help absorb "future" excess moisture and provide (very limited) extra air.

A juice place let me have their pulp and that's where i got the 3 gal. tubs from. Store tubs full of pulp (mixed powdered eggshell in before storing away w. lid) beside the house and feed the oldest (several mths.old). They do not become anaerobic, not sure why. But fermentation to some degree, not much.
They also let me have their spent wheat grass mats. These I use to line the bottom when starting/re-starting bins. This is where I suspect the little black/dark brown bugs came from I now have in some of the bins. They look very much like bugs one finds in old flour or oatmeal.
To start with, I also put a small handful of worm food and with only 30 worms, I'd add another handful after a couple of weeks or so. These 30 worms will become really fat and big, fatter and bigger than the worms in the main bins. They (these 30) tend to stay at the bottom of the bin. Once there's some mass built up, I look for these big fat worms and move them to the top. I don't want the cocoons they lay to be trapped at the bottom and get the babies killed. After 3 or 4 months, they're fed 2x/wk. with a handful pulp (spot feeding) I still have some Purina worm chow and rabbit food (pellets) they get now and then. However, come feeding time and the previous food is still very recognizable, I'd skip.
I also use shredded newspaper. I tried office/bond paper but this is not good at all. They're still there for many months after.

Otis: I think your post would be good in a thread of its own.

I'm thinking the forum ("we") could have a thread for each variety of approach: shoe boxes, ice cream buckets, Rubbermaid tubs, Tuff Tubs (a la Buckstarchaser & Renais1) (see Renais's post 7/26/14) Worm Inns, stackable plastics (Worm Factory & Can o Worms ) and outdoor bottomless a la Pete (Mendopete 8/5/2010 with pictures ). What's missing ?

Is it OK with you if your post eventually gets copied to another thread ?

WOW 50 of those buckets !
What are you doing with the castings ?
(I guess if you are selling it, you better not say.)
I will SEARCH to see if you brew tea & how. (Or you can tell me.)

BBrose:
I do not mind anybody copying my post or my methods. That is why I posted.
I got strangled in my own mind, how to sort posts and their relevance so they will be easy to find. The comments to post got so intertwined and branched out it is very difficult to sort them into one particular/specific subject really. It will be very tedious work for whoever might volunteer doing it.

Once these buckets are full (after a yr. or so), there's only the bottom half that is finished VC. Remember there were only 30 worms to start with. The buckets were not started all at the same time but staggered. And I do sell VC once friends and families got theirs. For my own use is VC not fit to be given away or sold :).
I don't think it is inferior quality wise, just not as pretty. And no, I do not brew tea. I have so many "worm stuff" already and I can't be bothered doing the brewing. If I think I might need tea, I get several handfuls of VC, add water, stir for a few minutes and drench the plant. Mind you, I do not have vegetables, just ornamental plants. And lately I have developed an admiration for peoneas. Just planted bare root Cameo Lullaby, Coral N Gold and Itoh Pastel Splendour, Callie's Memory. From another post, I know you have tree peoneas. I have one that is not doing well and has a contorted shape. Not sure if I should cut the branches.

Sorry folks, this has nothing to do with worms but I took the liberty since it's bbrose's thread and hope she wouldn't mind.

Otis, for tearing up the cardboard have you tried soaking it? It tears up much easier when wet and of course it needs a good soaking before introducing the worms anyhow.

I am very new at all this so dont take what I have to offer as gospel but small pieces dont seem to be the best as they tend to lay flat on one another. I tear off pieces around 4 x 6" then ball up and a pile of these looks like it maintains a nice open structure to it which I would think worms would prefer. Again I could be spot on wrong here as I am learning as I go.

My guys are in square plastic buckets that icing, whipped cream, muffin mix etc etc that the coffee shops use. They throw them in the recycling and pass these on to me willingly.

I use shredded office paper, newspaper, torn egg cartons. Because it's fall I also put a bunch of leaves when I recently harvested.

I'm not sure why some of you don't like the shredded office paper. They eat everything I give them.

Otis, that was nice to learn that one gets weevils juice when drinking grass juice ;-)

Wormers' creativity is very interesting. Thanks to all for sharing.