Worms stay put because they like the environment inside the bin better than the environment outside the bin. Trying to seal them in does not make sense, since they need air circulation, thus holes of some sort, and they can squeeze through pretty small holes. Most of us use some sort of home made system, often made from Rubbermaid totes.

I prefer outdoor systems, which are much easier, more forgiving and more productive, IMO.

I would go with the wooden chest. One large herd in a larger bin is easier to manage than stackables I would think.
Lateral migration works well. When your bin is half full, move the contents to one side, and put fresh bedding/food on the other. Leave it alone for a month or so and they will be relocated (mostly).

Good luck, Pete

What do you think of the idea of putting the night crawlers in an outside set up and using red wigglers eisenia fetida in an indoor bin. Night crawlers need to burrow, right ?

See the Design an outdoor bin thread. This folly is an experiment to see whether red wigglers will migrate up or down.
I think what is most likely to happen is that they will stay in the tray they are in.

If night crawlers do like to, need to, burrow, as I've read, putting a box over a hole (as I did) --- but without drawers, might be a good strategy.

Each indoor system has its advantages and disadvantages.
I wouldn't recommend any of them for night crawlers, but then I haven't studied those guys.

Options for red wigglers :

shoe boxes: consult chuckiebtoo
Worm Inn: consult me or EquinoxEquinox & others
Worm Factory: See two threads on that set up.
Plastic Bins: Based on the frequency of this strategy, it is the most common starting scheme
Outdoors: Mendopete, Pete and pskvorc, Paul, & Buckstarchaser, Craig.

We need to know your goal. You want fast results -- to get rid of a lot of food scraps ? To get worms for fishing ? For castings ? How much space do you have in what kind of environment ?

There is a thread on that, too: What is your interest in raising worms ?

Also read carefully both the thread -- Paley method; & the link -- The Burrow Presents.

The search box for this forum is at the bottom of the page that lists threads. See what putting night crawlers in a search brings up.

As far as I know, there is not consensus on what is The Best indoor system. It depends on circumstances and the individual person's preferences.

This post was edited by barbararose21101 on Fri, Aug 29, 14 at 12:03

thanks guys, pete I was leaning toward the horizontal so I guess that's the way to go because like you said its a larger herd. I need a substantial amount of castings and harvesting a few quarts a month (like wormfactory) is not going to cut it.

As far a sealing in the worms, it is a must with a african nighcrawler because they do just that crawl around at night. And I didn't say air tight, "Excape proof" a 1/16" or 5/64" drill bit provides a hole which the worms cant go threw while letting air and moister threw(aka drain holes). I have not had one worm in my catch bin. I also drill 1" holes and then cover them with house hold screen and I use permatex(liquid gasket sealer) to hold the screen to the bin this works well check the pic. However do not put the lid on till the permatex smell goes away. Outdoors I have a roof over my bins(a shed without the walls). so I leave my tops off 24/7 an I have led lights that stay on over night. however indoors is a diff story. How will I pick up girls if I have stray worms in my house...lol.. Has anyone had African night-crawlers?

barbrarose21101, my main goal is high quality castings in as short of time as possible that's why i wanted a contained system. I chose the use African nightcrawler for an indoor system because its a tropical worm an needs a warm climate and if they are inside I know they will be firing on all cylinders all the time. I have bins outside as well as horse manure piles spread out 1' high I brought home from a stable harvested most the worms and its loaded with cocoons so I am letting them repopulate. So in addition I thought it would be fun to build a indoor system. Its nice t se so many people vermicomposting, and helping one another. Thank you so much

As for migration, most worms will migrate when the older section/side/tray is mostly processed. Many won't. And you will still have some cocoons in the older section as well. There really isn't any way to efficiently remove all the worms. If your concern is populating the newer bedding, the worms will take care of that for you. If your concern is removing all the worms from the old section, that isn't realistic.

Sbryce, Thanks for a honest answer im very finiky harvesting my casting I try to remove all worms an cocoons(verytime consuming) I screened my castings with 1/4" then 1/8" screens (actual measurements) and still some cocoons an small baby worms pass threw. This takes to long an isn't realistic to do this every harvest. thats why I was wondering about the migration method. I hope to have more worms soon so I wont be worried about getting them all out when harvesting. I was just checking out the worm tower an I think this may be effective in my raised beds and less time consuming. plus I have a bunch of 4" pvc hopefully it will be large enough diameter for a worm tower. It is 40% chance to rain tonight or tomorrow if so im going worm hunting..lol If you don't mind manure its a good way to save money.. I already harvested 4lbs of solid worm no bed run, an I bought 3,000 from uncle jim.

BURLAP !

"Best " passive harvesting method. Use "burlap" in search for various posts.

In My Experience ( IME ) there will still be a few worms demanding individual attention.