O.K. Here's my two cents on raising worms in a bin. Firstly, I've had my best success with pallet bins. they are cheap (as in free for the having after asking) strong and for the most part, pretty easy to harvest from. They can be heavy, and not all that handsome, but they will hold a lot and it's their mass and heat that make raising worms happen with out trying to make it happen. I start bins when I need them but I always start one in the fall and here's why I think it works, when the bin first starts up, I admit, the center is too hot for worms, but the edges aren't. Lets say my bin is (on the inside)4x4x4 and the center temp is one hundred fifty, if you measure the temp progressively from the outside in, on a hot bin, you'll find that the worms will find a comfortable area in which to live, breed, and influence their friends. So a bin started in, lets say, November (in MD-average temps by my recollection hover around 40f in the day and 30ish, maybe less, at night) So I would imagine that one foot sphere of comfort would feel about right for those worms, and about once a week I come along and rock their world with my fluffing method (which is why the wooden pallet is so important) and on some of these cold days as I fluff, it introduces lil bursts of "freshness" (they'd call it icy scary air,) which allows them the excuse to do it 'cuz we might die'. and as the season moves on the bin stays hot, but less and less, so by spring I can use it or if I choose, I can stop fluffing and just water the bins through the dog days of summer and the lil worms stay cool enough so that when I transfer a handful of them to next years bin the cycle continues. Heck, when I had my compost mountains going, on the coldest day of the year (-3f) I had worms thriving six inches below the surface to 18 inches below the surface, but no deeper cuz from 18 inches down the temps would rise from 80f (in the area the worms hovered) to its hottest of 168f, five or six feet down. so the long and short of it is,I raise worms outside in bins, you can too! Worms are amazing creatures they'll take a lickin and keep on tickin.

better question for the vermicomposting forum, they know their stuff over there ;) It would also help to know what all you have done to your bin so we can know what else you need to do. From my limited knowledge of the topic, all you really need simply put is drainage holes on the bottom and something to catch the drippings, like you would use a saucer for a potted plant. something bigger than the bin and deep enough to hold some liquid (but I'd guess only a few inches is plenty). I dont think these bins typically (if they are balanced correctly) put out a whole lot of liquid.

I think redwormcomposting dot Com did an experiment like that. I kinda did also. I got tired of screwing around with worms, and dumped them into a 5x10 x 2 feet deep bed I dug. Did the whole filling it with cardboard, leaves, horse manure and whatever else I could find before adding the worms over a 2x5 foot section on one end. These were EF and european nightcrawlers. They have taken over the whole bed, as are a variety of squash and melon that grew from the worm bins. I don't know how to precisely quantify "better" than anything else, but there are a lot more worms than I had before and a lot of crops in that same bed.

Utilizing the native herd is progress, my friend ;) My composter is copied from the book "let an earthworm be your garbage man" . essentially it is a four sided cinder block box which is one layer below grade and as many above as is needed. I chose to layer the bottom with oyster shells, then the process is dirt, composting material, dirt, etc. I top with hay and burlap, sometimes cardboard. It is satisfying to fill a setup like this and watch it subside into good earth. Watering speeds the process, of course, and coffee grounds are, according to the results of an experiment a relative of my friend did, the best top feed for size and reproductive capacity of earthworms. Like myself, worms know a good thing. I have no pictures, but the idea is very simple and easy to build. As in Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come. Simple wet cardboard is enough to draw them. Junkmail. They are practically catfish. I draw them to favored plants with mulch and stones. If i can get my truck right i know that a load of composted horse manure can easily spawn a megaherd. But for me the end is nothing more than soil-building. I saw an elegant wooden worm bin on youtube once. It was partially below grade aside an outbuilding. This assures a cooler temp in summer, warmer in winter.