My 9 year old wants to be a worm farmer.

I have four children. The next to the last child is 9 going on 10 and wants to raise worms. He wants to raise three bins, 1 for the garden improving red worms, 1 for meal worms to sell to the pet stores, 1 for night crawlers for the fishermen. I had purchased a kids book called "The winter worm business" by Patricia Reilly Giff that is about kids who start their own bait worm farm for ice fishing. My son bought a book called "kid biz" from a school book fair and it had a section on worm farming as a kids bisiness and between reading the two books he has desided that he wants to do this (really, really bad as only the enthusiasm of a nine year old can muster up). If the DG family could pass on some knowledge i would really appreciate it. I will be cleaning out the garage in order to have indoor bins. I appreciate your time.
Bear in San Antonio
and his son Reed

Go Reed!!!! I suggest you get "Worms Eat My Garbage by Appelhof, lots of good clear information in that. We just got our bin set up and the delightful little critters in it. Woohoo!!!! Such fun!!!
Check the thread for directions on building the bins. Lots of good information in here.

I second Doccat's book suggestion. Mary Appelhof is the godmother of American vermicomposting.

Also, here is a link for a good, simple homemade bin:
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/wormbins.htm

ilexwhite --I have this exact bin. I got the directions on line. A friend built it for me, but the costs were about 40.00. I keep mine in the basement of my church setting on blocks. You will want to keep that in mind before you drill your drainage holes. You will have to set plastic trays under it to catch drainage. This was not too much of a problem except when I had a lot of cantaloupe and watermellon rinds. The wood naturally absorbs the water out of the wastes. This is much better than the plastic bin I started with. There is a lot of drainage with plastic. If I used a plastic bin again then I would put all the drainage holes in the bottom on only one end and raise the other end slightly to cause it to drain that direction. That way you would only need one drain pan underneath. I also used nylon screening that I glued down with a hot glue gun over the drainage holes.

oh thanks that is great information. I am doing a demolition on an old trailer so the wood is free as ar the hinges I just have to put them together.