That is a lot of questions. One way to be sure you have all of the knowledge from this or any board is to read the archives. I started at the beginning and learned so much each day from all the years of posters.

any guidelines Yes most bins need more bedding such as corrigated cardboard. This covers a multitude of sins such as too dry or too wet or too acid. It balances them all out for the worms.

I notice there are no FAQs listed for this topic, as the "Soil, Compost and Mulch" forum has. Perhaps folks could work up a few, and for the time being refer to several short articles on vermicomposting.

Just to be clear -- what type of worms did the poster purchase?

vjeko, I realize this is an older thread and you probably have all the advice you needed from the sage advice you were given. However, I was intrigued by the lizard comment. I recently responded to a similar comment in another forum such as this. A young lady was worried about frogs in her outdoor compost bin eating her worms.

My response to her was welcome them in. Lizards yes will eat some of your worms, but they also will help control those nasty red centipedes and spiders, which I personally don't care for either one. Frogs are quickly becoming an endangered species so I say let them be. Lizards like frogs would be a welcome guest in any of my outdoor worm bins. You must be doing things right if they want to move in...

Thanks for all the comments !

I guess I was like a new father for a while ;) worried
about everything ;)I've got nothing against other critters
but I'm a bit particular about them eating my investment ;)

In the end,I made a small bank of soil all around the
"wooden fence"/ enclosure and bought some fine alu screen
(like mosquito netting) and made a a frame. The frame sits
on top of the enclosure with a wide lip outside so that
nothing can get in/out except underneath.

As far as I know there's no other "predator" except birds
which would feed on the worms, so I think they are safe.

As far as watering goes, I just keep some buckets around
collecting rainwater and just shake a pan simulating short
burst of light rain every couple of days and I throw in
manure and compost every couple of days also. Now that
it is so cold, not sure whether it would be a good idea to
lower the amount of water / the cold rainwater may not
be too pleasing to the worms ;)

Now that it's getting around zero celsius over night,
I threw some narrow boards of wood across the wire mesh on
top of the enclosure, some concrete mesh, plastic foil and
stones on top to stop the wind blowing it away - and it
seems to work OK.

I don't do much digging (except light/shallow checks)
in the enclosure as I don't want to disturb anything - I
think it's best to leave them alone.

Next, I'm planning on building a mobile vermicomposting bin
and combining this with manure->composting + introducing
worms into the garden when I have sufficient numbers
(I'm paying the workers, so they may as well work where
it's needed most ;).

vjeko, adding water in the winter does not harm the worms. You might try adding some hot water to the rain water. Temperatures here are in the teens and before winter is over we will experience negative digits down to minus 20, or more.

I installed an outdoor hot water faucet to blend with my well water for various plants like cucumbers and squash in the early spring. This faucet comes in handy in the winter to water the outdoor compost bin under my deck. Even though the surface freezes, adding hot water straight from the tap does not harm to the occupants. Come spring there are lots of red wigglers in this bin. I don't do a lot of turning in the winter, but come March out comes the potato fork and this bin gets watered and turned two or three times weekly.