I usually do my bulbs in pots...but some of the general stuff applies regardless of the medium you are growing in.

Yes, do keep your bulbs in a paper bag, or the original packaging during your chilling period. You need to do this if you picked up fall bulbs that are meant to go into the ground for spring blooms. They do not come pre-chilled.

The bulbs you find in the markets in the next few weeks that are marked for forcing instead of the garden have been pre-chilled already. Or at least should be. That's why they want to pop, even in the box on the shelf.

Different bulbs can require different chilling times. I've found 3 months/12 weeks pretty common for hyacinths and muscari AKA grape hyacinths.

And don't forget to add on another 2-3 weeks to allow for grow to bloom time too. This can make a difference if you have a planned blooming time. Like it's already too late to get in a chill and to bloom time with garden bulbs for Christmas, but if you are planning for Easter weekend blooms fit in your grow to bloom time accordingly.

I don't know where to find cheap forcing vases since I use pots.. but I do know you don't actually have to use forcing vases to force bulbs. You can use other taller and more slender vessels with pebbles or glass decor stones in the bottom- point is to keep the roots wet but the bulb itself out of the water.

By the time you put the bulbs into the glasses they need already to have been chilled. You can buy hyacinths that have already been chilled, as beesneeds mentioned. They’re called ‘prepared’ bulbs here. Once prepared and placed in the glasses they need 9 to 10 weeks in single digits centigrade and in total darkness before taking into house temperatures.

The glasses are available in garden centres and ironmongers here.

Paperwhites are unusual in that they do not require chilling and can planted and brought straight into the house.