Mealworm farming

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We ordered 1000 mealworms yesterday from Southern Bait Worms. It was $15 for 1,000 medium meal worms and free shipping. So that seemed like a pretty good deal to me. I have already emailed their support with a question and received a response within 10 minutes so while I can't vouch for the product yet, it does seem they have good service. They also have a live delivery guarantee.

I'm also getting a 3 drawer setup from Walmart - not because I want to separate my worms but because it was actually the best value for a decent surface area (most large storage bins go more for volume than surface area) that I could find.

Looking forward to seeing how this goes!
 
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I ordered a 1,000 from them last month and was very satisfied. My shipment was delayed a couple of days due to the high heat. They were waiting on their shipment of mesh bags to send the worms in. They arrived active and hungry with extras. Only 3 were dead. Have fun with your little wormies!
 
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So glad they're now being
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. Remember...they're for the girls!
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Awesome! You're gonna have fun and might even end up separating them at first.....very fascinating.
 
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I don't think I jumped in on this meal worm thread until it was many pages along. Hannakat was very encouraging as were many others about getting them so I jumped on board and got into it.

You may not be the only one that has neglected the little things so don't feel bad. I was thinking that you came on board after I read that but I could well be wrong. It may have been you and things turned out great.

I find myself forgetting mine quite often now. I hate that but with them not next to the door I pass right through the den and outside without ever seeing them. DD uses that room and I only do eggs and meal worms in there. I stay in the living room mostly and I suppose they should be in here where I would notice them more and not forget to feed them. DD does remind me on occasion.
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I am so ready to get the magnifying glass out and start looking for itsie bitsie babies!
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I started off with oatmeal. You can use it right out of the round box but I had a 50# bag that I was feeding to my chicks so had plenty. I liked it well enough until they started to pupate and then I found it hard to see the pupae with the oats in there. I have several bins now that have the wheat bran with just a few oats added for variety. I see the pupae much better in the bran.
 
I wanted to hear from those who freeze their meal worms and how do you do this? Just put a bunch of worms in a plastic tub or ziplock bag along with a bunch of wheat bran so they don't freeze together and pop it into the freezer?

And then do you do anything special with them after that or just toss them out to our chickens? I'm guessing that they'd thaw in no time. And if it's hot out, the hens would probably appreciate chilled meal worms.
 
I use oats found in the round container for my single bin. It makes a good substrate, as does the wheat bran and wheat mill. Don't have to get fancy...just use what's handy for you!

The reason I got creative with the 2nd drawer is because I find the whole cycle to be very interesting and I wanted to see how they would do in the ground up mixture AND because I wanted to be able to see my baby wee wormies! Works well too!


Catching up with photos....
Darkling beetle egg seen in between cardboard layers in the lower right corner of drawer. I have the piece standing on its end.
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First shedding seen a few weeks ago.
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Size of the worms at that time:
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Current shedding before I cleaned it out yesterday.
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Current size of wormies. They're growing fast!
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