Mealworm farming

[DHinton]

If you get a magnifying glass and use it to examine a bit of the bedding once it has been disturbed a little, you may see some worms that are tiny, tiny, tiny. I can't remember how long it takes for eggs to develop into worms, but it seems to take forever if you are waiting for it.

i believe i received my mix sized batch of 5,000 in early june. the oldest one's babies are, this week/last week, wandering around as beetles.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I started my mealworm farm 6 months ago and now have several 7" high totes with different stages of mealworms and beetles in them. I kept my mealworm farm in my garage all summer and have now discovered a couple of chipmunks are happily munching on my open pupa drawer (the others drawers are covered). So....... no more uncovered drawers for me. This raises another issue.......which is........that I am taking my mealworm farm into the house for the winter (cold NW PA winters) and can imagine mice and other vermin trying to get into the house to get a tasty meal...................................What kind of critters should I be concerned about getting into my house?

I think mice and Indian meal moths would probably be your main concern where you live.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I was referring to wild bsfl flies I already knew about the mealworms being clean raised. Thank you for trying to help though

I did some searching of the literature and I couldn't find any references of BSF larvae being intermediate hosts to worms or other pathogens that commonly infect chickens. Maybe it has to do with larval feeding habits or the morphology of their mouthparts?

As someone said earlier, given that the adults don't feed and are so short lived maybe their chances of being vectors are limited. If you wanted to be cautious you could feed the BSF food scraps only and put the chicken litter in a separate compost bin. I have to say though, I always give my chickens access to finished compost before I use it just so they can get the BSF larvae. My compost includes chicken litter, but maybe it gets so hot that most pathogens and parasites are killed.

 

[buttercup95]

I did some searching of the literature and I couldn't find any references of BSF larvae being intermediate hosts to worms or other pathogens that commonly infect chickens. Maybe it has to do with larval feeding habits or the morphology of their mouthparts?

As someone said earlier, given that the adults don't feed and are so short lived maybe their chances of being vectors are limited. If you wanted to be cautious you could feed the BSF food scraps only and put the chicken litter in a separate compost bin. I have to say though, I always give my chickens access to finished compost before I use it just so they can get the BSF larvae. My compost includes chicken litter, but maybe it gets so hot that most pathogens and parasites are killed.

All right. I wasn't too worried about it, and I did research it myself I just wanted a more experienced person than I. I bet the chickens of mine that free range have been eating them for years come to think of it. I don't know why I didn't realize it before

 

[wendeld]

This is the second drawer.  I moved 100 worms into ground up oats, chicken feed, corn meal, powdered milk, and wheat flour.  I am going to try this mixture for the baby worms to develop in when they drop from the top drawer.  Many of the worms in this drawer have already become pupa and have been moved so everyone (!  every worm!!) should be pupae before any babies are hatched.

This is the bottom drawer where most of the worms are.  It's mostly oats with some of the ground mixture being added every now and then.

This is another container I just started last Wednesday.  I've been putting all of the pupae in here for a week now.... don't know why I think it might be better to start these separately???  Just decided to put them in here.  I also want to COUNT them this time!

A couple of questions about this set up.....
To get started you just put the meal worms that were purchased and put them in the top drawer and wait for them to turn into beetles?

After they turn into beetles how long do they live for? Do you remove dead.ones or.do they get eaten by the others?

Once they start laying eggs and the eggs fall to the second drawer they grow to desired feeding size and then you move them to the bottom drawer? Do you move them by hand (i am going to have to get over squeimishness if thats the case) how do you know when they are big enough to go to the bottom drawer?

do you feed the ones from the bottom drawer to the birds and which ever turn to pupae just start the cycle over again and put them in the top drawer? How long does it take them to turn into bettles?

how long from when You first start the meal worm farm to having hatched and ready to eat meal worms? And im jist geussing but this wouldnt be the only source of food for the birds through winter do you feed them chicken feed too?

Thank you for the pictures they are beyond helpful, my only concern is having them i. The house have you ever had any problems with any other species wanting to move in ?

 

[CrunchyNana]

Quote: I hope mine start turning back to worms before winter. I bought worms earlier this summer {I should have made a note of the date} and they have all turned to beetles... but are seemingly happy being beetles and I've seen no new worms. They seem to like where they are. It's been *months*. I keep mine all in one container with oats {can't seem to find wheat bran}.

I've got mine in a closet upstairs, b/c that is the warmest place in our less than 70* house - I've not seen any other critters wanting to move in. Mine beetles are in a large bottom of a clam shell container that salad greens come in. I've got a larger rubbermade box ready for them and the eleventy million wormies that they are supposed to turn into... if they ever do. sigh.

 

[hosspak]

Do you have a pan underneath to catch the tiny worms that come from the beetles? The pan that contains the beetles should have a screened bottom and the tiny worms fall through into a catch pan.

 

[CrunchyNana]

Do you have a pan underneath to catch the tiny worms that come from the beetles? The pan that contains the beetles should have a screened bottom and the tiny worms fall through into a catch pan.

 

[kwol]

A couple of questions about this set up.....
To get started you just put the meal worms that were purchased and put them in the top drawer and wait for them to turn into beetles?

After they turn into beetles how long do they live for? Do you remove dead.ones or.do they get eaten by the others?

Once they start laying eggs and the eggs fall to the second drawer they grow to desired feeding size and then you move them to the bottom drawer? Do you move them by hand (i am going to have to get over squeimishness if thats the case) how do you know when they are big enough to go to the bottom drawer?

do you feed the ones from the bottom drawer to the birds and which ever turn to pupae just start the cycle over again and put them in the top drawer? How long does it take them to turn into bettles?

how long from when You first start the meal worm farm to having hatched and ready to eat meal worms? And im jist geussing but this wouldnt be the only source of food for the birds through winter do you feed them chicken feed too?

Thank you for the pictures they are beyond helpful, my only concern is having them i. The house have you ever had any problems with any other species wanting to move in ?

My top drawer is beetles with a screened bottom so that the eggs fall through into the second drawer all the meal worms are. from eggs, to microscopic to longer. When I find pupae in the second drawer I p[ick them out and move them to the bottom drawer like you have pictured. I would put a small carrot in there too. When the pupae become beetles, no matter what the color ( because they are very pale at first, almost like a pupae) I pick them up and put them in the top drawer to begin reproducing. The length of the complete lifecycle depends upon the temp. Life cyles progress more quickly in warmer temps.

You do need to purge the top drawer of dead beetle carcasses once in awhile, whenever it seems excessive.

I feed my chickens dead beetle carcasses and meal worms. You just have to leave some mealworms to get to the pupae stage to continue your colony.

This is a protein supplement during the winter whenever the chickens cannot graze for their own insects. Continue chicken feed as before. I live in Florida and mine chickens graze all year round so my mealies are more of a treat.

Hope I was helpful.

 

[sueblack]

To kwol and others who use a screened drawer to babies and eggs to fall through: Do you use window screen? Do you find that most of the babies and eggs drop through the screen into the next drawer? And what do you use for bedding in the top drawer? If you use wheat bran, does most of it fall through the screen?