Mealworm farming

[aart]

I was most happy with windows XP pro. It was the best OS I ever used. I tried the upgrade to 7 when support for xp ended. It was a complete nightmare for me. It was touted as the best and most stable of any iteration of windows, but it was horrible to me. Constant blue screens and lock ups. So when the free upgrade to 10 came along it was like "what do I have to lose at this point" and it does at least work, though I find it to be NOT very user friendly (for this user). My previous system died and when I bought the present one, 10 was all I could get. I also dislike the loss of privacy and automatic tracking and everything that goes along with that. I'm sure by the time we get to windows 12 it will be automatically wiping our butts for us (if we'll let it) as well as telling us what we think...

Yeah XP was good...I got 7 with new computer so no choice, always worked fine tho.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I was most happy with windows XP pro. It was the best OS I ever used. I tried the upgrade to 7 when support for xp ended. It was a complete nightmare for me. It was touted as the best and most stable of any iteration of windows, but it was horrible to me. Constant blue screens and lock ups. So when the free upgrade to 10 came along it was like "what do I have to lose at this point" and it does at least work, though I find it to be NOT very user friendly (for this user). My previous system died and when I bought the present one, 10 was all I could get. I also dislike the loss of privacy and automatic tracking and everything that goes along with that. I'm sure by the time we get to windows 12 it will be automatically wiping our butts for us (if we'll let it) as well as telling us what we think...

XP Pro was my Fave as well. I am using a chrome book right now and have 2 ad blockers running. It shows 12 blocks on this page. I agree that 10 is the least user friendly ever. My husband and daughter both run Linux Mint because they hate 10 so bad. FireFox is our usual browser, don't know why I haven't tried it on the chrome book.

The loss of privacy is almost enough to quit using puters. When I looked up my neighbors name recently, it told me all their recent site visits!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I was very fond of 2000 Pro. It was so stable and configurable. MS quit supporting it, so updates to everything including IE caused 2000 to be fairly worthless. I still have it on a laptop but I don't know why.

 

[WillK]

the beetles moving on top of the bran will cause the bran to sift through the mesh, leaving the beetles walking on nothing but mesh and no food. The oats stay up on top and allow the frass and eggs to sift through.

Why do you suggest sifting the bran through the mesh and leaving the beetles without a substrate? What is the benefit here?

I've received 3 answers so far so I'm going to post my questionnaire again - sorry (thanks to the three that did it)!

https://will340.typeform.com/to/q4drQC

(For anyone that didn't read the thread a few pages back, I'm trying to design a farm that will allow a direct replacement for soya in feed through users growing their own protein source (mealworm). I hope to promote local farms as sources for wheat/corn etc and combine these local ingredients with farmed protein to create a truly sustainable feed).

Will

 

[weidnercharm]

I don't use a mesh. I have a 6 drawer system. Every three weeks, I toss all the contents of the adult beetle drawer into a metal strainer so I can separate the beetles from the bran. I put the beetles into a new drawer with 4 cups of new wheat bran and either potatoes or carrots. The old bran from the adult drawer is left to grow worms. Takes 10 minutes every 3 weeks. Next go around, I am going to do it every 4 weeks....... I am so lazy. hahahaha

 

[Kusanar]

Quote:
Sorry, I wasn't saying that it was a good thing that the bran sifts through, I was saying that was the reason people put oats in the beetle bin, because if you gave them bran like the worms (which apparently seem to grow better in bran) it would sift through.

 

[ContessaKris]

We did mealworms for 2 years and then they eventually died off. I guess I forgot about them. Lol. But I need to start them again because the chickens love them. lol! We kept them inside. How do you keep them producing inside? I've read you can put a heating pad under the box? What does everyone do to keep them alive during winter?

 

[azygous]

We did mealworms for 2 years and then they eventually died off. I guess I forgot about them. Lol. But I need to start them again because the chickens love them. lol! We kept them inside. How do you keep them producing inside? I've read you can put a heating pad under the box? What does everyone do to keep them alive during winter?

Actually, my meal worm farm is much more productive in winter than summer for the simple reason my trays are sitting on a shelf in the living room beside the wood stove. In winter, the stove puts out a lot of heat, and the worms reproduce at a much higher rate at 80F than at the 70F in summer in that location. I tried putting heating devices under the trays to warm them, but it created hot spots that weren't desirable.

What works far better than a heat source under the trays are plastic containers filled with plain water. The water acts as a heat sink at any time of year, and it keeps the trays at a median temperature so there's no heating and cooling, which can cause unpleasant consequences such as condensation and mold and even grain mite blooms.

 

[ContessaKris]

What works far better than a heat source under the trays are plastic containers filled with plain water. The water acts as a heat sink at any time of year, and it keeps the trays at a median temperature so there's no heating and cooling, which can cause unpleasant consequences such as condensation and mold and even grain mite blooms.

So you just set the worm tray in a tray of water? Kinda like a water bath for when you bake?

 

[azygous]

So you just set the worm tray in a tray of water? Kinda like a water bath for when you bake?

No. Not in water, it sits above the containers of water. It's a tier system.

See the container with the blue lid? That's the water. The worm tray is sitting on supports just above it. I've since built nice little racks for the worm trays to sit on so the water containers can slide underneath. Sometimes I heat the water containers in the microwave if they've gotten very chilled. You only want them heated slightly, though, to around 90F, not boiling hot. The red cloth, by the way, drops down to create a dark environment for the worms. They aren't called darkling beetles for no reason.