Mealworm farming

[HenCrazyMom]

Big excitement today. Found the first pupa for the 2nd generation of mealies. YAHOO!

Even DH was excited with my find. THinks we should start a second bin. OH MY A CONVERT!!!!!!!

My 9 yr old DS and his friend and I explored the mealie bin. His friend just could not understand why we would have mealworms and beetles in the kitchen. "What happens if there is a breakout?"

The boys wanted to know what it would look like and feel like to squish a beetle. SO I told them go ahead find out. I LOVE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS!!!!!

Will the gecko got a few extra mealies along with his crickets today. boy was he excited. The girls and boys in the coop are doing the happy dance every morning waiting for the mealies and oatmeal

Getting lots of orders for eggs, I just may need more chickens this spring HMMMMMMM???? Something will have to help eat all the mealies.

 

[onafixedincome]

I went ahead and posted the photos to BugGuide.net to see what they have to suggest, as well.

Many thanks to anklebiter--I'm fairly sure now that if those ARE superworms, they are small ones...

The large fresh larvae are about the same length as one key on my computer keyboard, a bit smaller than the one you show. The small ones of yours are about the same as my big ones, I think....my little ones are much smaller yet.

Had a second beetle emerge today--deformed and has a heck of a time getting around, spends a lot of time on its back. Is markedly larger than the first to emerge--do they shrink as they finish maturing and darkening?

Can't tell you guys how much I love this thread!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
Well, it all started with Mealworms. I was curious one day and threw a couple of mealies in the Oscar tank. Up until this point the Mealworms were raised for feeding birds. The Oscars loved them - but kept growing, as Oscars do. I later got the hair-brained idea to try Superworms, since they are larger. I bought a few dozen and the fish loved them. So let's just say nature took it's course.

My daughter caught her first fish this spring - a 5" Bluegill. Since it was the first fish she ever caught 100% on her own, she absolutely insisted upon keeping it. I kept it in a quarantine tank for a month and treated it to kill any bacteria, fungus, parasites, etc. and later threw it in with the Oscars. I honest didn't expect him to make it in captivity due to his age and size, but he's doing great. They all get along, although the Male Oscar is still the king of the tank.

That stupid Bluegill loves the Mealworms and Superworms too.


If you later have any questions about Superworms, i'll be glad to try to help you out. I'm not an expert by any means, but I have raised (and am still raising) several generations of Superworms for my own use.

Another wow! I can't believe that little lake fish could adapt so well. And I can't believe the Oscars let it live with them. But I am not surprised over the enjoyment of meal worms or the supers. The will eat about anything but love the meat.

I may tickle your brain in another few months when I can get better organized and set up for some supers. That would be another neat project though it sounds a bit more complicated than the regular meal worms. Thank you for the offer of help. I am sure I will need it.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
I find it interesting to read your info! Fascinating to me because I don't have the same thing going on but wonder if one day I will.
I don't have very many pupae right now because I can't keep my hands out of the bins. I am trying very hard but the chicks love the worms and I get calls or emails every day about people wanting some. I like to help others so I sell some. It is hard for me to say no but I think I am at the point now that I do not have any more to sell for a few weeks.
I sold my last decent sized 250 count yesterday. She wanted 1000 but we could only find 250 mature ones to let go. She was coming over to watch us process our extra ducks anyway so was fine with the 250 and will come back later if she wants more.

I am now having to work at getting pupae so I can have more beetles so we can have more eggs. I must say that I am finding little wormies in my bin I set on Oct. 3 from beetles of both ExoticNutrition and Speedy Worm. I thought I would never see them but my eyes are not so great either. I put some sweet potato in the other day to see if I could bait any up and my goodness, yes! Always exciting.

 

[anklebiter]

Quote:
Any time, it's not a problem at all - I'm still learning too... Feel free to post questions here or in PM's. If this gets more Q&A, we might have to start a BYC 'Superworm Farming' thread - but let's not jump too far ahead though. Let's see where this goes and how many others we can get involved in this too.

 

[kizanne]

Update. I was doing rotating bins and my first bin was being feed out. Well I got meaties about 10 days ago and have been feeding them 1/2 to a whole cup a day to up their protein.

The first bin is pretty much shot. It has a few guys that lagged behind so I'm not going to dump it just yet. But I've been feeding out of that for a while and my second bin doesn't have as many but does have some larges in there that I'll be feeding out of next. I have two other bins but they are still in beetle stage in one and Pupa (waiting to come out) so I think feeding the meaties was too big a load. I'll have to rethink my numbers. But the meaties will still get some but not for much longer.

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Any time, it's not a problem at all - I'm still learning too... Feel free to post questions here or in PM's. If this gets more Q&A, we might have to start a BYC 'Superworm Farming' thread - but let's not jump too far ahead though. Let's see where this goes and how many others we can get involved in this too.

As others have learned the hard way and before discussion of the supers is started/continued, please start a new thread titled supers. This thread has gotten too big to bring in serious information/discussion about something that is as interesting to a lot of us as another feeder insect for our chickens.

There was discussion about mini mealies here that got lost with no way to follow....I'd love to see a thread about the mini's as well since their care and use is so different from mealworms.

I know I'd follow it. PM's are nice but then information that others might need is not available.

I hope this makes sense.....

Trish

 

[hannakat]

HenCrazyMom ~ Ain't it amazing how addicting they are? Leave it to boys to ask that! Awesome

And it sounds like chicken math is taking over

must have more worms!


kizanne ~ Thanks for the update. Your colony really took off! Did you figure out the beetle mortality issue?

 

[kizanne]

I am pretty sure the beetle mortality was humidity too low. They were drying out or perhaps dried into the pupa. I have started misting my colonies with a mister used in gardening/orchids. I give them 7-14 sprays a day (all at one time) after I have taken any out that I want. The general humidity in my house is very low right now about 16%. If is hard to sift right after I spray that is why I take out mealies first. But by the next morning back to dry no clumps. My mortality has gone down and I have less with deformed wings. I think the wings were just stuck to the pupa and they deformed them getting out. Kinda like chicks and hatching you need a little moisture for lubrication.

 

[Kassaundra]

Turnips ................................ huge mealy success. Dubia's didn't like them though.