Questions about raising Meal Worms

[ChickenEllis]

i am currently on my 4th generation in a colony i started with just 100 worms. i had a similar experience with the first generation of eggs/babies as the original poster. just be patient. soon you will be amazed at how many baby worms you will have.

the most important thing is to control the mold. i started out using the wet paper method and it led to mold problems. i mainly use celery now which works great and gives off very little moisture to the substrate and lasts for a long time.

the worms CAN get all of their moisture from the substrate but they will grow much faster with some veggies.

 

[Liamm_1]

Update: my mealworm colony, in which most of the originals morphed about one month ago, has lots of little squigglers about 3/6-1/4 inch long. Tiny things and I can't see them in the meal. On the bottom of the plastic container I can see them. Also, I originally kept them in a smaller cardboard box, then transferred to the plastic container. At the time I transferred them a month ago, I kept the box just to see if anything developed. So, even though the box appeared empty, we found a dozen or more microscopic eggs inside.
Sad part of the story is this: after dumping the tiny mealworms into the larger plastic box, the intended new purpose of the small carboard box was for burying a 9 day old Black Australorp chick. My 10 yr. old son had taken a liking to her, she was definitely the runt of the bunch, and appeared a bit odd shapen. He named her Penguin because of this. I had told him she didn't appear to be thriving, so he knew she might not make it. Last night when we came home, she was very lethargic, and her condition worsened quickly. Upon seeing how the other chicks were treating her, I took her out and held her in my hands, keeping her warm and comfortable. She looked much more content, compared to laying in the brooder getting messed with. She let out a few peeps, then died comfortably in my hands. We wrapped her up, placed her in the box with some bedding, my son wrote her name on the box and a loving message. I made a cross of some old wood, and we processed funeral style to the back of the yard. She's now buried next to the chicken run, under a rose bush that just happened to be blossoming a single, very pretty, small red rose. It was my son's first personal experience with death. He knows that Penguin is in a much better place, and that she'll always be watching down on her chicken mates.

 

[chuckzoo]

Glad your mealworms are thriving and very sorry to hear about your chick.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

Christmas morning I decided the mealworms needed feeding and while I was at it I ran my fingers through the chick starter. I was surprised to see lots of movement and found LOTS of mealworms of various sizes...some large enough to feed and others that were very tiny plus new beetles had hatched...I missed the larvae stage on these! Been feeding regularly but did not realize how many were hatching out in the bedding! The next day we took about 1/2 of the worms and created a new colony; today I took the beetles and made another colony.

I thought I read somewhere that if you mixed powdered milk in the bedding, it will increase the calcium content of the worm BUT I can not find that reference today.

Anyone know if this is true...just happen to have some powdered milk from a recipe we made at Christmas and might as well put it to good use instead of it growing old on the shelf.

 

[caveman]

Are you using medicated or un-medicated chick starter? I do not currently raise meal worms, but I am very interested by this topic. Is it difficult to get started? Can anyone tell me a good website to do some research on the subject? Thanks!!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
It's very easy. Here's a page to show you how: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638-how-to-raise-mealworms I've also started feeding my colony the crumbly bits of my layer pellets when my feeder gets near empty and the worms really like it (props to Pet Duck Boy for that idea).

Boo-Boo's Mama, I'm not sure about the powdered milk. I do know that if you want to increase the calcium content of the worms, add a couple cups of oyster shells to the colony.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
It's very easy. Here's a page to show you how: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638-how-to-raise-mealworms I've also started feeding my colony the crumbly bits of my layer pellets when my feeder gets near empty and the worms really like it (props to Pet Duck Boy for that idea).

Boo-Boo's Mama, I'm not sure about the powdered milk. I do know that if you want to increase the calcium content of the worms, add a couple cups of oyster shells to the colony.

I checked out the page, but it does not say where to get the mealworms to start raising them. Any suggestions?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Lots of places sell them online and you can also get them from just about any pet store and Walmart too. The more you can afford to start with, the quicker your colony will be able to provide enough to feed your chickens. Try to get 500-1000 if you order them online.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
Thanks! They sound easy enough to do...Probably an excellent source of protein all winter for those of us in the frozen north!

 

[Tdub4chiks]

Boo-Boo's Mama :

Christmas morning I decided the mealworms needed feeding and while I was at it I ran my fingers through the chick starter. I was surprised to see lots of movement and found LOTS of mealworms of various sizes...some large enough to feed and others that were very tiny plus new beetles had hatched...I missed the larvae stage on these! Been feeding regularly but did not realize how many were hatching out in the bedding! The next day we took about 1/2 of the worms and created a new colony; today I took the beetles and made another colony.

I thought I read somewhere that if you mixed powdered milk in the bedding, it will increase the calcium content of the worm BUT I can not find that reference today.

Anyone know if this is true...just happen to have some powdered milk from a recipe we made at Christmas and might as well put it to good use instead of it growing old on the shelf.

I have several mealworm colonies. I use a mixture of wheat bran, powdered milk, baby rice cereal and brewers yeast. Some of them get huge. Of course, I put a small piece of newspaper on top that I spray w/water once in a while, and either put a potato or carrot in there for moisture.​