Raising feeder insects

[Kassaundra]

This isn't finished yet but this is the general idea I'm going with


When it is finished the lid will close, it is just being propped open now while we are adjusting lighting / heat etc...

 

[Kassaundra]

Bug buffet, tonight I self served the bugs and the little ones figured it out just fine.

 

[Kassaundra]

My dubias have been in the converted freezer for a little over a month now and I love it!!!! So much easier to harvest them, the ledge that was already in the freezer that I decided to put the water container on was the best idea ever it keeps the water soooooo much cleaner and out of the frass and substrate (kitty litter now) that was another real winning idea upgrading from the sand to the kitty litter. I did discover the larger wire armatures need to be heavier wire then I started w/ the weight of the dubias was to much for most of them. My only worry is my dependence on electricity, if we have a power outage this winter I am in real trouble. I need to get my husband on to a solar project for them.

 

[KayByrd]

Hi! My first BYC post, and it's gonna be a long one!
I'm a poultry noob, but I'm an old, old hand at bug raising. I "inherited" bearded dragons from my son over ten years ago, and decided I liked them so much, I wound up with 14 adults, and many babies raised and sold. Needless to say, raising my own lizard food became something of a necessity.

Insects I have raised: dubias, bsf, mealworms, superworms, silkworms, hornworms, pillbugs (or sow bugs or roly polies), redworms, crickets.

Some thoughts on the insects I have raised:
There is no other feeder insect remotely as easy to raise as dubias. You put them in a container and they stay there. They don't stink, don't make noise, live a long time, require minimal care, and will eat almost anything. I see a lot of mention of water crystals in this thread but I've found them to be completely unnecessary as long as I'm supplying them with some fresh fruit and/or vegetables. Here in coastal NC, the moisture from that is plenty for mine. I tried water crystals when I was first starting and they got kind of nasty and attracted fruit flies. I tossed them out and threw in a handful of chopped up carrots and my guys couldn't have been happier. I have three dubia bins going, with at least 5k in each and I haven't spent a penny on food for them since...well, ever. They eat table scraps, stale bread, that dog and cat food "dust" from the bottom of the bags, vegetable peels, etc, etc. I have fig trees and I fill bags with over ripe figs and store them in the freezer, they get those year around. (I know some folks on here make their own ACV. The roaches LOVE the apples you strain out of that. Try it!)

You couldn't pay me to raise crickets ever, ever again. They are the antithesis of dubias, smelly, noisy, short-lived. high maintenance.

Superworms are nice, but very slow to grow, slow to breed, so not an efficient feeder.

Maybe it's a climate thing, or maybe it's just me, but I was a total failure at maintaining a silkworm colony. I could always hatch out the eggs and get the worms to feeding size, but I could never successfully get them through the cocoon-to-moth stage to start a new generation. If you're able to do that, though, and have mulberry trees available, they are a great feeder.
My experiences with hornworms are basically the same as my silkworm experience. Great feeders, if you're able to raise them.

Bsf work well for me, but I have to start over every spring, which kind of sucks. I have a biopod and made a "bug house" by enclosing an old wooden jungle gym with screen wire. I set the biopod outside in the open in the spring and throw some old figs and something smelly like canned cat food in it to bait it. After I see some bsfs around it, I move it into the bug house and maintain them through the fall. When cool weather hits, I dump them out in the compost pile. If I had some place warm (NOT IN MY HOUSE) to keep them through the winter, I would raise them year round.

Mealworms are really easy and I keep quite a lot of them. I'm kind of biased against them, simply because they aren't a very good reptile food.

Pillbugs I just kind of raise for fun. I can't make enough of them to be a staple, but I raise them in my worm bins and don't have to provide any care for them and they're a helluva lot more interesting than the worms are.

Redworms really aren't - or haven't been - a feeder, I use them for composting. They do play a part in my feeding scheme, though. It works like this:
When I clean out my roach bins, I wet down all the poo and debris from it and dump it in my bsf biopod
About once a month or so, I clean out all the bsf poo from the biopod and put it in my worm bin.
The worm castings go in the garden, where I grow more stuff to be shared between myself, the dragons, and the roaches.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

So now, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to raise chickens or if I'm going to raise coturnix quail. I think the quail might fit better in my self sufficient ideal, but I really like the looks of those Buff Orps




.

 

[Kassaundra]

Hi! My first BYC post, and it's gonna be a long one!
I'm a poultry noob, but I'm an old, old hand at bug raising. I "inherited" bearded dragons from my son over ten years ago, and decided I liked them so much, I wound up with 14 adults, and many babies raised and sold. Needless to say, raising my own lizard food became something of a necessity.

Insects I have raised: dubias, bsf, mealworms, superworms, silkworms, hornworms, pillbugs (or sow bugs or roly polies), redworms, crickets.

Some thoughts on the insects I have raised:
There is no other feeder insect remotely as easy to raise as dubias. You put them in a container and they stay there. They don't stink, don't make noise, live a long time, require minimal care, and will eat almost anything. I see a lot of mention of water crystals in this thread but I've found them to be completely unnecessary as long as I'm supplying them with some fresh fruit and/or vegetables. Here in coastal NC, the moisture from that is plenty for mine. I tried water crystals when I was first starting and they got kind of nasty and attracted fruit flies. I tossed them out and threw in a handful of chopped up carrots and my guys couldn't have been happier. I have three dubia bins going, with at least 5k in each and I haven't spent a penny on food for them since...well, ever. They eat table scraps, stale bread, that dog and cat food "dust" from the bottom of the bags, vegetable peels, etc, etc. I have fig trees and I fill bags with over ripe figs and store them in the freezer, they get those year around. (I know some folks on here make their own ACV. The roaches LOVE the apples you strain out of that. Try it!)

You couldn't pay me to raise crickets ever, ever again. They are the antithesis of dubias, smelly, noisy, short-lived. high maintenance.

Superworms are nice, but very slow to grow, slow to breed, so not an efficient feeder.

Maybe it's a climate thing, or maybe it's just me, but I was a total failure at maintaining a silkworm colony. I could always hatch out the eggs and get the worms to feeding size, but I could never successfully get them through the cocoon-to-moth stage to start a new generation. If you're able to do that, though, and have mulberry trees available, they are a great feeder.
My experiences with hornworms are basically the same as my silkworm experience. Great feeders, if you're able to raise them.

Bsf work well for me, but I have to start over every spring, which kind of sucks. I have a biopod and made a "bug house" by enclosing an old wooden jungle gym with screen wire. I set the biopod outside in the open in the spring and throw some old figs and something smelly like canned cat food in it to bait it. After I see some bsfs around it, I move it into the bug house and maintain them through the fall. When cool weather hits, I dump them out in the compost pile. If I had some place warm (NOT IN MY HOUSE) to keep them through the winter, I would raise them year round.

Mealworms are really easy and I keep quite a lot of them. I'm kind of biased against them, simply because they aren't a very good reptile food.

Pillbugs I just kind of raise for fun. I can't make enough of them to be a staple, but I raise them in my worm bins and don't have to provide any care for them and they're a helluva lot more interesting than the worms are.

Redworms really aren't - or haven't been - a feeder, I use them for composting. They do play a part in my feeding scheme, though. It works like this:
When I clean out my roach bins, I wet down all the poo and debris from it and dump it in my bsf biopod
About once a month or so, I clean out all the bsf poo from the biopod and put it in my worm bin.
The worm castings go in the garden, where I grow more stuff to be shared between myself, the dragons, and the roaches.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

So now, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to raise chickens or if I'm going to raise coturnix quail. I think the quail might fit better in my self sufficient ideal, but I really like the looks of those Buff Orps




.

First of all

from Oklahoma and

Thanks for the insight into the raising of the different insects. I have only done the dubia and meal worms. I much prefer the dubias to the meal worms, I have had nothing but setback after set back and they seem to take forever to get enough to even think about feeding out.

Pillbugs aren't my chickens favorite, they only eat those in the dead of winter when other bug options aren't available.

 

[Lacy Blues]

just moving this thread up from page 3 to page 1

 

[Kassaundra]

just moving this thread up from page 3 to page 1

This thread doesn't move as fast as the mealworm thread for sure.


I am going to make a red wiggler bed or two outside this spring. My meal worms just aren't very productive so I'm keeping the dubia's and adding the wigglers. I have been (and by I, I mean my husband) keeping all the collected chicken poop from the coop cleaning in a plastic trash can, and now have started a new one so the poop will be aged enough to feed directly to the wigglers, so will be making protein from poop (hopefully) all outdoors and no worry about asthma and worm dander. At least that is the plan.

 

[Kassaundra]

Taking a break from the yard/garden work right now. Working on some experiments. (shocking as that might be!!!!! lol lol lol) I have been burying 5 gall buckets all through the chickens yard 3 so far but have planned a couple more, then filling w/ dry grass roots and chicken poop, then covering w/ a laundry basket inverted over it. Going to try and make all you can eat buffets for the girls w/ black soldierfly larva. If it goes according to the grand plan in my head it should be all hands off after they are set, just refilling w/ chicken poop every so often, and it's not like they are ever going to stop making poop! I won't be able to gather and store for the winter, but should grow them during normal BSF season.

 

[Lacy Blues]

So, you'll have little ramps leading to the upper edge and then once they are out, the girls can get them?

 

[Kassaundra]

So, you'll have little ramps leading to the upper edge and then once they are out, the girls can get them?

I decided to keep it as simple as possible for now, I filled the buckets quite full, hoping they will be able to get out w/o the ramps, I will watch them and if they have trouble leaving the buckets I will put a simple ramp likely just a stick of wood, like 1x4