Recent content by Mavrk

It should just work. I don't know why it wouldn't.

85 is a really good temperature, but if you have a heating pad that you can use to raise it another 5 or 10 degrees, that will be even better. I wouldn't go out and buy one for that little boost, but if you have one around I would use it as long as it won't raise the temp above 95. I wouldn't...

No, just let them be. It might take time for them to go lower or they may stay on top. No problem with that.

Yes, microwaving has not been shown to be affective at "sterilizing" the bran. Also freezing would take at least a couple weeks and the temperatures would have to be quite low. Even then a lot of things just hibernate through it. A 200 F oven for 20-30 minutes does the trick (let it cool in the...

Buy wheat bran from either a feed store or whole foods type of market. Feed stores tend to be less expensive. The links on the first post have helpful information about this. Heat the bran in the oven at 200F for 20 minutes and let it cool in the oven. This will kill any hitchhikers that might...

I have seen a lot of pictures like this, so I would say it is normal. How deep is the bran? Also, how long have they been in there?

Shouldn't really matter.

That is an okay temperature, but if you can raise the temperature of the bran things will go faster. I posted about ideal temperatures a while back, but the long and short of it is that low to mid 90's will give you the best yield/time ratio. My first batch was at about 68 for a couple months...

Well sounds like you have then nice and warm. Ideal temperatures are between 32 and 37 Celsius with the sweet spot being around the 35 C mark. Hope that helps.

Got it. So this is the second generation (first when you bought them, and second from the eggs of the first). Your numbers should be a lot higher now and the next generation should stagger more. What temperature do you have them at? If you want this to go faster, then you need to have high...

Feel free to ask questions without apologies, that is how we all learn. What I mean is that you shouldn't put your breeding stock in the refrigerator. Only the ones that you plan on feeding to the chickens. They will go dormant and stay in the worm form for quite a while. The drastic change from...

The beetles will start laying eggs every day. This will naturally start to stagger the age of the mealworms. If you want to keep them all at different stages, get a bunch of containers and put some wheat bran in each. Then every couple weeks (or whatever) move the beetles into a new container...

The nutritional value lost by heating is minimal (well, maybe if you did 2 hours). Freezing gives mixed results and can take a week or two to be affective (if at all). Easy enough to pop them in a low oven for a little bit and call it a day.

I recommend an oven of 200 degrees for 20 minutes and let it cool in the oven. 130 for 15 minutes is really saying that the bran needs to be at 130 for 15 minutes, not the oven. You can either leave it at 130 for a long time or just up the temp to 200 for 20 minutes or so. 2 hours is way too...

The worms in my second bin that I created at the same time that I increased the heat are ready to be fed out. The original bin has less of that size even though they are older. So the second container took a month while the other one is 4 months old. Subtract a month for the beetles to emerge...