Anyone "raising" mealworms to give as treats?

[Chickenman623]

I've been thinking about feeds and stuff and remembered I was about to start a mealworm producing operation about the time I got out of chicklens 12 or so years ago. Anyone on the forum grow/raising/producing mealworms to add to your chickens diets? Wh at all is involved in the process?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I started a mealworm colony about August of last year, and am still fussing with getting everything right. Here's a link to my thread where I post progress and updates:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/whats-wrong-with-my-mealworms.1546435/
At this point, I'm not having quite the success I'd hoped for, but they ARE producing enough for me to start feeding a small amount to the chickens about once a week.

You can start small and simple, and grow your operation to as big as you want. Some people grow all their worms, pupae and beetles in one bin, and others have 16 or 20 bins they rotate through! I have six bins: one for beetles, one for pupae, and four for the larvae at different stages.

For the very basics to get started you'll need: A bin, tote, aquarium, or similar container; a supply of substrate, which can be wheat bran, cornmeal, cereal, oats, or other food; and a batch of live mealworm larvae. They are happiest in a warm (75-80-deg-F), moist (80% humidity), and fairly dark environment. They drink no water, but they'll get moisture from sliced veggies or fruit you give to them about once a week.

Let us know how your journey goes!

 

[Chicken poppy]

I've been thinking about feeds and stuff and remembered I was about to start a mealworm producing operation about the time I got out of chicklens 12 or so years ago. Anyone on the forum grow/raising/producing mealworms to add to your chickens diets? Wh at all is involved in the process?

Yes, i do. Very straight forward, much cheaper. They seem to love it fresh a lot more.

Mealworms are really easy to tend for, i put some food in, took it out after a bit so it doesn’t mildew, and there you go. I kept them in oats.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I bought some live worms from a pet store and put them in jugs of stale flour (low cost), I had some survive, but I dislike bugs, so I am not great at them.

You need to be willing to handle them in order to sort them by age. If you had "scrap" chicken feed they could eat it. The sites I found on growing worms suggested buying chicken feed for them.

I found mildew to be my foe.

Now I buy the mealworms freeze dried online (chubby mealworms) and it comes in below $10 a lb (Cdn $) and a pound is a LOT of mealworms.

Oh! And I never got a straight answer on the parasites that colonize the worms and then infect the hens. How do you control them?

 

[Perris]

I've been thinking about feeds and stuff and remembered I was about to start a mealworm producing operation about the time I got out of chicklens 12 or so years ago. Anyone on the forum grow/raising/producing mealworms to add to your chickens diets? Wh at all is involved in the process?

you might find this site useful
https://mealwormcare.org/breeding/

I have been doing it for some years now, without issue. I recommend it, but it only suits those who don't mind handling 'creepy crawlies'.

 

[SouthofFla]

I did this for years in plastic drawers on the cheapest oatmeal I could lay hands on. Buy one get one? Bring it on! After opening a box of cockroaches, I realized I should either bake the oatmeal or freeze it for a couple of months to make sure it wasn't breeding its own little zoo, but really...such a bother. I just smelled the box before opening. You can smell most bugs.
The corpses of the dead beetles went into the compost heap at first (back when I bothered with a compost heap--back when the chickens let me have one), but the chickens were digging them out, so I started pitching those to the chickens too.
I gave the worms mostly a sliced apple or some sliced/shredded carrot once or twice a week, when I thought of it, although I put some soft grapes in there too. Also strawberry slices from my fruit salads. Strawberries have never been my favorite fruits.
If I missed a day or two, like for travel or just life getting in the way, it didn't hurt my conscience.
When I found a big one, I put that one in the bottom drawer. I had an idea of breeding them bigger, but I abandoned all that when I left the US.
I'd love to start over with a new crop of them, but the earthworm guy I found here says he has never seen mealworms in South America.

 

[Chickenman623]

you might find this site useful
https://mealwormcare.org/breeding/

I have been doing it for some years now, without issue. I recommend it, but it only suits those who don't mind handling 'creepy crawlies'.

Thanks for the link. Should be very helpful.

 

[hokiedokie]

you might find this site useful
https://mealwormcare.org/breeding/

I have been doing it for some years now, without issue. I recommend it, but it only suits those who don't mind handling 'creepy crawlies'.

If I don't breed them, is it cheaper to buy live or dried mealworms? I bought a freeze dryer so I'm open to buying large quantities to freeze dry, but I don't know how to calculate the difference between dried (lbs) and live (often sold by count) and I'm new at this

Yard has a pest problem so I'm not ready to farm them, but buying a live batch to immediately freeze would get me more comfortable (but not interested if it doesn't save $)

 

[Perris]

If I don't breed them, is it cheaper to buy live or dried mealworms? I bought a freeze dryer so I'm open to buying large quantities to freeze dry, but I don't know how to calculate the difference between dried (lbs) and live (often sold by count) and I'm new at this

Yard has a pest problem so I'm not ready to farm them, but buying a live batch to immediately freeze would get me more comfortable (but not interested if it doesn't save $)

they are expensive either way, if you're buying them to feed directly to your flock; they are only cheap if you spend the initial few pounds/dollars to buy a couple of hundred live, and then grow them on and let them go forth and multiply for next to nothing.

Cost is not the only issue. The nutrient content is very different between live and dried, and varies significantly depending on what they were fed. Most dried ones for sale come with no info on what they were fed. Live ones were probably grown by the person selling them, or someone they can name. As with much in life, what looks like a bargain may work out more expensive in the long run.

They need to be raised in the dry, indoors, so a pest problem in your yard isn't obviously relevant to the issue of farming them.