Got my meal worms ready to make my farm--questions

[Stellar]

I have a large bucket for my mealworm colony...I have them for the button quail as they males like to court their hens and the hens feel important...

For coturnix, they are a bit clumsy and will drop the worms everywhere so if I put it in a shoe box with their dustbathing then they will play in there. It's just something to keep them occupied plus great protein in the worms...keeps the birds healthy. In my most recent newsletter on my website, I talk a lot about mealworms and how you can make your own colony.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
What is the protein content of a single meal worm, in percentage by weight?

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Hi All,
I'd like to see a picture of a 3 tray setup as well.
Are the tiny tiny hatches easy to see? I wonder if they are small enough to feed to my betta Splendens?

Joe

 

[awesomefowl]

Should I get medium or small mealies? And should I get 500 or 1000? What do you recommend? I only have 12 chickens.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Get 26-30% protein game bird starter and stop fretting about meal worm sizes or quantities. If you can dip it out of a bag....It's all cool!

 

[awesomefowl]

Phew. Okay, then!

 

[Stellar]

I started with 500 meal worms and in a month I know they multiplied!!! Had to put them in a larger bucket!!!

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Meal worms pupate, grow into bugs shiny black beetles , then have sex, lay eggs that turn into larva (Meal worms), that pupate and the whole cycle starts over again. Can anyone give me the protein content of a meal worm...living or dead? I really need this figure if I'm to determine if meal worms are a good source of protein or not. I'm thinking not, but extra data would be helpful!

 

[Rozzie]

Ah, Joe...

You should KNOW by know that such a challenge means that I'm going to head straight off for the scientific journal articles

Your question:

What is the protein content of a single meal worm, in percentage by weight?

One answer, as found in an article published just last year (2009) in the American Journal of Agricultural and Biological Sciences seems to be:
24.3-27.6% if wet, or 63.31-68.87% if dry

This particular study was exploring the possibility of mealworms as a source of protein for people, and includes an amino acid breakdown for the common yellow mealworm, if you are interested in details on the quality of the protein. It also includes, for the sake of comparison, a chart showing the protein quantity in other common foods -- and in a variety of other insects, such as the pupae of the house fly.

And, for those among you who are raising mealworms and have an adventurous streak in your body, they have provided some possible sample recipes at the end, including one for Mealworm appetizers and one for Mealworm cookies. They suggest freezing the mealworms to kill them prior to preparation as human food.

Yes. I have saved the article into my ever growing collection of oddities on my computer. I see a trip to Petco in my very near future, though I will abstain from making mealworm cookies, at least for now. (Though a vegetarian, if someone ELSE dried and ground these up to a powder, I could eat them...I think. I'd have to get past my cultural bias against eating insects, but once I did that, I would have less objection to consuming this as a form of protein.)

http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/AJAB/AJAB44319-331.pdf​

 

[joe125]

Quote:
One answer, as found in an article published just last year (2009) in the American Journal of Agricultural and Biological Sciences seems to be:
24.3-27.6% if wet, or 63.31-68.87% if dry

This particular study was exploring the possibility of mealworms as a source of protein for people, and includes an amino acid breakdown for the common yellow mealworm, if you are interested in details on the quality of the protein. It also includes, for the sake of comparison, a chart showing the protein quantity in other common foods -- and in a variety of other insects, such as the pupae of the house fly.

And, for those among you who are raising mealworms and have an adventurous streak in your body, they have provided some possible sample recipes at the end, including one for Mealworm appetizers and one for Mealworm cookies. They suggest freezing the mealworms to kill them prior to preparation as human food.

Yes. I have saved the article into my ever growing collection of oddities on my computer. I see a trip to Petco in my very near future, though I will abstain from making mealworm cookies, at least for now. (Though a vegetarian, if someone ELSE dried and ground these up to a powder, I could eat them...I think. I'd have to get past my cultural bias against eating insects, but once I did that, I would have less objection to consuming this as a form of protein.)

http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/AJAB/AJAB44319-331.pdf

Thanks Rozzie! Not the exact data I was looking for, but spot on as far as the question I asked

I really need to refine my questions.

So a living, breathing meal worm may contain 24-27.6% protein. Once you reduce the weight by removing (Around 75%) of the water, then you go up to 68.87% per...what ever. This is where things get tricky, and why people want to eat, or feed their birds...bugs!

If you take a single meal worn, that weighs...(Conservatively 1/2 gram), then the protein level would be around 24% per 1/2 G. If that is the true live/wet weight of a meal worm, then I would consider it (High protein). Once you decrees the bulk (Water) then the level goes up by weight, but I'm still thinking.....It's going to take a butt load of meal worms to make 1 pound of 30% protein game bird starter.

I may go to petco in the future, but no meal worms for me or my birds. Way to expensive protein! Plus, it's just to "icky" for me!