growing mealworms

[rottnwarrior]

I've raised mealworms for quite some time and they are as difficult or as simple as you feel like making them and like already stated, they have no smell at all unless you over feed them with fruit or veggies and leave it to rot. But if you use carrots or celery it dries good without mold generally. I use those or apples. Mine love apples, I can cut a few apples in half and throw them in then come back in a few days to dig out dried fruitless skins.

 

[jackiestephens]

Thank you for the reply. I have to start growing them because my hens LOVE them and they are so expensive. Right now I have a $40 bucket full and try to give my girls only a handful a day. But it is so hard because it makes them so happy.

 

[rottnwarrior]

I'm not sure they even taste them as fast as they gobble them up!! I love watching. I could grow a million a day and it probably wouldn't be enough for them haha.

 

[BantamLover21]

Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined us! At least when I've raised mealworms, they didn't smell unless I left part of an apple or potato in their oatmeal--then it kind of began to rot and smell.

 

[sueblack]

The only other time I noticed a smell was when I didn't remove dead beetles. I was just going to let them all keep laying eggs til they died before I sifted them out, but that didn't work. They get quite smelly when you have a couple hundred dead beetles in your bin. Once I figured that out, things got back to normal and I don't notice the smell.