HELP FOR THE NEWBIES

[Aussie Lady]

I have just picked up my mealworms and all that goes with it. I'm just about to go out and set it all up. What a thing to do on a lovely muggy and hot Sunday mid morning. I am going to be using just the one single container for now and maybe work up to the draw system. Hope all goes well. Will post a picture of it when I'm all done.

 

[Aussie Lady]

FYI: One thing I forgot to mention is that when you buy mealworms you need to be very cautious if you are buying the super sized ones. I found this out by change that the super sized mealworms may have a
growth hormone fed to them so they grow to this size. So one has to ask the store owner to ensure
that this has not been done to the worms you are purchasing and that they are totally hormone free.
My goodness, it's like a whole new world has opened up to me. It's not just "Chickens" it's all that goes with it.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Oops.. I forgot to subscribe, so sorry this response is so late. LOL Wish it was hot and muggy here! We are expecting 3 inches of snow tomorrow. It's currently 5 degrees (f) right now.. ugggg

Yes, I do keep my meal worm farm inside, it's under my bearded dragon cage.. lol. The only reason I went with the aquarium is because we have about 3 of them unused in the basement. I like trying to reuse what I already have - and hell, they are only meal worms! LOL

A note about the "super sized" worms. If you are referring to Super Worms, they are actually a completely different breed of insect than meal worms. (no hormones). They can not live if you keep them cold in a fridge, like meal worms, and they will not breed if you keep them with other worms. They require complete separation from each other just to turn into pupae. I raised them for a while for my bearded dragon and it was more work because of the separation aspect. I had to create small jars for each individual worm just to turn it into a beetle. Not worth the trouble. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zophobas_morio

 

[galanie]

Oops.. I forgot to subscribe, so sorry this response is so late. LOL  Wish it was hot and muggy here!  We are expecting 3 inches of snow tomorrow. It's currently 5 degrees (f) right now.. ugggg

Yes, I do keep my meal worm farm inside, it's under my bearded dragon cage.. lol.  The only reason I went with the aquarium is because we have about 3 of them unused in the basement. I like trying to reuse what I already have - and hell, they are only meal worms! LOL

A note about the "super sized" worms.  If you are referring to Super Worms, they are actually a completely different breed of insect than meal worms. (no hormones). They can not live if you keep them cold in a fridge, like meal worms, and they will not breed if you keep them with other worms. They require complete separation from each other just to turn into pupae. I raised them for a while for my bearded dragon and it was more work because of the separation aspect. I had to create small jars for each individual worm just to turn it into a beetle. Not worth the trouble.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zophobas_morio

And to further complicate the matter, you can't always be sure which you are buying when you get "super sized" worms. Sometimes it's the hormone treated ones and sometimes it's the ones you mentioned here. Often the person selling them doesn't even know there's a difference or which they have.

 

[Aussie Lady]

Thanks Galanie, you just made my day

Jokes aside, the ones I got are from an Australian Enterprise called "Pisces Enterprises Live Food" Superworms 100g. The packaging states that they are meal worms and that they are Organophosphates Free and Hormone Free.
So I am hoping it is what they say it is. I looked into the box today for the first time. There were several holes in both of the half spuds however they didn't touch the celery stick or the corn cob. I'm wondering if they may not have been able to get through because of the news paper. They bit through the one side that had the spuds on it. Maybe these are fussy worms. I'll try other things as well. I left some empty toilet rolls in there as well for them to hide in. I'll check again tomorrow, by then I'll have some more scraps. I did however see quite a bit of black beetles, I didn't think it would go this quick although we have been having very warm muggy weather. I'll check this out more tomorrow - now I have to continue with my studies and assignments

. Only joking, not that bad, I do enjoy it. Anyway catch you all later - Chrissy

 

[Aussie Lady]

Hi Galanie, I noticed you were on line. I've been meaning to ask you and keep forgetting. How on earth do you get a blue chicken? I've never seen one until your picture. Are they a special breed? Just curious.

What colour and size egg do they lay? Thanks

 

[beehiveginger]

Hi, I have heard that shredded paper is not a good material to use, it gets sloppy if wet and then hard like cement when it dries making it hard to clean up. I have used sugar cane mulch once or twice. I didn't like it because it went sort of musty moldy quickly. I know this is bad for chook lungs. Straw bales are about $13 here but last a long time and keep my coop fresh. I am sure your silkie will like some company, I hope you go well with your austrolorps too. I see you posted ages ago so you probably have learned answers to your questions by now.

 

[Aussie Lady]

Thanks Behiveginger, I appreciate your input, any ideas you have are much appreciated on this Thread. By the way, thanks for joining and commenting on the thread I started - I need all the help I can get. I didn't know that about sugar cane mulch - where I live on the Pennisula I can get a whole bale for $9.00 so I learnt something new again. If you have any valuable information (with me any information is valuable, believe me) don't hesitate to mention it here or any new item you want to discuss. I am hoping through this thread we will all be able to share and learn things from each other. Thanks again

 

[Aussie Lady]

Here are the photos of my worm farm and the container I am using. I perforated the top cover with small holes not too large so that moths or other creepy crawlies can't get in. It seems to be going well for the time being. I'm hoping that where I store the container is not too warm. I put in some cabbage leaves which are a little moist from being in the fridge, I'll keep checking to see that they don't grow moldy. I had to get rid of the spuds as they were getting that way. They seem to like it in between the newspaper. Anyway enough babble, here are the pics.

























I hope I'm not overdoing this with all these pictures - At present I am using wheat germ and I sprinkled some shell grit amongst it for calcium. If I need to, I will top this up with rolled oats. I am wondering if I should have put my wheat germ in the fridge first to stop any weevils that may have been in there or moth eggs. Too late now, I will see how it goes. The wheat germ that I got from a produce store was well bagged, I know keep it in our shed all 25 kg. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

 

[tweetysvoice]

That looks great!! Yeah, I didn't think about freezing my wheat germ either - so far no troubles. I think that box will work out just fine!
I'll bet the cabbage is eaten before it goes bad. I haven't had a problem with anything going bad just yet. So far I'm replacing the food faster than I thought I would. I've been adding kale, apples, carrots, and red peppers into mine lately. It's just kinda stuff that's left over from making dinner. LOL.
How many worms did you start off with? I've now gotten about 20 pupea out of the 1000 that I started a couple weeks ago. No beetles just yet.