just started farming meal worms

[Bird Collector]

Quote:
I'm really hoping you meant to say you put 2 to 3 inches of BRAN down in the bottom..... otherwise,

Sure did. Spell check would not have even helped me.

Going up stairs to farm my worms in a few minutes. I think they are due for new tatters;>

 

[HorizonSon]

Quote:
Doesn't bother me, in the slightest... I routinely dig to the bottom of the bin, to make sure there is no obvious moisture. I don't want to have another colony crash!

 

[awesomefowl]

Where did you buy your worms?

 

[featherbaby]

Quote:
I'm really hoping you meant to say you put 2 to 3 inches of BRAN down in the bottom..... otherwise,

Well, they're bound to be very smart........

Wonder if the chickens that eat them will be smarter too.......?

NAH.

 

[chickenlady08]

Quote:
I got mine at www.augustos.com.

5000 large mealworms for $50 and free shipping

 

[jason_mazzy]

Meal worms are rediculously easy to grow.
I buy mine from Armstrong crickets in bulk if I don't want to grow em. 1-800-658-3408 they are super friendly and uick. Jeff is the owner. he is a great guy. tell them Jason from J's jungle sent you there so he knows I am still helping him out lol!!!!

But once you have some fill a 10 gallon fish tank ($10 at any petstore or possibly free in the local paper) 1/2 full of instant oatmeal, cornmeal, and cream of wheat.

Put a handful of worms and a large potato cut in 1/2 in the tank.

Place a cover of some type on top of the tank. keep in a decently warm/cool space.

the worms will grow and molt into beetles of 2 different colors. then they will begin to breed like crazy.

in a few weeks you will have more worms than you know what to do with! GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope this helped!

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I started mealworms in August using two small tubs of worms from PetsMart that supposedly contained 50 worms each but when I counted before putting in them in the aquarium I discovered there were only about 25 live worms in each tub. Used chick starter, carrots and potatoes.

Recently I decided to move them to a larger box. I counted out 1500 good size larvae into 3 smaller containers...unfortunately, I gassed one container of 500 by putting a slice of bread in a container with a lid...the other two just had a paper towel for moisture and they were fine. That morning the hens got a 500 mealworm/Flock Raiser treat.

I put the remaining 1000 in a larger container/Flock Raiser. The remaining larvae from the aquarium are in another container/Flock Raiser; there are at least that as many or maybe twice as many as the 1500...most are small. Plus there is a 3 lb margarine carton of very tiny larvae from sifting the chick starter in aquarium. Another box contains beetles that hopefully will be laying eggs soon. I added oystershell and oatmeal to the Flock Raiser in the 3 new containers.

Mine are in the living room because that is the only room of our house that has any heat.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

hmmm im wondering if temp has something to do with it??? i bought 1000 from the worm man(google it) i think 14$... put them in plastic shoe boxes on the top of the incubator and in about 2 months they have completed 1 life cycle... i bought medeim worms and in about 2 weeks i had beatles and just yesterday i fed out a bunch of them and the bigest where about the size that i had bought(with tons of smaller ones) ive got mine in wheet bran with slices of potatoes about every 3 days... about once a month i sort threw and take out the old pices of potatoes and move them around...

a word of caution Dont feed them to young chicks!!! i did and they look so much like little toes that now they keep picking at each others toes ive got a few that are bloody... i fed them out to all ages of chicks and Quail and only the ones under about 3 weeks where picking on each other...

 

[nuchickontheblock]

Boo Boo's Mama -- sounds like the worms are taking over.

Someone earlier had posted that they don't separate out the different stages, but sounds like maybe when you get alot like you have, it might be best. Did you leave some beetles in with the larvae, or separate them all out?

I work in a school and all our first grades had a container of meal worms for a couple of months in the Fall while they studied insects. in November I rescued the worms to feed to my girls when I found out that the teachers "set them free" to live outdoors for the winter when they turn into bugs. The kids must think they hibernate in the ground or something.

Talk about freeze dried.

 

[HorizonSon]

I ordered mine via GrubCo. I fed my baby chicks the mealworms with no problem. I also give them grit within their first week, too.