"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[CackedNut]

Now your talking my language. I feed all organic. This is the first year feeding commercial organic food. They just started selling it at O'Keeffe's in Covington. Its not cheep but either is buying organic eggs 5.99 a dozen or organic chicken at 3.99 a pound.

I was thinking it was cheaper when I bought the grains in bulk and made my own feed. Well I went to the store I was in for a shock all the prices have gone up. Some by a 1.00 per lb.

I do want to do broilers but I'm not set up yet with another yard or coops. Hoping for next year . Plus I need a deed doer.

I'll look and post the brand of food tomorrow. Maybe you could buy it whole sale. Pam

Oh, please be sure to post. I'm in Covington every weekday dropping/picking up my kids from school. It's better I have my heart attack now over the price, than in the store. This way, I'll have time to "adjust".

 

[CackedNut]

www.tastykitchen.com

Go to recipes and look under "canning". There are tons of recipes.
The tasty kitchen website is where you are sent when you print one of ThePioneerWoman's recipes.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I also put together a small container with mealworms. Didn't I read that someone else on here grows them too? I got a small container of 50 at Petsmart for $2.50. They seem happy so far. Lol, well they are eating and moving around anyway. I have just been thinking that the fresh ones must have more nutrition than the freeze dried ones. Maybe that's not true. But if I can grow them they sure will be cheaper anyway. I'm all for that!

I have a fairly decent sized mealworm farm. This a picture of my old set-up: I have added 5 more drawers since this picture was taken. I started with 2,000 of them in February 2012 and can't even begin to tell you how many I have now.
I sell them and my bedding mix at the Covington swaps every month (250 for $4.00, 500 for $7.50, and 1000 for $14.00) as well as feed them out to my birds. They are very easy and relatively maintenance free to raise.

 

[CackedNut]

I have a fairly decent sized mealworm farm. This a picture of my old set-up: I have added 5 more drawers since this picture was taken. I started with 2,000 of them in February 2012 and can't even begin to tell you how many I have now.
I sell them and my bedding mix at the Covington swaps every month (250 for $4.00, 500 for $7.50, and 1000 for $14.00) as well as feed them out to my birds. They are very easy and relatively maintenance free to raise.

How did you get started (purchase from pet store)? What is the "bedding" and what do you feed them?

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Oh, by the way, our club is sponsoring our last swap of the season at the St. Tammany Parish fairgrounds in Covington this Sunday from 9-1. It is under the covered livestock arena, so happens rain or shine. It is free to attend and only $5.00 a spot to sell: Plus we have a mobile BBQ rig on site with great food too!
We have spots for over 40 vendors and you'll never know what you'll find since we have folks come from as far as Lake Charles and Northern Mississippi to sell sometimes!

 

[LemonMeringue]

www.tastykitchen.com

Go to recipes and look under "canning". There are tons of recipes.
The tasty kitchen website is where you are sent when you print one of ThePioneerWoman's recipes.

Thanks for the link I'm going to check it out.

I have a fairly decent sized mealworm farm. This a picture of my old set-up: I have added 5 more drawers since this picture was taken. I started with 2,000 of them in February 2012 and can't even begin to tell you how many I have now.
I sell them and my bedding mix at the Covington swaps every month (250 for $4.00, 500 for $7.50, and 1000 for $14.00) as well as feed them out to my birds. They are very easy and relatively maintenance free to raise.

Wow, great visual! I am starting with WAY less. Since I wanted to be cheap and didn't want to pay shipping. But if I can keep it going then they will multiply. It will just take time. What do you use for the bedding? I am allergic to wheat. So I got a rice bran something or other from Petrus. I am fairly sure the people over there think I really have lost all of my marbles.

Oh well. My hens don't care if I have marbles left anyway. Hahaha! I mixed in a bit of chick feed and oats as well. I looked this morning and there are still plenty of active feeding worms. I did have a few die off at first. But maybe they weren't in good health from being so cold. Time will tell. I am sure I will get excited if I get some of them to pupate.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

How did you get started (purchase from pet store)? What is the "bedding" and what do you feed them?

I purchased them online from GrubCo: You can get much better pricing online.

As to bedding, I started out with Wheat Bran but it smelled terrible after a very short amount of time and tended to clump up. So, I started playing around with mixtures till I found one that seemed to work really well. I mix Dried Distillers Grains, Gluten Dried Distillers Grains, Corn Gluten or Germ Meal, a bit of Soybean Meal, and 18% grower crumbles. You can also raise them in rolled oats or lay crumbles or a mixture of those.

As to food, they EAT their bedding. You have to keep a slice of apple, carrot, sweet potato, or regular potato in each drawer since that is how they get their moisture. Put a piece of newspaper on the surface of the bedding or a couple pulp egg carton ripped in half since the beetles they eventually turn into don't like light.

The mealworms are the larvae stage of the Darkling Beetle, in case you want to look up more information about them. The beetles don't bite or fly and each female can lay a few hundred eggs during their short life span.

They do best between 65-85 degrees, but didn't die the winter I had to keep them in our unheated barn. They are now in the finished office we put in my barn and have a small heater during the winter, which doesn't hurt my feelings either since I spend a good bit of time out there myself.

About twice a year you have to sift their poo, called frass, out which is by far the worst part of the whole deal. I keep the frass in a tote for several weeks to allow any eggs that are in it to hatch, then sift out the worms and put the frass into the garden boxes: It is a decent fertilizer.

 

[LemonMeringue]

How did you get started (purchase from pet store)? What is the "bedding" and what do you feed them?

I am interested to see what MrsM uses for bedding and feeding. I saw a lot of youtube vid on the subject. Most of them use wheat germ or fine ground oats. I am using the rice bran hull stuff from the feed store, chick food and oats. Then I put a slice of apple and baby carrots. I also put squares of brown paper for them to chill under. Any more tips if I could do anything else would be welcomed! I got 50 at PetsMart for $2.50. MrsM's prices are better

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Thanks for the link I'm going to check it out.

Wow, great visual! I am starting with WAY less. Since I wanted to be cheap and didn't want to pay shipping. But if I can keep it going then they will multiply. It will just take time. What do you use for the bedding? I am allergic to wheat. So I got a rice bran something or other from Petrus. I am fairly sure the people over there think I really have lost all of my marbles.

Oh well. My hens don't care if I have marbles left anyway. Hahaha! I mixed in a bit of chick feed and oats as well. I looked this morning and there are still plenty of active feeding worms. I did have a few die off at first. But maybe they weren't in good health from being so cold. Time will tell. I am sure I will get excited if I get some of them to pupate.

Those drawer systems work great and are pretty easy to clean.

See the answer I did in the other post for the bedding recommendations. I am happy to answer questions anyone has about them. I give out a small care/fact sheet at the swaps where I sell them and my bedding mix. I had so many people ask about the bedding that comes in the bag with the worms that I started selling it for $2.50 for around 5lbs. Their are quite a few people locally that have started raising these now and are doing pretty well with them.

 

[LemonMeringue]

I purchased them online from GrubCo: You can get much better pricing online.

As to bedding, I started out with Wheat Bran but it smelled terrible after a very short amount of time and tended to clump up. So, I started playing around with mixtures till I found one that seemed to work really well. I mix Dried Distillers Grains, Gluten Dried Distillers Grains, Corn Gluten or Germ Meal, a bit of Soybean Meal, and 18% grower crumbles. You can also raise them in rolled oats or lay crumbles or a mixture of those.

As to food, they EAT their bedding. You have to keep a slice of apple, carrot, sweet potato, or regular potato in each drawer since that is how they get their moisture. Put a piece of newspaper on the surface of the bedding or a couple pulp egg carton ripped in half since the beetles they eventually turn into don't like light.

The mealworms are the larvae stage of the Darkling Beetle, in case you want to look up more information about them. The beetles don't bite or fly and each female can lay a few hundred eggs during their short life span.

They do best between 65-85 degrees, but didn't die the winter I had to keep them in our unheated barn. They are now in the finished office we put in my barn and have a small heater during the winter, which doesn't hurt my feelings either since I spend a good bit of time out there myself.

About twice a year you have to sift their poo, called frass, out which is by far the worst part of the whole deal. I keep the frass in a tote for several weeks to allow any eggs that are in it to hatch, then sift out the worms and put the frass into the garden boxes: It is a decent fertilizer.

Cool! Thanks!