lorrir, hope you've had better luck at feeding you chickens live mealworms. My chickens just love them, they are easy to raise & they are a great source of "clean" protein. I use plastic container shoe boxes with a screened lid (cut a rectangular piece out of the lid, hot glue nylon screen in it's place); OPTIONAL SIFTING BOTTOM - with a sifting bottom (cut a rectangular piece out of the bottom, hot glue some craft type, plastic canvas sheet in it's place for sifting the bedding out of the box) (this will set into another plastic shoebox container under it to catch the siftings as mentioned later on); put in 2" of wheat bran for bedding & feeding (and other supplements); lay a piece of burlap over that where they lay eggs (rectangular, about 1/2 the size of the surface); lay a whole piece of carrot (easiest food, does not mold/spoil as quickly-also can feed apple slices, banana peelings, etc.) for moisture & food on the burlap (burlap helps keep food mold from contaminating the wheat bran better than laying food directly in the bedding & is an addl place for eggs to be laid which can be lifted up easily in tact) but, keep the moldy food cleaned out; put your mealworms (only buy the refrigerated type, as the other type that is bred in seperate single containers is not easy to breed & may be too aggressive for chicken crops); put in a few layers of newspaper retangular pieces for worms & beetles to crawl in; put the lid on & secure with a rubberband (it's easy to spill the box when handling); place this plastic shoebox into another one (with no lid) to catch the siftings later (in 2 wks) when beetles have laid eggs & need to be sifted out easily; in two weeks or so depending on room temperatures, remove the newspaper & burlap/carrot; sift out the bedding with eggs (fluffy clumps sometimes) & transfer the beetles & white pupae stage for your next batch to another plastic shoebox set up same as above & wait for the eggs to hatch & mature; the beetles, pupae & mature worms will be left behind (temporarily transfer them to a bowl) put 2" bedding/feed in & the same set up as above (to start new egg laying). The reason for different growing containers that I do is to separate the different stages of growth, but this can be left all in one bigger container for your convenience (but, the beetles & larger worms will eat some of the smallest ones) Tips: You can add other stuff to the wheat bran bedding/food if you like for xtra nutrition such as: ground cereal, ground chicken food, powdered in blender egg shells, ground grains, wheat bran, etc. You can use a slotted spoon or strainer to sift out the bedding & separate the mealworms to feed out; always keep the fluffy wheat bran, as it contains eggs for your next hatch in about a month. You will find mealworms between the newspaper layers for gathering & feeding; spritz the top newspaper layer every day during hot/dry weather days; when removing moldy carrots, dust the fluffy wheat bran stuff off & add to a newly started sifted batch; if you have an excess of hatched worms then put them in a plastic container with tiny holes in the top & refrigerate (take out of frige every 2 to 3 wks to feed in a wheat bran mixture for couple of hours) then put back into the container & refrigerate (this can give you a stock of feeder mealworms for cold weather months (60 degrees & under) when mealworms won't breed til it warms up; this will make an ongoing supply of mealworms. Or, just feed them out of the container as needed & the older mealworms will just turn into beetles & make more mealworms. The mealworm dropping are the sandy like granules at the bottom of the growing container which is much smaller than the fresh wheat bran started with; these droppings can be composted for the garden or just thrown out (or put into separate container for a little while with newspaper layers to see is there are leftover worms in there). Mealworms can be purchased at any pet store where they sell reptiles; buy a few 100 (I started with 500) to start & have a few plastic container set ups on hand for separating ages & growing more; cut the burlap & newspaper layers leaving an inch all around the surface for ventilation; they like the dark & hide under the newspaper; wear a paper mask or scarf when sifting the bedding out, don't let this get dust in your lungs, bad for asthma too. Currently, I like to use the plastic shoebox sized containers, but you can also just keep in 5 gallon buckets with a screen top or other larger plastic size containers; just keep them covered with the newspaper sheets, as they like it dark, but do not put airtight lid on, as they need air & circulation. Out of 3 shoebox containers dated in early August, my late September harvest was over 4,000 full sized mealworms (there were still eggs layid by a few beetles & tiny mealworms left to harvest later in the sifted out bedding). That's all I can think of right now. Best wishes & good luck.
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