Meal Worms

[abryant25]

Has anyone ever tried raising your own meal worms verses buying them in the store?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

my current setup.....this grows enough for my flock (11) and loads of extras that I can sell to offset costs, create some spending $.

What I started with, would easily grow enough for just my birds. I make and sell these locally to folks wanting to start their own farm. My cost to build these is about $11.00

I am at about a year in, just coming to the end of a 50 pound bag of wheat bran ($18)....and I feed my whole farm on two carrots a day (10lb bag $5 lasts about a month)

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I raise them....super easy & cheap and the birds LOVE live mealies.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Thank you for the info!! I will start small but have a feeling it will grow just like my bird math haha more chickens/ducks = more works

Yes, worm math happens....hence going from my one, small, self-sorting bin to having a "worm closet"

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Never have......I have always purchased them.
Welcome to our FUNomenal Community!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Best advice I can offer is find good starter stock. *some* commercially sold stock is treated to prevent pupation (hormonal treatment early on) which means they never turn onto beetles, which would mean no completing the life cycle. You *can* source from a pet store, but will pay a premium for okay stock that way.....you'll get more, bigger, healthier starter stock from a private grower imo. If you go store route, ask whether they source them commercially or from a local source

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The colony approach, all together, can certainly work. I separate as it is more efficient for me at the volume I'm producing. There are 20 drawers in my carts....one is pupa, three are beetles, 14 are worms of various stages and two are currently empty as I recently consolidated and cut back temporarily due to going out of town for a time and trying to simplify fir the worm sitter....I had it down to 14 drawers total at that point and am ramping back up.

 

[AngieMaesChix]

Thank you for the info!! I will start small but have a feeling it will grow just like my bird math haha more chickens/ducks = more works

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The beauty of raising mealworms is there are so many ways to do it.....from bedding options, housing type, management and hydration source. Kind of like chicken keeping you just figure out what works for you

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Do you keep this in your home, garage? I think that is what I am trying to figure out. I have researched it and many state they have to have warmer areas to keep the boxes in

This is a closet in my home. They would not be suited to an unheated environment. I know some folks choose garage, etc and add heat to their farm (seeding mats, reptile heaters, etc) but that seems like making it harder and more costly considering you can put them anywhere in the house and never know they were there (maintained there is no smell, no mess). I know folks who use solid colored drawer units (plastic storage drawers) and have them out in an open part of their home with guests never realizing it's a worm farm.