mealworm farm

[ChickNanny13]

Checkout the wheat bran in my farm & saw the bran moving, put a bunch in my palm & slowly searched. I found some teeny-tiny babies! I was getting very discouraged; it's been 7wks & 4 days since I found my first beetle; all I was seeing were beetles galore & a few large mealworms. Now I know the colony is reproducing, the waiting game (again) for those babies to be large enough to be treats but then again I'm not sure I can feed live ones to my chickens. May sell them, using the monies to buy freeze dried?

I'm doing mine in one large plastic bin due to space & reading others that have had success with a one container method. So for anyone starting out, be patient as it seems like forever....

 

[karhernandez33]

Thats awesome... I'm just going to feed the live ones to my girls...the ducks also love them. I can't wait till its ready I knowiI still have a while though

 

[the foot]

If you take care of your mealworm ranch, after a couple of generations you will have a gazillion treats for those chickens. I use layer crumbles for the medium, and it works great.

 

[rottnwarrior]

Just checking in to see how the new "farms" are doing. Are you still sticking to it and what way did you finally settle on? I keep a magnifying glass near mine and sometimes I'll grab a handful of bedding and look through it to see tiny babies. I had an old bin that had no beetles or pupae left in it and I thought it was all done. I left it alone for a couple months and just checked it the other day. It's got thousands in it! I think I forgot to mention it's a good idea to keep a few separate containers of them if you can. That way if something happens to one of them the others will keep you going.

 

[karhernandez33]

I am starting to have my new mealworms turn to beetles.. I have so many. I didn't have time to separate them but in the ..top are mealworms ..second is beetles (and new mealworms) when that one has tons upon tons of babies I will move the beetles to the third to start over.. I do separate the pupa when I see them.

 

[karhernandez33]

 

[karhernandez33]

One changing to a beetle

 

[rottnwarrior]

Looks like it's coming along great. I just fed a plateful to the chickens and they went bonkers. I could probably train them to do backflips while saying the alphabet with these things haha. They love em! I still leave all mine together. Once I got a few genarations going there were just way too many to separate.

 

[skippyscage]

I just my first beetles in the last few days also

 

[rottnwarrior]

Temperature plays a big part too. Mine have slowed down because they are in a room that stays pretty cool. I'm going to pick the dead bugs out and give them some fresh food and then put them upstairs in a warmer room. Should have an explosion by spring! Keep them warm and don't let veggies mold and pretty soon you'll have more than you can imagine. I'll try to get some pictures of mine.