Mealworm farming questions

[Kris5902]

Good luck with the ankle

Thanks!

 

[Kris5902]

My worms came today! Very much alive, I shouldn’t have opened the box in the truck on the way to the ferry... but I did.

Ack! Anyone know what this is?

It’s shorter and hairy, with kind of red hairs. Should I be worried about them being in with my worms? Not the nicest day for a ferry trip, but I’ve had worse...

 

[Pericles-of-ACooPolis]

My worms came today! Very much alive, I shouldn’t have opened the box in the truck on the way to the ferry... but I did.

Ack! Anyone know what this is?
View attachment 1659246
It’s shorter and hairy, with kind of red hairs. Should I be worried about them being in with my worms? Not the nicest day for a ferry trip, but I’ve had worse...

View attachment 1659260
View attachment 1659261

Hey, very late but that black thingy is just a dried up meal-worm or dried up Pupa (next meal-worm stage before beetle). I'm sure you figured that out by now, but for others to see in case they don't know .

Hows the farm going along by the way!?

 

[Kris5902]

Hey, very late but that black thingy is just a dried up meal-worm or dried up Pupa (next meal-worm stage before beetle). I'm sure you figured that out by now, but for others to see in case they don't know .

Hows the farm going along by the way!?

It is a scavenger beetle... apparently feeds off the dead. All gone now, and the chickens were just as happy to eat it as a mealworm. Confirmed (eventually) by the supplier. I’ve got my first baby worms, beetles are going strong. I’m not in love with the screened bottom 3 drawer system, they have escaped into the drawer below.

They are now screwed into the bottom of my coffe table, which works well with our limited space.

My heater is located to the left in the room, and here you can clearly see the escaped beetles in drawer 2 on the left.

 

[Apocalypse]

I never understood why there were 3 drawers...

 

[Kris5902]

I never understood why there were 3 drawers...

Theory is to keep the beetles separate from the worms and eggs... I do like the product rotation idea... but now I’ll have to sift the beetles out of the drawer below the “beetle” drawer, rotate, and wait for the eggs to hatch.

 

[Pericles-of-ACooPolis]

It is a scavenger beetle... apparently feeds off the dead. All gone now, and the chickens were just as happy to eat it as a mealworm. Confirmed (eventually) by the supplier. I’ve got my first baby worms, beetles are going strong. I’m not in love with the screened bottom 3 drawer system, they have escaped into the drawer below.

View attachment 1746316

They are now screwed into the bottom of my coffe table, which works well with our limited space.

View attachment 1746317

My heater is located to the left in the room, and here you can clearly see the escaped beetles in drawer 2 on the left.

It is a scavenger beetle... apparently feeds off the dead. All gone now, and the chickens were just as happy to eat it as a mealworm. Confirmed (eventually) by the supplier. I’ve got my first baby worms, beetles are going strong. I’m not in love with the screened bottom 3 drawer system, they have escaped into the drawer below.

View attachment 1746316

They are now screwed into the bottom of my coffe table, which works well with our limited space.

View attachment 1746317

My heater is located to the left in the room, and here you can clearly see the escaped beetles in drawer 2 on the left.

I love seeing people’s setups! But wait a minute, you ordered 5k mealworms, did you spoil your chickens with most of them? These containers seem small for that number if you didn’t spoil them.. I had a larger setup of my 5K+ with bigger tubs... until my parents cracked me down on keeping them. RIP my first worms

 

[Kris5902]

I love seeing people’s setups! But wait a minute, you ordered 5k mealworms, did you spoil your chickens with most of them? These containers seem small for that number if you didn’t spoil them.. I had a larger setup of my 5K+ with bigger tubs... until my parents cracked me down on keeping them. RIP my first worms

yes, my chickens got fairly hefty servings, I started with two drawers of worms, fairly full... but 5000 isn’t as much as you would initially think, and 30 chickens will put quite a don’t into that quickly. I plan on having a flock of 50-60 birds year round, so I will be scaling up when I have more space

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Theory is to keep the beetles separate from the worms and eggs... I do like the product rotation idea... but now I’ll have to sift the beetles out of the drawer below the “beetle” drawer, rotate, and wait for the eggs to hatch.

The more likely scenario here would be that a few of your worms turned to pupa and then to beetles without you noticing them in the lower bin. Very easy to have happen. Unless of course your screen is not well attached, in which case beetles can easily make use of small gaps in the seal to move into the bin below
I started with the "self sorting" approach which is what the screen's bottom bins are. But quickly I outgrew that and now used the shallow multi tier tray system......I simply move the beetles to fresh bins every two weeks.

 

[Kris5902]

No worms at all under my screened drawer... just lots of beetles now. I don’t think I did a great job gluing the screen down. So the drawer directly under them had only a little new bran to catch the eggs, but is now teeming with adult beetles as well.