Mealworm Farming Systems

[BaileyJean]

I am really interested in Mealworm farming. I am trying to decide between the drawer system and just having them in a flat Rubbermaid tub. I have read a lot on the subject and am not sure on which would be better, I sure some people like both for their own reasons. What are the pro and cons of the drawer system vs the Rubbermaid tub system? I am not wanting a huge operation, we will have about 20 hens this year. What is a good number of Mealworms to start out with?
Thanks

 

[galanie]

The three drawer system makes it so the worms are in their own drawer instead of having beetles and worms mixed. You'll still have some worms in the top drawer but not many. What worms are up there can just be left to turn into beetles to make it self perpetuating. What you do is, when you see lots of wormies starting to grow in bin 2, you swap it out with bin 3 then just feed out the bin full of worms once they get big enough.

Use oatmeal for bedding in the top bin and then wheat bran for the lower ones and you'll be able to just sift the worms out of the wheat bran. In the top bin, the bran will fall out through the screening on the bottom.

But the one bin is simpler and I know from experience that if you're having moth problems it's the only way to go if you end up with anything in there but mealworms because you can put screening over it and eventually keep them out. It's just a little harder to get only the worms out. Not hard at all though either way.

Lots of folks start out with 1000.

The first post in this thread is a gold mine of information. Look at the three pages linked there for different views and setups https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/492636/mealworm-farming

 

[BaileyJean]

I am assuming you can get these drawers at Walmart, right? About how much is a set of drawers?

 

[galanie]

Yes, Walmart has them. Or garage sales. I don't really know how much they are, mine came from my son.