Mealworm farming

[Kassaundra]

Discovered a new veggie they love and doesn't mold quickly. Okra. This is my first year growing it and I have been giving both colonies (mealies and dubia's) the scraps from the garden veggies so I gave them the cut off tops and they swarmed them so then I put in some of the pods that got to big to eat (cut in half lengh and they are happily munching away.

 

[ipana]

Good to know about the okra. I didn't grow any this year but I did have extra green peppers and tomatoes. They LOVE them! When I cut the peppers across the middle, they get inside of the little cup from the bottom. It is full of worms within just a short time.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Quote:
It is the very best fertilizer you can get. Nothing is better!!! I have not used any commercial fertilizer since I have mealworms and now even have customers coming back over and over again to buy the castings.

This is what I have found about the castings, did not do my own analysis, but my garden looks great without any effort: mealworm castings contain 4 times the available nitrogen, plus other important nutrients such as phosphorus and iron -- Nitrogen-4.17% Phosphorus-2.70% Potash-1.64% Sodium-62.9mg/100gms Iron-26.5mg/100gms. PH is 7.25--- perfect for your vegetable garden! You will be using only ¼ of these castings for the nitrogen value compared to regular commercial fertilizers! Extremely cost-efficient! Recommended applications for lawns are between 10-20 lbs per 1000 square feet. Plants (indoor-outdoor), flowers, grass, soil rejuvenation or other fertilizer applications. Take one or two teaspoonful for plant or flower use, sprinkle evenly then water. For best results mix with soil.

That is keeper information, thank you!!!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I really am going to have to clean out some of my bins soon. The frass has gotten very deep in 2 of them but there are so many itsy bitsie worms in there, I really hate to.

Yesterday I decided I better feed more to the chicks so I put slices of cantaloup rind in the bins. OMG! Within 60 seconds they were covered in worms, very few beetles and that made for easy harvest. I took about 3000 worms down to the brooder room. My chicks love me!

I love it when I can scoop up double handfuls of just worms. It was just incredible and I just saw all that nutrition going into the chicks. I mix flax meal in with the wheat bran and sometimes give a squirt of vitamins over some fruit before feeding it.

I must say, this has been a super project that takes very little time but has HUGE rewards.

 

[CluckyJay]

Isn't it great?! Hubby is gonna build me a shed to raise all this live food in. I'm hoping by this time next year I will be officially open for business in the insect starter world!

 

[galanie]

I found tiny babies in there today!

 

[OwensMom]

CluckyJay how exciting for you. Cannot wait to hear of your progress into the world of dinosaur food raiser!!
Galanie I found young worms today as well!! I mostly ignore the bin except to feed the beetles but today decided to search for worm progress!! Yes there were worms. I cannot wait to be able to freeze a few meals for the girls!!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Wonderful new from both of you on the little worms! It's a piece of cake from here. I just set up 5 new beetle boxes and divided the one box with all the tiny worms in it-- into 3 separate worm grow out boxes. Added new bran to it and potatoes and now it is just a matter of time. Got to go take them all out to the coop and finish up with the birds.

 

[kizanne]

Found them

I have been worried that I don't have enough moisture and that my babies might be dying. I knew by the time line I should have baby worms But I'd put a whoel potato in there and in 24 hours it would be almost gone so there weren't any worms on it. When I did put it in the beetles would swarm it so no worms then either.

Yesterday I put some potato in and waited one hour. dug one up and I don't just have time worms some are large probably small worms !!!!

Now I need another bin so I can move my beetles into some new substrate to continue laying me wormies.

 

[OwensMom]

All of our farms seem to be keeping pace!! I've got some tiny worms and some small worms. Life is good. Cannot wait ti freeze a bunch. I'm sure that my attitude is not shared by the worms!!