Mealworm farming

[Chickangel79]

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Lol, I wrote that on the storage tub they are kept in, with permanent pen because I lose pieces of paper !!!

 

[BuffyGRL]

I am only imagining what my flock will look like when I finally get enough worms to start giving them treats

This was a good mental picture that I found a smiley to match

 

[galanie]

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LOL yep, that's about it!

 

[Cakela]

Meal worm farm is already doing work.

Meal worms are the only thing my sick chicken is interested in eating. Thankfully my beetles have started mating, so I'm not too worried about the population since I hardly have any worms left! Everythings a pupae or a beetle.

Thank goodness for this farm though, sick choock is getting better.

 

[mkearsley]

Would anyone have suggestions for drying the mealworms? I've got so many that I'm thinking about drying some & crushing them for my fish. We tried freezing them, but they're sturdy little buggers & only about 1/2 of them were killed. They're also kinda gross now, a bit on the gooey side. I thought about maybe baking them, but I don't know for what temp or how long. It's amazing how quickly they go from teeny, tiny worm to beetles!

 

[emptynester]

I got 2200 mealworms almost 2 weeks ago. In that time, almost every single one turned into pupa and then beetles. I have a ton of beetles, some of them already passed on to beetle heaven, and tons of pupa. Good thing, cause I only about 20 worms left. Hopefully we will start to see baby worms shortly.

 

[Kassaundra]

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From the time of my first adult to seeing my first baby worms was about a month, but I had not been sifting through the substrate, by the time I saw them they had already molted a few times. I bet if you look for them they will be there in just a week or two.

I fed the colony a pear off the tree, they didn't like it to much, they seem to like veggies more then fruit. They love the spinach mustard leaves, but don't eat them they love to stay under them.

Have a couple of questions for everyone, how many of your adult beetles have the deformed body thing going on? Do you allow them to breed or feed them out before they can breed? Is it a genetic thing they pass on, or is it an environmental thing?

 

[Cakela]

I have a lot of messed up beetles. If they live they live, if they die, which a lot of mine have, they get tossed.

 

[wyoDreamer]

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One thing that I heard about drying them, do it outside becasue they stink while they dehydrate. My friend dried them in his dehydrator in his kitchen, ONCE - after a hour, he moved it outside because of the smell. After a month, you could just barely smell it anymore.

Check this site out, it sounds like it would work well.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5687804_dry-mealworms.html

 

[CluckyJay]

I upped the humidity in my bins and they grow quicker and die much less. They also will not stop breeding!! The grubs shed their skins much more/quicker with higher humidity.