Mealworm farming

[ralleia]

I tried vermicomposting once, I bought an established system off of some moving. It just all seemed to be very wet and mucky, it was like that when I got it. After sorting the worms from the muck and putting them into fresh bedding I decided I didn't want to deal with muck after that and sold the system....maybe it was just the set up I had, it was a two bin tote system with air holes drilled in the sides....nothing fancy. I would like to give it a try again if I knew my end results wouldn't be muck!

Muck doesn't sound at all right. Perhaps the system that you got didn't have sufficient drainage, or had too much water.

My current system has a bunch of holes in the bottom of each level, and a drainage catch beneath the bottom level for any muck.

My old one-bin system relied on never putting too much moisture in there in the first place.

You'll probably have better results if you try it again and err on the side of keeping it a little drier?

 

[BeccaSmith]

Muck doesn't sound at all right. Perhaps the system that you got didn't have sufficient drainage, or had too much water.

My current system has a bunch of holes in the bottom of each level, and a drainage catch beneath the bottom level for any muck.

My old one-bin system relied on never putting too much moisture in there in the first place.

You'll probably have better results if you try it again and err on the side of keeping it a little drier?

It had drain holes in the bottom of both bins, and the very bottom bin was elevated on pvc pipe but sat inside of another bin to catch any moisture that would drain out. I think the person I got it from just let it go to long without harvesting it and it just turned to muck. Perhaps I will try again, but currently the meal worms are in the only spot available for worm farming.....hubby would die if I started another one again, he already thinks I have to many things going on....lol.

 

[ralleia]

It had drain holes in the bottom of both bins, and the very bottom bin was elevated on pvc pipe but sat inside of another bin to catch any moisture that would drain out. I think the person I got it from just let it go to long without harvesting it and it just turned to muck. Perhaps I will try again, but currently the meal worms are in the only spot available for worm farming.....hubby would die if I started another one again, he already thinks I have to many things going on....lol.

We ladies *DO* love to multi-task!

My worm bin isn't "mucky" at all though. It's about the moisture-level of wrung-out sponge.

It may be that the person that you got the operation from had too many "greens" (moist, nitrogen wastes like food waste) rather than "browns" (carbon wastes like shredded paper, wood chips, etc.) ...

 

[BeccaSmith]

I'll give it a try again when things settle down from being so busy around the house for me. Thanks for all the info!

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

I would love to try this! Just wondering... How do I kill the mealworms for my chickens to eat? Or do I just give them to my chickens alive? I'm sure someone has asked this, I just don't want to scroll through 300+ pages. All I have to do is convince my mom to allow me to keep them...

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

I would love to try this! Just wondering... How do I kill the mealworms for my chickens to eat? Or do I just give them to my chickens alive? I'm sure someone has asked this, I just don't want to scroll through 300+ pages. All I have to do is convince my mom to allow me to keep them...

My mom said I can keep them!

I can't wait to get started!

 

[wolftracks]

Except dead ones that I've had, my birds like them nice and wiggly.

Congrats on Mom's permission.

 

[Kassaundra]

I would love to try this! Just wondering... How do I kill the mealworms for my chickens to eat? Or do I just give them to my chickens alive? I'm sure someone has asked this, I just don't want to scroll through 300+ pages. All I have to do is convince my mom to allow me to keep them...

Usually they are fed live, if you really don't want to do that you could freeze them, that will kill them then thaw and feed out. But that seems like a lot of extra effort to me.

Congrats on mom's permission.

 

[onafixedincome]

Quote:

I would love to try this! Just wondering... How do I kill the mealworms for my chickens to eat? Or do I just give them to my chickens alive? I'm sure someone has asked this, I just don't want to scroll through 300+ pages. All I have to do is convince my mom to allow me to keep them...

Hee hee!! If you can keep the chickens away long enough to try killing the mealies, good luck to ya! I pitched mine their 'treats' today and wow! The mealies didn't even hit the ground, I swear. There really isn't any need to kill them for the chooks--although someone mentioned you might want to if feeding to very young chicks.

 

[vclark321]

My girls just love live or freeze dried mealworms... little junkies! And an update! I had bought my meal worms back on November 19 and at my last post nothing was happening. Well as of today I have about 12 pupae! I did buy about 2,000 from Amy here and they are some good looking mealies! I am just waiting for at least 1 cycle to be complete! I can hardly wait!