Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

Okay...... I've read several articles regarding the darkling beetle as a potential disease carrier in poultry. The one that describes the conditions well is at:

http://kentagextension.blogspot.com/2007/11/poultry-darkling-beetles-in-poultry.html


Even after reading the different articles about the beetles, I'm still not concerned. If someone comes up with why I should be, please let me know!!!


Reasons why I'm not concerned:
1. I do not have a broiler house.
2. My worms and beetles do not live in a nasty, germy, dirty, infested environment.
3. They do not come into contact with manure of any kind.
4. They do not come into contact with old, moldy feed.
5. My beetles live in a box (or drawer) that have both proven to be beetle safe. It still takes 2 to tango and a really good food source for a problem to occur.

From what I can gather, they are what they eat and come in contact with. I fed my birds copious amounts of freeze-dried worms last winter without problem...they are all robust.

For my farms (until convinced otherwise), I will continue as planned and in the manner practiced so far. As with keeping anything in a box (or caged) they are at our mercy for how they live. I respect and honor all living creatures, especially the ones that depend on me.


edited to add: I don't feed the beetles to the chickens since multipling the worm colony is my goal. I only feed worms to the chickens. I don't think this would even matter considering the isolated condition of my beetles.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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OMG! I had to put on my glasses to see Wilma even in that big photo! Isn't she adorable?!!!

I will never, ever see ones that tiny. Not even with ground up substrate. I suppose I will be at the mercy of waiting...... and waiting..... and waiting for them to grow big enough for me to spot moving around.

Oh! What if I toss the wee wormies out when I replace the food? However will I know? I suppose I will keep a magnifying glass right there beside the bin to check all the old food over before disposing of it.....and a pair of glasses, too!

Congrats on finding Wee Wilma Worm! Great job!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

CaroleW and Hannacat, darkling beetles are those that belong to the family Tenebrionidae, of which there are tens of thousands of species. The darkling beetles that can cause problems for commercial poultry houses are lesser mealworms (Alphitobius diaperinus) and not yellow mealworms (Tenebrio molitor), so you can breath a sigh of relief!

Hannakat, I agree that the risk of your mealworms escaping and causing problems is very low (I've never had an escapee in more than 25 years of growing them). I also think that the risk of your colony getting infected with diseases dangerous to chickens is very low. Because your mealworm colony is isolated from the chickens it would be difficult for the colony to get infected in any pathogen that will infect your chickens. For example, some parasitic worms utilize beetles as the intermediate hosts. A beetle infected with the parasite is eaten by the chicken, the parasite then multiplies and eggs are shed onto the ground in the chicken feces. Beetles then eat the eggs and are infected and the cycle is repeated. The beetles in your colony are very unlikely to encounter such worm eggs.

Hannacat, you must be so proud of Wee Wilma Worm! Congratulations on the little wiggler.

 

[BellevueOmlet]

I am new to mealworm farming but I am starting to get A LOT of black beetles and I am excited!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Thank you so much for the info! That is great news!
My goodness, 25 years of meal worm farming. We are all so glad to have your expertise here to help us along. Fantastic!

Oh, Wee Wilma is Hannakats', not mine.

 

[hannakat]

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Thank you so much for the info! That is great news!
My goodness, 25 years of meal worm farming. We are all so glad to have your expertise here to help us along. Fantastic!

Oh, Wee Wilma is Hannakats', not mine.

x2

Thank you ~ thank you!! I go by my gut from what I read.....you supplied the science!

 

[OwensMom]

Well, after not being in the bin for a few days, I pulled out 46 pupae form the worm bin and put them in the beetle bin!!! That almost doubles the population in the pupae bin!! In the beetle bin I found 3 beetles that have pupated!! Population explosion!! I put apple slices in both places to encourage growth.
Nadine, I put small corn cobs in the worm bin and much to my surprise found that worms drilled into the center of thr cobs. I would have thought that the worms would eat the left over corn.
hannahkat congrats on finding Wilma! you are persistent.
So far as diseases go, the boxes are controled enviroments and there is nothing in there that you will not introduce. The worms do not survive long enough in the chicken pen to cause harm and I will never take beetles out there. Besides we have Gallo to guide us. Thanks Gallo. Lynn

 

[hannakat]

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[sadies chicks]

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Good gravy she is tiny!!! Kudos to you for finding her!

 

[CaroleW]

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Thanks for the link and those that responded to this issue. I haven't had a chance to look up the literature again and post the link but it was from a state extension office (Ohio or Florida if I remember correctly). I suspect they are probably warning larger poultry farm operations of infestations that may harbor disease. And most of us only have a few chickens kept under much higher sanitary standards then that larger farms so I am not overly worried about the potential disease. Still studying it out for my own benefit...

I never imagined I would be so interested in the science of disease, weed identification (to make sure it's okay for the chickens), out-smarting the wild birds and mealworm farming when I first got my pullets the first part of May! I can see this may lead to much more!