Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

My new Mealworm Farm...started today with a tub of 250 "fishbait" mealies...lol My son is fascinated, in case you couldn't tell

I finally had to stash them in an empty dresser drawer to get him to stop playing with them...lol

Cute ~ Cute ~ Cute!!!

 

[hannakat]

I now have just a few adult worms left. Since Spring came early to PA, my girls have been finding their own bugs and I've left the worms to pupate and morph into beetles. I've started keeping the beetles in different containers....starting a new container every month for the past 3 months. There's still many worms growing and should be eggs galore!

I'm using Maxwell House coffee containers for 2 of my beetle 'nests'!!! I filled them 1/3 full of wheat bran, stuck a bit of cardboard and a bit of newspaper and voila! They seem very happy. In about 15 weeks I plan to sift out the beetles, giving them to the chickadees, and then let the container of eggs and babies grow!! My goal is to have triple the amount of worms in the freezer by winter this year. YEA!

Freezing meal worms really worked well for me this past winter....just ran out too soon! I also have more chickens now so keeping the developing wormies in my oven (with the light on 24/7) will continue to be my crazy method of raising them. Works well for me.

Love hearing and seeing how everyone farms are doing!!

btw....mealies are the greatest chicken training tool there is!!! Last year, when I first started feeding them to the chickadees, I'd always say "Come on girls" and now I don't even get the words out and they're running in my direction. Comes in handy when you free range and are going out for the evening....easily get them in the coop and locked up!!

 

[galanie]

HAHA Yes, I can see them doing that Hannacat! Reminds me of another thread where someone asked if they can give their girls mealworms. The first answer was "Only if you want them to fall madly in love with you!"

 

[OmwToGallifrey]

I've been raising mealworms for my own consumption (sorry chickens) on a small scale using the 3 bin method. I'd like to increase my production to where I'm getting constant returns so I'm getting some larger bins put together.

I've done a search on this thread regarding sifting and it seems that everyone does this manually using various kinds of meshes/screens.

I'd like to have a motor driven sifter. Has anyone here made anything like that? I've got plenty of electric motors sitting around my barn so I'm sure I could rig something up that would take different sized meshes to sort different sized worms. What kind of substrates do you find preferable for sifting? I've been using cornmeal and wheat germ due to the size, texture, and price. For my beetles I use rolled oats since they don't fall through the mesh.

Here's a clip of how the pros do it.

 

[hannakat]

No stinkin' way!!!! That is soooo awesome. Thanks for posting this OmwtoGallifrey!!!!

 

[mychookschick]

I've been raising mealworms for my own consumption (sorry chickens)

You eat them?!

I didn't know that they were for human consumption. Sorry, but eww. I can't barely stand to touch them, I couldn't even THINK about eating them.

 

[OmwToGallifrey]

Haha, that's the usual reaction I hear.

Insects are eaten in most places in the world. The US and Europe are the minority when it comes to not eating them and lately people have been trying to introduce them as a food source.

It's not really much different than eating crustaceans (lobsters, crab, shrimp, crawfish, etc).
They don't taste 'buggy' or like dirt or anything and out of the different kinds of insects I've eaten so far the only kind I didn't enjoy were Madagascan Hissing Roaches.

Insects consume less food and water and take up much less space than livestock.
For every 10 units of weight in feed that you give cattle you only get a 1 unit return in meat. For most insects that return is 9 units of meat.
Greenhouse emissions from livestock and poultry is really high too, especially compared to insects.

Insects are high in protein and very nutritious. The benefits make them too good of a food source to ignore, especially considering that they taste pretty good too.

That and I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food and I love trying new things.

 

[mychookschick]

Do you cook them?? I still am raising these mealworms for my CHICKENS and not ME. Yuck.... Bugs!

 

[OmwToGallifrey]

Yes. They're really mild in flavor and take on the flavor of whatever you season them with.

 

[Kassaundra]

Yes. They're really mild in flavor and take on the flavor of whatever you season them with.

If I were ever to try them I would like not to be told what I was eating until I had already tried it. Intellectually I get the insect eating idea, but I think I would need to be pretty hungry to try. (and I do eat shrimp)