Mealworm farming
- Thread starter hannakat
- Start date
On Amazon its 14.00 for 1,000 ...
- Oct 10, 2009
- 300
- 9
- 128
Quote:
Pretty much the same as what I do...I pull the beetles (remember, the larva don't lay eggs, something my brain keeps getting ambushed by...
) by putting 'em in bright light and scooping the dead off the top. I toss them into a separate container to make sure none of them are just estivating (the little snores are *really* hard to hear, you know?
) and put them in the darker area while I pick out the rest.
I grab a handful of beetles and substrate and toss 'em in the screen bowl sifter, give them a few good shakes over the old bin and dump into the new container. I figure that any eggs and teensy larva, if any, are falling out, back into the old bin. When I dump them to the new, I double check for any dead beetles.
Then it sits. And sits. And SITS, until you're wondering if everyone on the list is nuts...and then you notice there's an ever-so-light layer here and there of shed skins, so you stick your fingers in and IT MOVES!
And the cycle starts again. I sift through the old stuff (now the 'hatching stuff', whee!) after the hatchlings are well visible and the majority of the bin is just powder frass. The sifter is worth its weight in gold!
I scoop, then sift over a container, keeping the material moving pretty fast to prevent the teenies from getting out. When all the fine stuff is out, or close to all, I dump to the new, fresh-bran-filled container and repeat until the hatching stuff has been totally sifted. The frass and old bran (it's going to be pretty fine stuff here) go back in the old container to sit and hatch some more, and I toss in a carrot to get any new hatchlings to the top for a re-sift.
It sits for about a month, in the summer, then I re-sift and put it on the garden. The last batch I did about a week ago had fewer than 20 left, so I'm thinking that I probably won't bother resifting after the month if there aren't shed skins or worms on the carrot.
Winter-produced hatch bins, I suspect, will be held extra time in spring/summer to allow for delayed hatching due to temperature issues....
I have to admit...I did NOT expect mealworms to be so much fun....!!
Pretty much the same as what I do...I pull the beetles (remember, the larva don't lay eggs, something my brain keeps getting ambushed by...
I grab a handful of beetles and substrate and toss 'em in the screen bowl sifter, give them a few good shakes over the old bin and dump into the new container. I figure that any eggs and teensy larva, if any, are falling out, back into the old bin. When I dump them to the new, I double check for any dead beetles.
Then it sits. And sits. And SITS, until you're wondering if everyone on the list is nuts...and then you notice there's an ever-so-light layer here and there of shed skins, so you stick your fingers in and IT MOVES!
And the cycle starts again. I sift through the old stuff (now the 'hatching stuff', whee!) after the hatchlings are well visible and the majority of the bin is just powder frass. The sifter is worth its weight in gold!
I scoop, then sift over a container, keeping the material moving pretty fast to prevent the teenies from getting out. When all the fine stuff is out, or close to all, I dump to the new, fresh-bran-filled container and repeat until the hatching stuff has been totally sifted. The frass and old bran (it's going to be pretty fine stuff here) go back in the old container to sit and hatch some more, and I toss in a carrot to get any new hatchlings to the top for a re-sift.
It sits for about a month, in the summer, then I re-sift and put it on the garden. The last batch I did about a week ago had fewer than 20 left, so I'm thinking that I probably won't bother resifting after the month if there aren't shed skins or worms on the carrot.
Winter-produced hatch bins, I suspect, will be held extra time in spring/summer to allow for delayed hatching due to temperature issues....
I have to admit...I did NOT expect mealworms to be so much fun....!!
Whodda thunk? I tried these things a while back and ended up with dead worms, aka chicken snacks. When I tried again I only bought what was supposed to be a total of 350 from Petco. yeah right. More like 50 or 60. But I didn't think I'd get diddly out of those, it was just a test to see if anything would happen.
A couple of months ago I got to come in and say I had beetles. That was fun. Then the long wait and I finally decided to take the out of the showbox sized container and see if I could do the same in a bigger one, so went up a couple of sizes. A couple of weeks later I saw tiny bodies and was hoping it wasn't mites or something. Boy those wormies are itty bitty in the beginning.
I've had the beetles in the bigger container and then saw more tiny worms. Not many but a few. Last week I got another container and moved the beetles one more time.
I just moved my first beetles out of the first small bin. Just 6, but they weren't there day before yesterday and one was even white. The others are still redish, so they are fresh too. I have 3 times the amount of worms I had in there 2 days ago, or at least much bigger worms and I can still see lots of tiny ones in there. The whole thing is moving and I can even see it do so through the side of the container. The tiny ones in the second container are more visible and I see more that have hatched, so hoping it's packed as good as the small container when all is said and done.
My smallest sized container has gamebird crumbles and so does the large one. The middle sized one has oats, gambird crumbles and a very small amount of cornmeal. I've decided that I'm only going to use the crumbles from now on. For me it just works better. I've also decided that I'm sticking to just carrots. I've tried apples which rot to fast in the heat and kill of my worms and potatoes which they don't seem to eat as robustly. Stick some carrot in there and it's covered in no time by both worms and beetles.
I'll add more containers as I need, but with winter coming I have no place to put them to keep them going. They'll all become food. If I can get another container or 2 to go and produce, fine, but not going to sweat it. At least I know I can do this and I can just start fresh with a whole lot more worms next time. I have thousands of worms right now, so I'm happy. Hopefully I can get the next containers I buy to fill up too, before the cold. Won't be enough to give them lots at one time or that often, but they will have worms. I'm not going to sift through anything. That's too much work and I know I don't need to. I'll wait till I've moved everything alive to the next bin, dump what left and sanitize for the next time around.
I can't believe how excited I was to find my second generation of beetles from my second generation of worms. I could understand if it was a bator full of chicks, but I guess I'm easily excited these days. Maybe I should buy those containers this week and just start transfering beetles as I find them to each one. yeah......good idea.
A couple of months ago I got to come in and say I had beetles. That was fun. Then the long wait and I finally decided to take the out of the showbox sized container and see if I could do the same in a bigger one, so went up a couple of sizes. A couple of weeks later I saw tiny bodies and was hoping it wasn't mites or something. Boy those wormies are itty bitty in the beginning.
I've had the beetles in the bigger container and then saw more tiny worms. Not many but a few. Last week I got another container and moved the beetles one more time.
I just moved my first beetles out of the first small bin. Just 6, but they weren't there day before yesterday and one was even white. The others are still redish, so they are fresh too. I have 3 times the amount of worms I had in there 2 days ago, or at least much bigger worms and I can still see lots of tiny ones in there. The whole thing is moving and I can even see it do so through the side of the container. The tiny ones in the second container are more visible and I see more that have hatched, so hoping it's packed as good as the small container when all is said and done.
My smallest sized container has gamebird crumbles and so does the large one. The middle sized one has oats, gambird crumbles and a very small amount of cornmeal. I've decided that I'm only going to use the crumbles from now on. For me it just works better. I've also decided that I'm sticking to just carrots. I've tried apples which rot to fast in the heat and kill of my worms and potatoes which they don't seem to eat as robustly. Stick some carrot in there and it's covered in no time by both worms and beetles.
I'll add more containers as I need, but with winter coming I have no place to put them to keep them going. They'll all become food. If I can get another container or 2 to go and produce, fine, but not going to sweat it. At least I know I can do this and I can just start fresh with a whole lot more worms next time. I have thousands of worms right now, so I'm happy. Hopefully I can get the next containers I buy to fill up too, before the cold. Won't be enough to give them lots at one time or that often, but they will have worms. I'm not going to sift through anything. That's too much work and I know I don't need to. I'll wait till I've moved everything alive to the next bin, dump what left and sanitize for the next time around.
I can't believe how excited I was to find my second generation of beetles from my second generation of worms. I could understand if it was a bator full of chicks, but I guess I'm easily excited these days. Maybe I should buy those containers this week and just start transfering beetles as I find them to each one. yeah......good idea.
- Oct 10, 2009
- 300
- 9
- 128
Congrats!
I'm figuring that as soon as it cools down, the beetles will be staying in their current bin--and I'll pull them as soon as it warms back up in spring. Then I'll split that hopefully incredibly-egg-laden bin into half a dozen for hatching....
The possibilities are endless, and it's fun to play!
I'm figuring that as soon as it cools down, the beetles will be staying in their current bin--and I'll pull them as soon as it warms back up in spring. Then I'll split that hopefully incredibly-egg-laden bin into half a dozen for hatching....
The possibilities are endless, and it's fun to play!
I still have a bunch of beetles eating carrots in there. It's been almost two months so when will the beetles finally die? Is there a possibility of having worms growing in there while I still have beetles? Would the beetles eat the worms? Should I be moving the beetles out somewhere or just keep leaving them alone?
WestKnollAmy
The Crazy Chicken Lady
Hi guys!
I haven't been here in a while. Still very busy raising meal worms and feeding them chickens!
I just thought I would stop in to give an account of what happened recently or rather what we found.
Now, my DH likes getting involved with this meal worm venture but I have to rein him in on how the environment is kept for them. He did me some serious damage a few months back by adding food every other day and then not taking out the old food. Being really busy with the farm I did not watch him and soon realized my numbers were dropping in my bins. I found the old food taken under the substrate and there it had caused bacteria to get into the bedding. He could not undestand any of this so I had to take him off of feeding duty and told him to leave them alone. At this he got quite agitated as he feels they need to eat every day or they won't grow or produce.
Fast forward to a few days ago when DD and I were cleaning out the den and moving furniture. I had a small tub that I had not used since a few weeks after Christmas underneath a table that had been used to put chicks in while I cleaned brooders. This tub had a small amount of wheat bran in it with some old pine shavings. I had dropped some meal worms into the tub to give them something to do (yes, I feed little chicks meal worms without grit) as I cleaned the brooders and then I moved them back to the brooders. I thought for sure they had eaten all the meal worms I had put in there.
Not so!
I pulled the tub out from under the table and there were beetles and meal worms running all around in there. I showed my DH that even without carrots, apples or a wet food of any source that here was a thriving colony of meal worms. He was astounded.
And actually, in going through the tub, there weren't any deformed beetles, nor were there any carcasses of beetles.
So, in my quest to make the right habitat for my thriving meal worm colonies I think they actually enjoy being left alone, don't stir the bedding every few days (he drives me batty doing that!) and stop feeding them so much!
My bathroom closet has bins on all the shelves and my living room south wall has work shop plastic shelves with bins on all of them. Yes, my home is quite interesting. LOL
Soon I will get back to my web site to change some things on there and add more info and new ideas and discoveries. I just lack the time and energy I need for all that I want to do in this short lifetime.
Happy meal worm farming, everyone!
I haven't been here in a while. Still very busy raising meal worms and feeding them chickens!
I just thought I would stop in to give an account of what happened recently or rather what we found.
Now, my DH likes getting involved with this meal worm venture but I have to rein him in on how the environment is kept for them. He did me some serious damage a few months back by adding food every other day and then not taking out the old food. Being really busy with the farm I did not watch him and soon realized my numbers were dropping in my bins. I found the old food taken under the substrate and there it had caused bacteria to get into the bedding. He could not undestand any of this so I had to take him off of feeding duty and told him to leave them alone. At this he got quite agitated as he feels they need to eat every day or they won't grow or produce.
Fast forward to a few days ago when DD and I were cleaning out the den and moving furniture. I had a small tub that I had not used since a few weeks after Christmas underneath a table that had been used to put chicks in while I cleaned brooders. This tub had a small amount of wheat bran in it with some old pine shavings. I had dropped some meal worms into the tub to give them something to do (yes, I feed little chicks meal worms without grit) as I cleaned the brooders and then I moved them back to the brooders. I thought for sure they had eaten all the meal worms I had put in there.
Not so!
I pulled the tub out from under the table and there were beetles and meal worms running all around in there. I showed my DH that even without carrots, apples or a wet food of any source that here was a thriving colony of meal worms. He was astounded.
And actually, in going through the tub, there weren't any deformed beetles, nor were there any carcasses of beetles.
So, in my quest to make the right habitat for my thriving meal worm colonies I think they actually enjoy being left alone, don't stir the bedding every few days (he drives me batty doing that!) and stop feeding them so much!
My bathroom closet has bins on all the shelves and my living room south wall has work shop plastic shelves with bins on all of them. Yes, my home is quite interesting. LOL
Soon I will get back to my web site to change some things on there and add more info and new ideas and discoveries. I just lack the time and energy I need for all that I want to do in this short lifetime.
Happy meal worm farming, everyone!
WestKnollAmy
The Crazy Chicken Lady
Ack! I forgot to mention.......frass!
This is the best kept secret next to delicious duck eggs!
I used some on my deck plants and a little garden I have by the deck steps. OMG! First, let me say, I have a brown thumb. If I plant it, it will die.
First, my Mother's Day gift to myself, my gorgeous rose bush, was looking pitiful. I used an assortment of things to help it but nothing seemed to make it happy. Then I poured out some frass that I had had sitting in here for months and saw nothing else growing from it. I just poured a bit around the plant on the ground and walked away.
I planted a bit of spearmint next to the steps and it sat there all pitiful for a while so I added a bit of frass around it.
It rained......the plants went CRAZY! Within a week these plants had not only grown tremendously, they were flowering and chatting happily to the flutterbys! LOL Okay, I am making up that last part!
My orange mint plant was in a pot on the deck and looked exactly like it did when I brought it home the end of April so after seeing the results from these plants I poured some on the potting soil 2 weeks ago and it rained that night.
No joke, now 2 weeks later, this orange mint has grown up 3 inches and out about 4 inches. It is fantastic.
I added it to my other plants in that area and they all are happy as can be so I added some to a Lanatana that was a bit droopy and I haven't had a chance to move from the pot to a spot in the garden. It is blooming and beautiful!
I need more worms to make more frass! This stuff is great!
This is the best kept secret next to delicious duck eggs!
I used some on my deck plants and a little garden I have by the deck steps. OMG! First, let me say, I have a brown thumb. If I plant it, it will die.
First, my Mother's Day gift to myself, my gorgeous rose bush, was looking pitiful. I used an assortment of things to help it but nothing seemed to make it happy. Then I poured out some frass that I had had sitting in here for months and saw nothing else growing from it. I just poured a bit around the plant on the ground and walked away.
I planted a bit of spearmint next to the steps and it sat there all pitiful for a while so I added a bit of frass around it.
It rained......the plants went CRAZY! Within a week these plants had not only grown tremendously, they were flowering and chatting happily to the flutterbys! LOL Okay, I am making up that last part!
My orange mint plant was in a pot on the deck and looked exactly like it did when I brought it home the end of April so after seeing the results from these plants I poured some on the potting soil 2 weeks ago and it rained that night.
No joke, now 2 weeks later, this orange mint has grown up 3 inches and out about 4 inches. It is fantastic.
I added it to my other plants in that area and they all are happy as can be so I added some to a Lanatana that was a bit droopy and I haven't had a chance to move from the pot to a spot in the garden. It is blooming and beautiful!
I need more worms to make more frass! This stuff is great!
- Oct 10, 2009
- 300
- 9
- 128
Um...Amy?
If you're feeding chickens to your mealworms, we REALLY need to talk......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last edited:
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