Mealworm farming

[Kassaundra]

I'm considering meal worm farming but I have serious doubts the wife will allow me to do this in the house. The garage is a maybe. However, my garage in the winter will average between 40f and 60f degrees. Would it be recommended to heat the container I keep them in? If so... how? thanks...

Yes, they will live at those temps, but will be basically hybernating, so your colony will not be growing through the whole season and slow things down, this will be discouraging just starting out especially. Maybe a seed starting heat mat.

 

[NYcue]

Thank you Kassaundra!!! Because the seedling mat doesn't produce so much heat compared to say a heating pad... do you think I should keep the seedling mat in the container under the Oats until it get warmer?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

We would like to join the ranks of meal worm farmers. We have a large number of birds though so would like some guidance as to how many we should seriously look at keeping.

Live in FL, have a feed house we will set up the bins in so we can easily feed them off.

Ducks: 3 flocks of domestics (12-20 per flock), and 1 aviary of ornamentals (5 pairs)
Chickens: 4 flocks (9 -15 per flock on average)
Guinea: 1 flock (12 total)

plus geese, but they show no interest in bugs so.......

then would like a source to order from as well thanks in advance

 

[Kassaundra]

Thank you Kassaundra!!! Because the seedling mat doesn't produce so much heat compared to say a heating pad... do you think I should keep the seedling mat in the container under the Oats until it get warmer?

I wouldn't they will be attracted to the heat and they eat grain so they have quite a little bite though I've never had one to bite at all, but I would be afraid of them trying to burrow into the wiring of the mat. I would put them in a container the conducts heat well and insulate around the bottom and sides w/ the sheet insuluation stuff, just duct taping it into a box around the sides and bottom of the container, and put the mat between the insulation sheets and the mat. This worked well for my dubias (the insulation box around the aquarium) but I didn't have a heat mat I used a red light for the dubias, but didn't have good luck w/ the light (even the red one) w/ the mealies.

 

[Kassaundra]

We would like to join the ranks of meal worm farmers. We have a large number of birds though so would like some guidance as to how many we should seriously look at keeping.

Live in FL, have a feed house we will set up the bins in so we can easily feed them off.

Ducks: 3 flocks of domestics (12-20 per flock), and 1 aviary of ornamentals (5 pairs)
Chickens: 4 flocks (9 -15 per flock on average)
Guinea: 1 flock (12 total)

plus geese, but they show no interest in bugs so.......

then would like a source to order from as well thanks in advance

Even as treats that is A LOT of mealies.

 

[bobbieschicks]

We would like to join the ranks of meal worm farmers. We have a large number of birds though so would like some guidance as to how many we should seriously look at keeping.

Live in FL, have a feed house we will set up the bins in so we can easily feed them off.

Ducks: 3 flocks of domestics (12-20 per flock), and 1 aviary of ornamentals (5 pairs)
Chickens: 4 flocks (9 -15 per flock on average)
Guinea: 1 flock (12 total)

plus geese, but they show no interest in bugs so.......

then would like a source to order from as well thanks in advance

Welcome to the club!

If I were you I'd make it as easy as possible on yourself and do a couple of large bins to feed out and a couple to have for growing for next season - maybe start with 3 bins and add on once you see how many more you might like. Put in say 5,000 mealies in each bin from a breeder like maybe Amy Knoll (she's on the 1st page-she did a great job of packaging the worms and having different ages in the package). Or get them at different times so you have different stages growing at different times. You'll see how fast the fock is consuming the mealies once you start feeding out.

I started out with a 3 tier cabinet and found it was a pain and messy - some people prefer it - but I like to just be able to toss them some carrots and pull out a bunch of worms for my girls without having to mess around with the containers too much. I can tell you that my flock of 14 can easily eat about 2500 larva in a very short time. I fed out about half my mealies within the first week. My bins are again filled with the next generation of beetles - who will hopefully produce my winter crop of mealies.

 

[SteveBaz]

Well just dumped, sifted, filtered, cleaned and put new wheat bran after 2 years!! Hope I did not KILL MY ENTIRE FARM??? What have others done to filter all the used Wheat Bran that is really dust! ? I used a regular spaghetti strainer (My wife would kill me if she knew LOL!!) My formula was to leave 20% or so and strain out all the old dried up foods, materials, casing etc. Any specific processes you all do?

Thanks in advance Steve

 

[SteveBaz]

By the way I have only worked the meal worms in 1 bin all along. How do you separate the bins by. Only larve, only beetles and whats in the 3 bin? how are your binns separated by? Age? development stage.

Can someone help me get it w/o reading a bizzillon comments to find it please.

 

[onafixedincome]

Okay, here goes.
1) Don't toss that sifted stuff yet! Store it in a separate bin with a carrot and wait 2-4 weeks for all the eggs to hatch and the younguns to become large enough to see/sift with a regular screen strainer. Patience is essential.
2) If you want to start running staged bins, here's what *I* do:
Beetles all go in one bin of fresh bran.
A couple of weeks later (usually when the substrate begins to have visible movement on close observation), I move them to a new bin, removing dead beetles as I shift them over, and set the first bin aside to hatch.
I do this a couple of times so I have multiple 'young' bins of different ages and the beetle bin, which continues to 'lay and move' every few weeks.
The bins of worms continue to hatch out and grow--I date the bins by when the beetles left, so I have a fair idea of how long until pretty much all the eggs have hatched--and if necessary, I split those bins when they are too crowded. (Too crowded: surface covered with larvae and the substrate is full too). Just take half to a new bin and fill in with fresh bran.
I take the largest/fattest larvae and give them their own bin, according to how many beetles have gone legs-up in the meantime, and let them pupate. You *can* leave pupae in with the worms, but you will lose a fair number to various things. Pulling the pupae into a container with a small amount of substrate and a carrot chunk to hatch works very well and the loss rate is MUCH decreased.
So at any given time, if I get it right, I have several bins of hatching, growing, and pupating larvae and one (or two, I like backups) of actively laying beetles. Numbers-wise...hm. About 2,000 beetles are 'about right' for a large Sterilite container that is deeply bedded. That generally gives me in the (very very general) neighborhood of 10- 15K larvae if all goes well, leaving beetles in there for about a month in warm weather. From each bin, I yank probably 1000-2500 for breeding purposes/beetle replacement, and the rest can be fed out or frozen at the size I need.

Hope that helps! And do, please, do the work of reading the WHOLE thread--there's a LOT more good info and suggestions there.

 

[SteveBaz]

Wow what a great reply and thanks for the info.

Steve