Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

Chicken Chat ~ have you considered mixing it with oats? That'll lighten it up.

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Put them next to the vacuum cleaner -- I haven't seen ours in months.

 

[Chicken Chat]

Quote:
The pupa are only on the chick feed because I was in a hurry to leave for work when I noticed my first one and just grabbed a scoop of feed and layed them on top. The bedding that the worms are in now is a mix of chick feed and oats, got the idea from you from an earlier post, but I don't think they like it. They have always remained on the top of the bedding, never burrowing in it like they did the what bran that they came in which is why I was trying to locate some wheat bran. I didn't think it would be so hard to find by reading some of the post from others. Seemed like they had no trouble finding it. The clerk at TSC never heard of it, neither did the clerk at the Rural King the next town over.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I ran out of veggies for a few days and these little monsters are eating me out of house and home! I guess 5000 was a bit much to start with but I like to shoot big!

So I put in some carrots and celery today after I moved them over to another wall and put the heavy drapes back up. They had been offered kale and Romaine lettuce but they did not like that. In about 60 seconds this is what it looked like in 2 of the bins.

You can't even see the carrot in this photo! But it is under the pile of beetles.

However, they do like celery and carrots in this other bin. They eat both very well.

I would have offered broccoli but I didn't think it had as much moisture in it.

Hungry little munchkins, eh?

DH said if I was to try and reach in to take it from them I might lose a few fingers!
And I thought the chicks were wild about wormies! These beetles make them look tame.

I call this Beetlemania.

 

[hannakat]

Beetlemania!!!!!

It definitely looks manic!!!

Yes, please keep all body parts out of the bin. If half of your beetles are female, and each lay an average of 325 eggs, with a mortality rate of 10%, how many worms do you expect to have by fall?

sorry...couldn't help it! Your beetles are ab-so-lute-ly lov-er-ly!



edited to add: I can just imagine how much noise that many beetles are making!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Hey, hey, hey! I don't do any math. I have heard horrid things about chicken math so I just stay far away from it.

But to answer your question.......lots and lots!

 

[sassifrassi]

Quote:
The pupa are only on the chick feed because I was in a hurry to leave for work when I noticed my first one and just grabbed a scoop of feed and layed them on top. The bedding that the worms are in now is a mix of chick feed and oats, got the idea from you from an earlier post, but I don't think they like it. They have always remained on the top of the bedding, never burrowing in it like they did the what bran that they came in which is why I was trying to locate some wheat bran. I didn't think it would be so hard to find by reading some of the post from others. Seemed like they had no trouble finding it. The clerk at TSC never heard of it, neither did the clerk at the Rural King the next town over.

I found bulk bags of bran flakes in the supermarket. Bottom shelf, next to the Quick Oats.

 

[Chicken Chat]

Quote:
The pupa are only on the chick feed because I was in a hurry to leave for work when I noticed my first one and just grabbed a scoop of feed and layed them on top. The bedding that the worms are in now is a mix of chick feed and oats, got the idea from you from an earlier post, but I don't think they like it. They have always remained on the top of the bedding, never burrowing in it like they did the what bran that they came in which is why I was trying to locate some wheat bran. I didn't think it would be so hard to find by reading some of the post from others. Seemed like they had no trouble finding it. The clerk at TSC never heard of it, neither did the clerk at the Rural King the next town over.

I found bulk bags of bran flakes in the supermarket. Bottom shelf, next to the Quick Oats.

I finally found some wheat bran at an elevator, 25 cents a pound, which I thought reasonable.

 

[jomoncon]

I think I'm at the scary part of my new meal worm farming. I started my colony sometime in April. All the worms seemed to be growing great, and then I got a lot of pupa and then beetles. Now, I have almost all beetles & they are starting to die their natural death. So now I have a bunch of beetles that are dying, no large worms left, and I can't find any eggs or tiny worms. I'm just hoping I didn't do anything wrong & will have nothing left.

 

[hannakat]

jomoncon ~ I think I mentioned this before but have you given them some celery or carrots? Change their diet a bit? Since you have beetles, there are eggs and worms. Be very careful when you sift through looking for them....they are so tiny I fear they can be easily squashed.

My wee wormies love celery and carrots... so even if there are no more beetles, keep food in there for the babies. They do grow faster with a constant supply.

Remember.....there are worms in there....give them time and food!!