Mealworm farming

[Mavrk]

I feel so badly about the way I manage my worms - other than tossing in a carrot every so often or scooping out some beetles for my girls to nibble on I basically ignore them. I remember when I first got them I would sit outside in the sun and separate the pupae and beetles almost daily. haha - guess the honeymoon period wore off already.

Haha. I would feel bad about scooping out beetles for my girls too. After all the time invested in making them beetles all I would be able to think about is that if it was a female beetle it could be laying so many eggs I wish we could tell the males from the females so I could cull a lot of the males.

But really, throwing in some carrots every so often is all that is needed. If it weren't for Gallo de Cielo's write up on how to do this in one container, I would never have started. Separating the life stages is more than I would want to do. When I first got some pupae, I separated them out for a bit just to see how many there were and how long to get beetles from them. Then I dumped them all back in. I did decided to start a second container, but just so I could have 2. I moved a lot of the beetles into the other container, but left some in the first one. I will see how it goes, but the plan is to always have some beetles in each container laying eggs.

 

[farmhand]

...or scooping out some beetles for my girls to nibble on I basically ignore them.

Haha. I would feel bad about scooping out beetles for my girls too.

Am I missing something? I thought we feed them at the worm stage.
Questions from someone who's never raised them. Their in the mail.

 

[bowen012]

Am I missing something?  I thought we feed them at the worm stage.
Questions from someone who's never raised them.  Their in the mail. 

Chickens eat them during worm stage yes, but they have to be in beetle stage to reproduce.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Am I missing something?  I thought we feed them at the worm stage.
Questions from someone who's never raised them.  Their in the mail. 

My girls are happy to eat them in any stage. right now mine are in the beetle stage and I have plenty since my original 5,000 mealies weren't all eaten by the girls. I like to give them a treat every now and then, so beetle or larva, I get a cup and toss them out for the girls to gobble up.

 

[Mavrk]

Am I missing something? I thought we feed them at the worm stage.
Questions from someone who's never raised them. Their in the mail.

Yes, you normally feed the larva stage. Which is where my post was coming from. It is obvious that bobbieschicks has enough beetles that it doesn't matter. The chickens like them all. The only reason I don't feed the beetles is that I think of one beetle as a few hundred mealworms. Some would argue that the same can be said of the larva. But for me, I figure they might not live to pupa and/or to beetle. Also, I have resisted feeding out the mealworm long enough for it to become a beetle. The truth is that you can feed any stage and it will probably make little difference in the long run. I just think of the beetles in a different way than the mealworms even though there really isn't much of a practical difference.

I will try to make it better known when I am just playing around on this thread to avoid future confusion.

 

[LaBella]

I'm BACK!!!
Page 203.. and then all of a sudden, I could not access backyard chickens. This thread would hang up loading, and even after HOURS would not load the next page. Then it wouldn't load the site AT ALL!!!
I was starting to have withdrawls from missing my catch up of As the Worm Wiggles!!

I tried everything and everything.. I blame lack of sleep and food (cause I forgot to eat) for not thinking of the obvious. I could load it in IE, which I hate, and then I thought, hmmm... I wonder if there was an update.. This was AFTER going in my about:config and changing different values that did absolutely nothing, and then I had to change it back, lol.
Sure enough, there was an update, and after dling the update, SUCCESS!!! I could once again access this site, and more importantly, this thread!!!

It's good to be back. I am totally addicted to this site, and I haven't even started on reading up on CHICKEN stuff yet, lolol.

 

[Mavrk]

As the Worm Wiggles!!

Haha... too funny. This whole time I thought this thread was called "All My Larvae". Learn something new every day

 

[farmhand]

I am just playing around...

This is serious stuff! We can't have that.

 

[Mavrk]

This is serious stuff! We can't have that.

Okay, back to the serious stuff. Who is up for following the recipe below and letting us know how it turns out?

http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/147429/chocolate-mealworm-chip-cookies

I also read that dry-roasted mealworms are good as a salad topping.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5637725_eat-mealworms.html

Edit: Mmm fried rice... http://www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectsasfood/friedrice.html

 

[LaBella]

When I learn how to use a wok without burning everything, I'm totally going to try stir fried mealworms. Totally.
My kid brother has had cheeto mealworms. Philadelphia has a bug museum and you can buy like fried crickets and chocolate covered giant cockroaches and apparently they have cheeto cheese like stuff on fried mealies.
This is why my brother tells me. He is prone to exaggeration.
BUT.. At 7 dollars a person, and at only a half hour from my house.. I think perhaps next weekend I just might have to pop over there and see what this place is all about.. and have a bite of cheeto mealie...