Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

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I'd loved to see pictures!

Mine are the medium sized. I've read that you shouldn't get the super worms (because of what they were fed to get 'super') if you are feeding them to your chickens.

 

[mkearsley]

I bought a little container of about 20 mealworms from the bait shop, just to see what would happen. About 90% of them have turned into pupae now. The worms absolutely loved the carrots I put in there for them. As pupae, should I keep putting carrots in there? I can't find any live worms anywhere, just pupae, skins, & dead worms. I am surprised that they don't smell, since I don't remove the dead bodies (kinda gross!), but I have taken out the carrot pieces.

 

[aggie9296]

The pupae don't eat, so no need for carrots for food.

You can take out the dead worm, and I recommend it as they can get pretty mushy and oozy and gunk up your substrate. The chickens eat them too. ALong with teh pupae, beetles, dead skins and the oatmeal/dog food mix I grow them in.

 

[hannakat]

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x2


Just make sure you get something in there when you see beetles. You don't want the beetles munching on the undeveloped pupae

 

[GiddyMoon]

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The mealworms will eat all their dead. We live in Tucson..they dry out very quickly here. I have watched and read many how to spots about breeding them and many people never take out the dead..it all gets used..but if you live in a very humid climate...then this may be a concern for you.

 

[aggie9296]

I'm to a stage where only beetles are left. They did leave a few dead worms and pupae. Humid here, so fed them to the girls because they were kind of squishy.

Now I'm feeding the beetles to the chickens. Hopefully, when they are all gone, the eggs with have developed into larvae. If not, pretty cheap and easy to buy some more!

I have a one bin system with 2 smaller trays inside for the pupae and beetles. The beetles WILL eat the pupae if they have nothing else to snack on. Hopefully they are not eating all the eggs now.

 

[viktoriacl]

They die after they eggs so I wouldnt feed the beetles to the chickens until they are dead.

 

[aggie9296]

Wellllll, I have about 300 beetles, so I probably don't need all of them. I'm afraid they will start eating any larvae that do develop.

I didn't stage mine and they all kind of popped out at the same time.

 

[GiddyMoon]

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That is not something you need to fear. If they ate all their larvae, we wouldn't still have them breeding more. If a bunch was under your house and left alone, a giant colony would develop without intervention

 

[aggie9296]

I was worried since I have so many beetles. Plus, no more larvae, so the ckickens are getting the beetles for treats.