Mealworm farming

[kwol]

I just purchased 1,000 mealworms and was under the impression I was getting large worms but in fact got various sizes (most are tiny) I would like to purchase 1,000 large mealworms and 50-100 ready to lay beetles. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Got mine from a seller on Craig's list a year ago. I only asked for worms though.

I know this does not contribute to the thread in any way, but I had my first two pupae! I was so excited and had to share! My sweet, supportive hubby shivered with a case of the creepies at my announcement and so I wanted to pass along to others that may share this enthusiasm

fingers crossed for the future mealies for everyone!

Congrats! I remember how exciting that was for me too.

 

[IAMSWUTIMS]

I bought mine at a local place down the road. Nice people, good prices. Rainbow Mealworms.

edited by staff

 

[sueblack]

I am ordering mealworms to start a farm. What's a good amount to start with?

 

[sueblack]

I agree with Gallo, get at least 1,000 worms or more. You need at least that many to get a prolific culture going, plus you need to get extras to feed your birds some now. Remember, it will be 2-3 months before they go through one life cycle and get to a large size to feed. I ended up feeding too many during the first life cycle and had to buy more. My son is selling mealworms now on rarebreedauctions or you can contact him at [email protected].

 

[sueblack]

I just purchased 1,000 mealworms and was under the impression I was getting large wormsi but in fact got various sizes (most are tiny) I would like to purchase 1,000 large mealworms and 50-100 ready to lay beetles. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[sueblack]

Sorry. New mobile user here and I am bumping buttons. My son is getting a lot of beetles hatching right now. He might be willing to part with some. You can email him at [email protected]. He has extra worms right now,too. So far I am only allowed to feed 2,000 per week. He wants to sell the rest. I just love having the chickens run to me when they see me coming with the mealworm cup. I usethe same container with colored lid so they know when they see the cup with the green lid worms are coming. We have 25 chickens and they can make 2,000 worms disappear pretty fast!

 

[sueblack]

Sorry. New mobile user here and I am bumping buttons. My son is getting a lot of beetles hatching right now. He might be willing to part with some. You can email him at [email protected]. He has extra worms right now,too. So far I am only allowed to feed 2,000 per week. He wants to sell the rest. I just love having the chickens run to me when they see me coming with the mealworm cup. I usethe same container with colored lid so they know when they see the cup with the green lid worms are coming. We have 25 chickens and they can make 2,000 worms disappear pretty fast!

 

[azygous]

We've been talking a lot about how to keep our worms warm so they'll be happy and comfortable and propagate. I've tried the heating pad, but it has its limitations. Then after I learned about cookie tin water warmers and I made a couple to keep the chickens' water from freezing, I thought about making one for the worm farm.

We've learned that worms and beetles kept at 80 degrees will grow faster than at cooler temperatures. My worms have always seemed to take forever to grow, so I decided it was time to fix the problem. This is the arrangement I came up with. The worm trays and egg trays are stacked above the cookie tin warmer. The worm tray with the newly hatched worms (visible to the naked eye size) are directly over the warmer, with two more trays of eggs above them. Heat rises, and the upper trays get warm, too, though not quite as much as the bottom tray. I'm hoping this will enable the baby worms to grow into inch size in less time.

The three-drawer stack to the right contains beetles, all beetles. I converted the two lower drawers to beetle trays by cutting holes in the bottom of plastic inserts and gluing screen onto them, just like the top drawer. So the beetles lay eggs, and the eggs go through the screen and collect in the bottom of the drawer, which gets emptied into the egg trays to the left. The eggs in the top beetle drawer fall through onto a paper in the second drawer which makes it easy to empty into the egg trays.

Getting back to the cookie tin warmer. I have a 25 watt incandescent bulb in it, and it's plugged into a timer. During the day, it comes on every half hour for fifteen minutes. At night, it comes on for half an hour with fifteen minutes to cool down in between. I tried leaving it on constantly, but too much heat builds up. With cool-down periods, the substrate stays at a moderate temperature. I also tried placing the tray directly on the cookie tin, but it absorbed too much heat, so I elevated the trays with some 2"x4" scraps of wood so there's about an inch of space between the bottom of the tray and the warmer. The trays have air holes in the lids that are kept functional by resting the stacks on thin strips of firring. These shelves are right next to my wood stove, so it's quite toasty most of the time, anyway. The warmer helps keep the farm at a more constant temperature, mostly at night after the wood stove cools down.

Just thought I'd share this in case you all are searching for ideas to try.

 

[snakes]

Great writeup. What model of timer are you using to run 15 minutes with a 30 minute break in between?

 

[azygous]

It's just a cheap Wal-Mart timer. It's a Woods brand, with tabs, each covering a 15 minute interval, that you push in to set it, about as basic and simple as you can get.

I just checked on the baby worm tray. I had been very worried that very few eggs were hatching. Now that they're getting regular and consistent heat, the substrate is ALIVE with movement! I would expect that eggs might take a very, very long time to hatch at room temperature, and my house can get pretty cold at night after the fire in the wood stove goes out. Now the worm farm is all kept pretty close to 80 all the time. I can't imagine a 25 watt bulb being too hard on my electric bill, either.