Mealworm farming

[aart]

Does anyone refrigerate some larvae to hold back to have staggered colonies?

 

[subhanalah]

Does anyone refrigerate some larvae to hold back to have staggered colonies?

that's a really good idea!

 

[sueblack]

Does anyone refrigerate some larvae to hold back to have staggered colonies?

I did refrigerate some at the beginning of my mealworm farm. The other thing you can do is move the beetles to a second tote after 2-3 weeks, then move them to a third tote after another 2-3 weeks. This only works if you have enough space for several totes. I tried the 3-drawer method but was impatient waiting for more to grow so I added a couple more totes. I have happy chickens!

 

[aart]

I did refrigerate some at the beginning of my mealworm farm. The other thing you can do is move the beetles to a second tote after 2-3 weeks, then move them to a third tote after another 2-3 weeks. This only works if you have enough space for several totes. I tried the 3-drawer method but was impatient waiting for more to grow so I added a couple more totes. I have happy chickens!

I was hoping to put a month or two between generations to stagger production.
Not even sure about single generation timelines yet.....need to control heat first.

How long will larvae survive in the dormancy of refrigeration and what instar would be best for dormancy?

 

[Kueken]

Hello

I just found this Thread about Mealworms. And started a little reading.

When we got our first chickens last year I went in to a Pet Store and got some Mealworms. Dumped them in a Container with some Wheat and Oats. And after I feed them all to my Chickens (I thought the container is empty) I just went once a week to the Store and got some more, kept these in the fridge for a week supply and totally forgot about the container. Now I went and thought I could use it to start a farm, which big surprise!
I open it up and there they are, quite a few Beatles and very tiny worms

, even without feeding them or giving them any attention they survived. I am very happy and got them right away some Apple so now I gonna start the farming more seriously and have my own weekly treat supply for my chickens hopefully soon. Did also put them in to a warmer place so they get a little kick to start out better.

 

[sueblack]

When refrigerated, mealworms should be kept between 40-50 dgrees. Any coldervand they will die. My refrigerator is too cold, so check your temps. The worms need to be brought out of refrigeration every week to ten days to feed. Allow them to warm up to feed for at least 24 hours before putting them back in frig. I use a cold pantry 50-56 degrees . It serves the same purpose and slows the life cycle down.

How many worms are you starting with and how big are your breeding containe
rs?

 

[aart]

When refrigerated, mealworms should be kept between 40-50 dgrees. Any coldervand they will die. My refrigerator is too cold, so check your temps. The worms need to be brought out of refrigeration every week to ten days to feed. Allow them to warm up to feed for at least 24 hours before putting them back in frig. I use a cold pantry 50-56 degrees . It serves the same purpose and slows the life cycle down.

How many worms are you starting with and how big are your breeding containe
rs?

Thank you! That's great info, didn't think about the feeding and good to have a temp range to work with.
So I can just cold store them in some wheat bran and bring it out for 24 hours every week so they can warm up and feed?

I'm just getting started, just playing with it really....as my daughter would say 'another science experiment, mom?'

Bought 100 larvae last fall, am using wheat bran as bedding and carrots as food/water in a small plastic 3 drawer unit.
Fed a some larvae to the chooks as 'taming' treats, moved the pupae into another drawer as they formed, fed the chooks all the beetles after they died and 2nd generation larvae has just hatched.
I think the the cold weather and where I had them put the eggs into dormancy, but I didn't really keep a good record of what stage happened when. I moved the unit to get a bit more heat and have at least several hundred larvae.

At this point just want to keep a colony going as I play with quantities, and learn the effects of heating and generational timing. I have a larger 3 drawer unit that I can put to use also.

I'm really enjoying observing the process and thought it might be interesting to have two or more colonies on a staggered life cycle to balance out the harvesting of larvae.

 

[Kueken]

The containers I use are 2.8 L with Lid.
I do not have any Idea how many little tiny worms are in the bedding, they are way to small to count. Like I wrote earlier, it is a surprise that I even have them. Haven't payed any attention to this container since December. I did put in around 50 Worms back than and took every day a view out until it looked pretty empty to me and than I just forgot about it. Because I went every week to get a small container of new once. Now after I found this Thread I went to get this one to start a farm tomorrow I wanted to get some for this purpose but I guess there is no need anymore because there are so many and also about 30-40 Beatles.

 

[sueblack]

aart,

"Another science experiment, Mom?" LOL. Sounds familiar.

Yes, you can cold store them in wheat bran and feed them every week. At 50-55 degrees they will develop, but very slowly. Keep a carrot in with them. They may eat a little.

Also, a good point I learned on this site is to put a piece of fresh carrot in with the pupa to keep them hydrated so they will develop properly.

By all means, get that 3-drawer unit out and rev up production! You can only feed mealworms to your chickens weekly if you keep several bins of different ages going. If you end up with more worms than you want you can always cut back. But unless you only have 2 or 3 chickens, I think the 5 drawers you have are gonna make some chickens very happy in a couple months.

Out of every tote you feed out, keep enough worms to pupate and start a new breeding bin. I ran out of worms once and I'm never gonna let that happen again!

 

[subhanalah]

I just ordered 5000 mealworms and 1000 superworms. I'm very excited!