Mealworm farming

[southernblubird]

I have my first cycle complete! Mealies to beetles now tiny babies! Well once they are big enough to feed the ladies, I'll count that as complete. I received my first mealies from amazon mid-January. Encouraged to see the wheat bran moving around. It's been a neat science experiment in the least and hearing my two year old daughter say "pupae" is ridiculously precious.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

How do I know when to add more bedding?

 

[jenneverett]

i didn't find this page but posted in feeding and watering your flock. i have a meal worm farm thread there.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I have my first cycle complete! Mealies to beetles now tiny babies! Well once they are big enough to feed the ladies, I'll count that as complete. I received my first mealies from amazon mid-January. Encouraged to see the wheat bran moving around. It's been a neat science experiment in the least and hearing my two year old daughter say "pupae" is ridiculously precious.

Congratulations!

How do I know when to add more bedding?

When the layer of wheat bran gets thinner and the particles get smaller.

 

[azygous]

Hello Everyone
I live in a country where you cannot purchase mealworms from mealworm farms.
Is there a way to start your own mealworm farm from no previous mealworms for my flock?

Thank you

I'm curious. Where do you live?

If you can't find darkling beetle meal worms anywhere, and are prohibited from ordering them from Amazon.com, you may have flour beetles on your shelf in the kitchen right now. These flour beetles are a close cousin of darkling beetles, and I would think you could cultivate them in the same manner that you do darkling beetles and larva.

Flour beetles inhabit just about any grain product, cereals, cake mixes, etc. If you have any of these items, and they've been on the shelf for a long time, chances are, you have some flour beetles.

It's a good reason to clean your pantry!

 

[highcountrybell]

great easy steps! cant wait to get mine started! thanks!

 

[jenneverett]

I agree ... pull out the beetles and put them in a new bin with bedding then keep checking for new beetles if you cant see the pupae. mine did take some looking.... I bought 5000 worms and now on day 5 I found 8 pupae yesterday and will search for more today when I cut more potatoes to put in the bin.

 

[jenneverett]

Found 7 more pupae tonight when i added the oats, cracked corn and the poultry feed to the bedding.







they still have quite a bit of the original mix left but i wanted to deepen the bedding.

 

[subhanalah]

Great pictures! Good to see they are maturing!

 

[jenneverett]

cleaned the bedding and put in new potatoes... then thought a photo with a full size cookie sheet held in the bin might be good for showing the scope of my endeavor.