Mealworm farming

[beverly evans]

Ken and I went to the Feed Store today and bought a 50 pound bag of Wheat Bran. Came home and loaded my pans with it baked it to remove chances of grain pests and their eggs - don't need outside competition. I was thrilled with the price $14.00 for 50 pounds! awesome! I may be able to get it less elsewhere, but at least I found a good source.

I've found about 15 Pupae so far and anxious for them to turn into Beetles and then get eggs and then hatch - LOL My husband said he thinks the reason I liked messing wit them is that it gives me something to care for. I love my outside wild birds, and if I can provide a good food supplement, it makes me happy.

I am also doing my Beetle and Baby Bin differently. I'm going for surface area verses depth. So now I am adding screen bottoms and ventilation lids.
I know. I'm weird

Cute foto, better than whatever you had up there before. Really, you're doing all this for the wild birds? Why not get a couple of chickens, They'll at least love you back for all your work? Today I heard the kind of cute sounds I knew were not coming from any of our local birds, so held still hoping to be able to see what was making them. It was a conure or lovebird. Very small parrots. It took off, but a conure has all the charm and talking ability of a big one in a very small convienient package. I had one. I should have fed it mealies!

 

[subhanalah]

Go to "members" and write in "Amy Knoll" to find her and buy your mealies.  : )

Amy doesn't sell mealworms anymore

 

[beverly evans]

Okay, So this is what I am learning. If you bother to sift you will only get poop and eggs as they are the only stuff small enough to pass through most sifters. Then put all of it into bran to let new babies grow. The poop won't hurt anything and you don't want to throw out the next generation. If you make a sifter out of a screen that has bigger holes than your sifter you may sift out the frass or cast off skins, but you may also lose some of the smaller meal worms in the process, so it wouldn't be worth it. So don't bother to sift! Also I saw someone's foto with a good idea. They put the wet veggies on top of newspaper or paper towels to absorb the excess wetness and the mealworms had no trouble crawling on top of the paper to get to their moisture source. Can anyone see anything wrong with doing that? I'm waiting for mine to come in the mail right now. I've got my container, a 10 gal. aquarium full of bran and oats with a lid. So I'm figuring it out! : )

 

[greasemonkey88]

Okay, So this is what I am learning.  If you bother to sift you will only get poop and eggs as they are the only stuff small enough to pass through most sifters.  Then put all of it into bran to let new babies grow.  The poop won't hurt anything and you don't want to throw out the next generation.  If you make a sifter out of a screen that has bigger holes than your sifter you may sift out the frass or cast off skins, but you may also lose some of the smaller meal worms in the process, so it wouldn't be worth it.  So don't bother to sift!  Also I saw someone's foto with a good idea.  They put the wet veggies on top of newspaper or paper towels to absorb the excess wetness and the mealworms had no trouble crawling on top of the paper to get to their moisture source.  Can anyone see anything wrong with doing that? I'm waiting for mine to come in the mail right now.  I've got my container, a 10 gal. aquarium  full of bran and oats with a lid.   So I'm figuring it out!   : )

Same here just received 500 today from rainbow on eBay I bought a rubbermaid style 10 gal container with 6-7 inch sides. I will post a picture of the setup once the lid is cut and hardware cloth is permenantly attached. Good luck with yours!

 

[EastTXChickens]

Rainbow Mealworms is quickly replacing my 2nd order from them, which was subpar. Their customer service is really good and always has been top notch.

I will be comfortable and happy to order from Rainbow Mealworms again, they're good folks. Reviews suggest that anyone who orders from them is far more likely to be happy with the experience.

 

[kubotafoot]

So let me get this correct..... Eggs laid by beetles ARE visible to the naked eye, and the photo here is really eggs? Wow! Not what I thought at all. I thought they were microscopic when laid and eggs generally don't grow before hatching, right? Who can help out here? What is the photo of and if eggs, then eggs laid are visible to the naked eye?

 

[kubotafoot]

Rainbow Mealworms is quickly replacing my 2nd order from them, which was subpar. Their customer service is really good and always has been top notch.

I will be comfortable and happy to order from Rainbow Mealworms again, they're good folks. Reviews suggest that anyone who orders from them is far more likely to be happy with the experience.

I agree they are 100% and when I ordered through Amazon, they were the cheapest INCLUDING shipping (most places I found really killed the deal with shipping). I had a few dead ones and when I wrote, asking if it was normal for that to happen, they were very helpful and offered to replace whatever I felt was fair. I chose to be happy with the 5,000 PLUS they sent, but with such great customer service, I'd order again and again when needed and sing their praises throughout.

 

[countrygirl86]

I posted a seperate thread asking about meal worms and was told I may want to ask here instead. Here

I recently purchased 1000 mealworms to start a colony. My chicks love them. I read some of the other threads here to get started. I used oats and whole wheat flour for bedding and placed apple halves skin side down in the bedding. At first everything seemed to be going well. Here lately I am noticing quite a few dead black worms. There are also fruit flies or gnats in the tank.

The tank itself is a hexagonal fish tank. It's pretty big, I think it's 30 or 40 gallon. The begging is about 3 inches deep. I have a piece of plexiglass covering the opening about midway. The first apple I put in has shriveled and started to decay. I left it in there because I read the beatles like to lay eggs inside. I added another fresh apple. I am seeing some pupa as well. But I am wondering if it is normal to have some of the worms die off. Or is it bad to leave the apple in after it starts to rot. I know many feed the dead beatles but I am not sure if it's ok to feed the dead worms. Any advice?

 

[aart]

So let me get this correct..... Eggs laid by beetles ARE visible to the naked eye, and the photo here is really eggs? Wow! Not what I thought at all. I thought they were microscopic when laid and eggs generally don't grow before hatching, right? Who can help out here? What is the photo of and if eggs, then eggs laid are visible to the naked eye?

Which photo.....can you quote the photo you're asking about.

I'm curious too about the visibility of the eggs....hopefully one of the pros can answer our question.

 

[draines]

Any other worms to "harvest"?