Mealworm farming

[beverly evans]

Originally Posted by jenneverett

OK so i took a look with a higher magnification and have circled the real eggs in my paint program



i was so excited that my "farm" was doing so well! in most of the videos i watched nobody showed pics of the eggs but i did watch one where the gal put cut up squares of cloth into the beetle bin and they laid the eggs into the channels created by the fabric when made. so i knew the approximate size of what i was looking for. but nobody ever shows frass other than to show it as a fine substrate at the bottom of the bin. i know in my main bin i have a more powdery buildup with granules on the bottom. in this photo i did circle the eggs... not all of them but a good many.
so again in my excitement i assumed erroneously that all the itty bitty specs were eggs..but i diligently did as asked and magnified them using my macro feature and was able to see the error of my ways. i apologize profusely for my assumption.

Okay, so if they are not eggs, they are turds?? What did you see that made you sure they were not eggs? Enlighten us, please. : )

 

[beverly evans]

Quote: I'm fond of conures. I had mine, also a sun conure, for 8 years and one day, like you, came home to find it dead. No previous symptoms or warning. I always wanted one of those brilliantly colored conures, but they were too expensive or an African Grey. I don't want to be chained to the house so can't have a parrot now. Friends will feed my chickens.
The little lost bird looked like a lovebird. It flew away. It didn't occur to me that I might catch it or rescue it. : (

 

[ContessaKris]

Okay I'm new to this mealworms farming and I don't want to make a big deal out of it. Can I just leave them all in the same bin? Will they just continue to grow and such? And I can keep adding oats or wheat bran and food for them to eat? Can I do that or will I have problems in the long run and have to sift and divide and such? I really would like this to be as simple as possible...

 

[beverly evans]

Okay I'm new to this mealworms farming and I don't want to make a big deal out of it. Can I just leave them all in the same bin? Will they just continue to grow and such? And I can keep adding oats or wheat bran and food for them to eat? Can I do that or will I have problems in the long run and have to sift and divide and such? I really would like this to be as simple as possible...

A lot of people on here do just that. I am going to do that too...just one bin. KISS! : )

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Okay I'm new to this mealworms farming and I don't want to make a big deal out of it. Can I just leave them all in the same bin? Will they just continue to grow and such? And I can keep adding oats or wheat bran and food for them to eat? Can I do that or will I have problems in the long run and have to sift and divide and such? I really would like this to be as simple as possible...

They will do just fine if you leave them all in the same bin. Over time you will have to collect up the top layer of bran and mealworms and dump the lower and older strata but that is about it for maintenance. Here is a colony that has remained in the same bin for 25+ years:

 

[ContessaKris]

How much food should I be feeding and how often? I have an 9x16 bin, 6" high. Probably have 2000 little mealworms right now. Do they need darkness all day? I have them on a cabinet, normal light.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:

Okay, so if they are not eggs, they are turds?? What did you see that made you sure they were not eggs? Enlighten us, please. : )

Here is a picture of a T. molitor egg next to a rolled oat that hannakat (the OP for this thread) observed being laid:

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

How much food should I be feeding and how often? I have an 9x16 bin, 6" high. Probably have 2000 little mealworms right now. Do they need darkness all day? I have them on a cabinet, normal light.

They don't need darkness and will be fine on your cabinet with normal light. Feed only enough vegetables to have a constant source without adding too much that it rots before being eaten. You'll very quickly learn how much they need. Thinner slices of vegetables fed more frequently is better than larger chunks fed infrequently. Be sure to read the pages in the links in the first page of this thread (especially mine since you're raising them in a single bin).

 

[jenneverett]

new pics of the bins.






i set the DVD on one plate to help show the dimension of the bins. i pulled all the old vegetable matter and replaced the carrots. the 5000 worms have all changed to pupea and beetles i have not seen any baby worms yet but will look in a few days.

 

[beverly evans]

Quote: I don't know any better, but this looks to me like too many mealworms and too little bran. What should the ratio be? I imagined I would have to run my fingers through the bran (or oats or whatever one is using) to come up with a handful of worms. Really, shouldn't there be a lot more bedding-feed??