Mealworm farming

[subhanalah]

Hi there kiddo!  How ya doing?  My colony is getting off to a difficult start.  It is so hot here that they dry up real easily.  I keep changing their spot to cooler, shadier areas, but can't seem to keep enough moisture going.  Carrots and potato peels or potato pieces just dry up imediately.  I wish I could find an easier solution to the moisture problem.  I have some of that green styrofoam "sponge" for holding water for flower arrangements.  Would that work?  : )

that green stuff is poisonous, so no, I don't think you could use it.

You can try the clear water crystals used to keep potted plants moist longer.
You can also lightly cover your colony. If you use sterilite/rubbermaid containers, cover some of the center ventilation areas.

 

[beverly evans]

My 2 tubs that I started back in (I believe) March with 5000 from Rainbow on amazon are now almost done with the beetle stage from the first gen. I have tens of thousands of worms at all stages/sizes right now. Amazing... In fact, I looked closely today after work (old/tired eyes) and I think I'm going to have to sift and install new bedding/bran... There is a LOT of frass and shed casings... There are still oats visible, but I don't think I saw any bran at all... They are also going through apple slices and baby carrots at an ever increasing rate! They kill a 2 lb bag of carrots in under a week!

I took a cereal bowl out to the coop with a bunch of grain/worms/ beetles in the bottom. I tried feeding them from the palm of my hand, but felt like a pin cushion with the birds attacking to get their share

So I finally just set the bowl down and it was empty in less than 10 seconds! I felt bad as the more timid birds didn't even get a shot at any. Does anyone have a process that they use to allow all the birds to get a share? Maybe I should just throw it in the coop like scratch and watch them go nuts?

It will be a little better after I separate them again as right now there are about 16 birds in each coop section. After the next break up, it will be like 8 to a section. A little more manageable I hope.

My girlfriend just throws them in the pen and they don't miss a single worm, and everybody (well, most everybody. There are those greedy bullies that always get more than their share,) gets some. After the work to gets them I was worried about lost worms. Ha! No way! Search all you like, they don't miss a one! : )

 

[beverly evans]

Quote: Thanks! I have them in a glass fish tank with a screen top that fits properly and a plastic cover on top of that to keep out rain and other assorted creatures. I do have a lot of weavels in it though or are they mites? I thought mites were very tiny, these are black and very easily seen.

 

[beverly evans]

Hi all, its been a LONG while since I was on here, but after much trial and error we have worm farming down pat. In fact due to our newest techniques we have seen our numbers increase exponentially by comparison to when we were doing things the way we have read about online.

We are in the 2nd year of production and have reached a rather large population, and now have enough to begin selling. We are well into the 10's of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of worms and at least a thousand beetles currently, maybe even twice that. We should be into the millions by this time next year based upon our ACTUAL current growth rate. There is a lot to doing this if you want to speed things up, and a lot of time required if you do not. We have found that our customers report that their animals prefer our worms to the worms they used to purchase, and tell us that ours are far larger. And our cluckers go nuts when they see the bowl everyday. In fact, they ask for it. So we know that we have gotten it right.

We use the 28qt. Sterlite boxes, no lids, on a wooden shelving system, in our storage room. We do not worry about the humidity or moisture levels as we once did. We do not have to. We go through a 50lb. bag of high quality wheat bran per week and close to 30lbs. of carrots or potatoes in the same period. BUT our mortality rate is down 99% and our production has skyrocketed! The following pictures show some of our older failed techniques, but they will give you an idea as to the level of production we were headed to. At the time these pics were taken we had only 8 worm bins and 7 beetle bins. This does not count our 2 pupae bins, or our sifting bins. We are now nearly double that, and our worm bins have nearly 2" of worms across the entire surface. We currently have 3 of the 58qt. bins full of hatchlings.









As you can see here, we are serious about producing. Our goal is high productivity for online sales as well as local market sales, and I will be writing a short book on how to do it right. One word of advise.....

They aren't joking... WEAR A MASK!

I didn't because I was a tough guy... Now I live on antihistamines! It does not matter if you work with them outdoors. The frass dust is so fine that it is nearly invisible and the slightest breeze, even one you cannot feel, is strong enough to carry it to your face. YOU WILL DEVELOP ALLERGIES. In fact, the dust is SO fine that it can penetrate a commercial dust mask. Get the heavy duty ones.

Remember, when starting out, it is better to have too many than too few. You can feed the extras if you have them, but at least you will have a buffer to recover from your mistakes if you need it.

OK, I hope that helps.

Thanks for the mask advice. Can those cardboard egg boxes be wet before putting in with the worms as an additional moisture source? I am having trouble keeping my worms from drying out here in 3 digit Texas. : )

 

[beverly evans]

I think the potato chip was meant as a visual descriptor rather than a meal description

They get pretty dried out and warped after a week or two. I only check mine about weekly now, and only add carrots/apple/a wet sponge about every other week, and they are all fine (2nd generation of an initial 5000 worms divided into 2 containers). They are all (beetles still left from 1st gen and worms of 2nd gen) doing just great! I think they'll prob be fine

I like the wet sponge idea, maybe that is an answer for me! : )

 

[subhanalah]

Thanks!  I have them in a glass fish tank with a screen top that fits properly and a plastic cover on top of that to keep out rain and other assorted creatures.  I do have a lot of weavels in it though or are they mites?  I thought mites were very tiny, these are black, very easily seen.

I am not sure how to get rid of weevils, but I'm sure that's not desirable.
Maybe @Gallo del Cielo can post where this has been addressed and maybe I can nominate it as a sticky!

 

[Dipstick]

Hi,
I was beganing to worry if I would very see baby worms. Specially since I had start working and didn't have as much time as before. As long as they have oats and something for moister they are fine. Today have baby worms they are so little I could hardly see them. When you feed the babies do you need to cut the vegtables smaller for them? Also how do I know when to set up new breeders?

You will not see the new borns. By the time you can see them, they are already a week or two old. If you have them in oats, I doubt that you could even see the evidence that they are there, ie. movement in the oats. I simply look for subtle wiggles of the bran flakes. You will be staring at the bran and seeing nothing, then out of the corner of your eye you will see a flake twitch, but by the time you get your eyes over there to look at it, things are still again... and then it twitches elsewhere and the process repeats itself.

Yes... you will be convinced that you are losing your mind.

 

[Dipstick]

Hi there kiddo! How ya doing? My colony is getting off to a difficult start. It is so hot here that they dry up real easily. I keep changing their spot to cooler, shadier areas, but can't seem to keep enough moisture going. Carrots and potato peels or potato pieces just dry up imediately. I wish I could find an easier solution to the moisture problem. I have some of that green styrofoam "sponge" for holding water for flower arrangements. Would that work? : )

NO FOAM... they eat whatever you put in there. Notice in my pics that I use paper egg crates.

 

[subhanalah]

I like the wet sponge idea, maybe that is an answer for me!  : )

sponges are mold and bacteria harboring cubes of disgusting.
Water crystals are cheap, easy, safe and long lasting.

 

[Dipstick]

Thanks! I have them in a glass fish tank with a screen top that fits properly and a plastic cover on top of that to keep out rain and other assorted creatures. I do have a lot of weavels in it though or are they mites? I thought mites were very tiny, these are black and very easily seen.

Those are probable weevils. Can you compare with pics on Google?