Mealworm farming

[lovemealworms]

Stupid basic question. Is grit necessary to digest mealworms? And I mean the chicks. Lol

according to this thread grit i more for grains and grasses.https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/43546/if-i-feed-mealworms-to-chicks-do-i-need-to-feed-grit

 

[Lynn Manes]

We started our colony in early Spring this year. It was flourishing with wheat middlings. Then, the 50# bag got weevils so we returned it to TSC. I decided not to buy such a huge bag again and wanted to put in only a gluten free grain. So I started with gf oats. They seemed to be okay. Along with some newspaper (black ink only), I threw in a couple of paper towel rolls I'd seen in another member's setup, & in no time the worms were hiding out inside them too. All cool until one day I started giving them carrot scrapings instead of just pieces of carrots. I didn't check on them for maybe a week or so and when I did they were all dead-worms in all stages, pupae and the beetles. And everything was super damp and stinky. So we lost the whole colony. We are going to start all over, but I'm so sad this happened. No more carrot castoffs here. I learned my lesson the hard way as we had thousands of worms and 100's of beetles now gone My question is this-Will it be okay to throw this dead colony to my birds (chickens, ducks and geese), or should we just throw it in compost? I'm still buying dried mealworms for them anyway so they won't be without. And once our new colony is built up, is there a link here to learn how to dry them?

a mass die off means bacteria mold or moisture. I would compost to besafe. Withe bacteria it tends to come from unwashed veggies. Mold is just everywhere and both tend to be caused by too much moisture. Do you have a lid on your colony. The drying of mealworms is easy i use an oven at 150 f. For up to four hours if for animals. Just check at each hour mark to see if they crumble in your hands after the second hour. Oh yah and euthanize them first or you will have escapees by rinsing draining and freezing for24 hours. Any questions send them my way.

Thank you for your great advice. Michael said he fed some of them to the birds yesterday bc he didn't know I was waiting here for a response as to the safety of feeding the dead colony to them or not. So we will definitely throw them in compost instead and start over. We use a Sterilite drawer so yes they are fully enclosed. And they were doing fine until I threw in too many unwashed carrot scrapings. I did not see any mold but better to be safe than sorry again. So I have learned a valuable lesson-one I will not repeat.Also thank you for telling me how to dry the worms. It kind of grosses me out though at the thought of putting them in my oven. Do you think I could use a dehydrator instead? There are inexpensive models that I could buy to dedicate just for drying the meal worms. You would probably laugh at me if you knew how long it took me to even pick up a meal worm. I still can't handle a super meal worm. We fish a lot, and Michael has to bait my hook if we use the supers. I just don't like those grub type worms. Yuck

 

[aart]

Stupid basic question. Is grit necessary to digest mealworms? And I mean the chicks. Lol

Yes!
If given any food other than chick feed they should be provided with some chick grit.
I would think that mealworms would definitely need some grinding.

 

[ladyearth]

I thought chicks were supp to be given grit any which way... I still have that small original bag of grit ..baby grit..
Pribably bag is going on 2 years now...

 

[lovemealworms]

Thank you for your great advice. Michael said he fed some of them to the birds yesterday bc he didn't know I was waiting here for a response as to the safety of feeding the dead colony to them or not. So we will definitely throw them in compost instead and start over. We use a Sterilite drawer so yes they are fully enclosed. And they were doing fine until I threw in too many unwashed carrot scrapings. I did not see any mold but better to be safe than sorry again. So I have learned a valuable lesson-one I will not repeat.Also thank you for telling me how to dry the worms. It kind of grosses me out though at the thought of putting them in my oven. Do you think I could use a dehydrator instead? There are inexpensive models that I could buy to dedicate just for drying the meal worms. You would probably laugh at me if you knew how long it took me to even pick up a meal worm. I still can't handle a super meal worm. We fish a lot, and Michael has to bait my hook if we use the supers. I just don't like those grub type worms. Yuck

yes dehydrators work just fine. I used mine at first during winter. It will heat up a house quicker than an oven. After dehydrating or roasting they will last about a year in a sealed container any other questions please send them my way. I dont like handling superworms much yet either but i will be starting up a big colony of them soon as well. They pinch a bit sometimes.

 

[ladyearth]

Lovemealworms, and others how yall get superworms? a young guy I met while back said his grandma used to give them vitamin B.....
and How heck do you change them out the bedding that is? since I used bran for a bedding...
what yall think about using the organic dry feed the chickens dont eat???/ they pick thru. If I dont wet the feed or ferment it they waste so much. Course it could be that my grains and feed get bug infested... Even though I keepthem in garage in new plastic or metal garbage cans.. The corn I kept in a can under a wing of my old shed got moisture in it over the summer and bad mold etc formed.
Also the grain moths are getting in my mealworm drawers... will they do harm?

That is the only way the supposedly non GMO corn came ....in 50 lb bags from local Amish MILL.. But the Mill is over 20 miles away 2 lane roads...yuck
thanks yall

 

[lovemealworms]

 Lovemealworms, and others    how yall get superworms? a  young guy I met while back said his grandma used to give them vitamin B.....
and How heck do you change them out the bedding that is?  since I used bran for a  bedding...
 what yall think about using the organic dry feed the chickens dont eat???/ they pick thru. If I dont wet the feed or ferment it they waste so much. Course it could be that my grains and feed get bug infested... Even though I keepthem in garage in new plastic or metal garbage cans.. The corn I kept in a can under  a wing of my old shed got moisture in it over the summer and bad mold etc formed.
Also the grain moths are getting in my mealworm drawers... will they do harm?

That is the only way the supposedly non GMO corn came ....in 50 lb bags from local Amish MILL.. But the Mill is over 20 miles away 2 lane roads...yuck
thanks yall

superworms are a different breed of mealworm they grow to 2 and a half inches or so. I purchase online. Giant mealworms are standard mealworms that are forced to continue growing instead of pupating at an inch in length. It is either done by changing their environment or through additives they max out at one and a half inches.

Cleaning the bedding is done by putting the mealworms and substrate into a kitchen strainer and sifting out the stuff that falls through it will be mostly mealworm poop. Very good fertilizer.

I would not use the leftover chicken food for my mealworms because of possible pathogens being in it. I am very picky about my worms. What you put in you get out.

Any other questions let me know.

 

[ladyearth]

I thought the eggs are tiny too.....???

 

[lovemealworms]

I thought the eggs are tiny too.....???

so sorry i get ahead of my self. If you ar doing a one bin mealworm colony. Sift every thing into a five gAllon bucket and keep giving veg to the bucket for a few weeks so any eggs can hatch and grow too big to go through strainer. Then before you clean out your colony again strain out the dust bucket to get all the worms. When i did a single tub colony i only sifted the every 2 months so the ones that fell through strainer had time to grow.

If you are doing a multi tub or drawer you only sift the last drawer because you shift them as they get older and by the final drawer they should be big enough to not be sifted out and it only takes 2 weeks for any eggs to hatch.

I hope that covers it but any more questions are very welcome.

 

[ladyearth]

yeah I got 3 big drawers rolling Sterlite bins well 3 drawers in one unit. One drawer in another unit...Unfortunately didn't separate or keep up with the stages. so all four draws have mixed stages
thanks. need to go thru and take out the dead beetles and give them more to my spoiled almost free ranging(1/2 acre fenced in) chickens... esp since its so dry outside and hard for them to find bugs on their own. since we wont let them into the blackberry honeysuckle infested outer woods...that borders 2 sides of our property
One of the 1 1/2 old ,found a baby mouse other day under the pallet we moved. But her sistergirls wouldnt leave her alone to eat it. I tried to head them off and corral her into a run by herself. But I think the mouse got away. She complained for quite a while,too.poor girl....
during the wet spells I should have found them some crawdads....
thanks better get out there and check on them etc....