Mealworm farming

[chickengeorgeto]

Most if not all chicken diseases are specific to poultry and to a host, like earthworms, slugs, snails, grasshoppers, crickets, and Darkling Beetles.

Without any more a do, I am including this link to the Darkling Beetle aka Meal Worm.

https://www.poultryventilation.com/poultry-tips/vol50/n7

Do as you want, but meal worms or darkling beetles are not your, your chicken coop's, or your chickens' friend.

If I wanted to sell mealworms I would either rent, beg, borrow, steal, or buy an abandoned commercial broiler house and keep the litter and manure cap moistened because you can raise meal worms by the 55 gallon barrel full in the litter and old chicken manure laying on the floor of a commercial chicken house.

The above information is only intended as information, not as a do as I say post. Like with every small creepy crawly in your back yard, Meal Worms and Darkling Beetles can infect your birds with every serious poultry disease and parasite known to man or chicken. Buy or raise your meal worms carefully, Caveat Emporium.

 

[goalaimethic]

Raising meal worms is tough work. Separating pupae from the worms takes weeks and the worm bins start to smell if the waste isn't cleaned properly. I've raised meal worms for some time but I've since stopped. I am glad people take on this task, my chickens thank you for the delicious meal worms!

 

[Latestarter]

If I wanted to sell mealworms I would either rent, beg, borrow, steal, or buy an abandoned commercial broiler house and keep the litter and manure cap moistened because you can raise meal worms by the 55 gallon barrel full in the litter and old chicken manure laying on the floor of a commercial chicken house.

The above information is only intended as information, not as a do as I say post. Like with every small creepy crawly in your back yard, Meal Worms and Darkling Beetles can infect your birds with every serious poultry disease and parasite known to man or chicken. Buy or raise your meal worms carefully, Caveat Emporium.

Personally, my mealworms aren't raised under the conditions this article is describing, nor are my chickens. I'm not in the least concerned.

Could one of you more experienced mealworm farmers help me figure out what I'm looking at here?

With the amount of mold you have growing there, I'm surprised that you have anything living in the container at all. You need to start over and trash ALL of that. I wouldn't put any of that in my coop or anywhere near my chickens. Introducing all of that into your coop would be like releasing a slow growing toxin in there. Next time around restrict the amount of moisture you put in with them. You should rarely if ever apply water directly to the substrate. You should use "drier" veggies with less "sugar" content when it's warm... like no apple slices in the summer... too wet, too sweet and asking for flies, mold, and a host of other issues. Carrots or cabbage leaves are good.

Raising meal worms is tough work. Separating pupae from the worms takes weeks and the worm bins start to smell if the waste isn't cleaned properly. I've raised meal worms for some time but I've since stopped. I am glad people take on this task, my chickens thank you for the delicious meal worms!

Raising meal worms is about as simple an endeavor as there is to choose to do. There's really no "work" involved. Now, that being said, a person can make ANYTHING, the simplest thing, so overly complicated and labor intensive that it could be considered work.

 

[JayJo]

Thanks for all of your advice. Most of the substrate isn't that moldy. There were just a few chunks that I pulled out. That said I think it's good advice, I'll try again with new worms and new bedding.

 

[Kusanar]

Thanks for all of your advice. Most of the substrate isn't that moldy. There were just a few chunks that I pulled out. That said I think it's good advice, I'll try again with new worms and new bedding.

If you haven't done anything yet, you can gather some of the larger worms out of the bedding and give them a VERY quick rinse off in water, then let them dry off on paper towels or something before putting them into clean bedding... That way you don't have to start completely from scratch if you don't want to.

 

[JayJo]

If you haven't done anything yet, you can gather some of the larger worms out of the bedding and give them a VERY quick rinse off in water, then let them dry off on paper towels or something before putting them into clean bedding... That way you don't have to start completely from scratch if you don't want to.

Thanks! I haven't done anything but it will take me a while to set up new bedding so by the time I do that the old ones may be dead. We'll see.

 

[weidnercharm]

I just started with 2000 worms. Cost me $20 (including shipping). I am using a 6 drawer method where the beetles will be in drawer 1. I will take the bedding out every 2 weeks to place in another drawer and let the worms grow. I use wheat germ that I get for $23 for 25lbs. Bag of 10lbs potatoes costs $2 and 2lbs carrots was $1.15.
I need to produce at least 2.5 cups of worms daily for my meat chickens during the spring and summer.
Amy

 

[Kusanar]

I just started with 2000 worms. Cost me $20 (including shipping). I am using a 6 drawer method where the beetles will be in drawer 1. I will take the bedding out ever 2 weeks to place in another drawer and let the worms grow. I use wheat germ that I get for $23 for 25lbs. Bag of 10lbs potatoes costs $2 and 2lbs carrots was $1.15.
I need to produce at least 2.5 cups of worms daily for my meat chickens during the spring and summer.
Amy

I would let all 2000 worms morph into beetles if you need that kind of turnover. It's impressive how fast they multiply by generation though

 

[weidnercharm]

Do you raise a lot?
I have 2 of the 3 drawer dressers. Each drawer is 15.25"L x 21.75"W. Is this sufficient for raising the amount I need?

 

[Jensownzoo]

Do you raise a lot?
I have 2 of the 3 drawer dressers. Each drawer is 15.25"L x 21.75"W. Is this sufficient for raising the amount I need?

Hard to say. Good to have lots of drawers to separate stages. What I would do is once they start to pupate, go through and pick out all the beetles every two weeks or so and put them in a breeding drawer. Then once a month or so, move the beetles to a different breeding drawer...the old drawer is now a hatching drawer. You'll eventually end up with a series of drawers where the worms are about a month apart in age.

Once you have this, then you can stop separating life stages and start feeding out when the worms are big enough. Never feed out all the worms from a drawer...once you have fed out all the extras from a drawer, let the remaining pupate and breed to replenish themselves. Since you are wanting to feed out so many, I would be tempted to let them all pupate/breed for a round or two to swell their numbers.