Mealworm farming
- Thread starter hannakat
- Start date
One of the four containers I split the 1000 mealworms into had oat bran instead of wheat bran. So far they do lot seems to like it at all. The one issue might be that it seems to be a little finer than the wheat bran. To test my theory I added a couple pinches of wheat bran to one corner, and the mealies came a running...
- Oct 10, 2009
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And yet the mealies raised in oatmeal *appear* larger in diameter than those on wheat...hm.! Guess I'll have to try some.
ETA: Try the substrate, not the mealies. The tasting crew does that! LOL!
ETA: Try the substrate, not the mealies. The tasting crew does that! LOL!
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- Jul 17, 2011
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This is very interesting!! Must do more research!!
Hypertay
Chirping
- Nov 21, 2012
- 69
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Yesterday I transferred my beetles from one 3 drawer cart to another one. The first one should be overrun with worms in about 6 weeks. The pictures are here in my photobucket account http://s214.beta.photobucket.com/user/irrilyn/library/Mealworms It's public for now.
I got 100 worms from the pet store in November and dumped about 80 in a 10 gal aquarium with some ground up wheat bran cereal and some rolled oats that went through the blender for a bit of a chop. They don't sell wheat bran around here that I can find so I ordered some from Amazon to arrive by the time I got 1000 more mealworms from Amy at westknollfarms.com. The day those arrived, I took the adults from the aquarium and put them in the top drawer of the first cart, and put Amy's in the 2nd drawer. The very next day there were lots of pupae from that drawer so I put them in the bottom drawer and in about a week or 10 days they were adults, so all 3 drawers were getting busy.
Six weeks later and the top of the bedding in the aquarium is just roiling during the warmest part of the day and the worms are attacking the carrots. They were so small at first I had to get a bright light to see them. And Amy's in the middle drawer were turning into pupae and then beetles so fast! The newspaper was shaking and we could hear them walking around on it! So I decided to transfer all the beetles I could find into another cart I had hanging around, and they went straight across, top to top, middle to middle and bottom to bottom. The bottom 2 of each cart are from Amy's, and the top drawer and the aquarium are pet store. It won't matter after awhile, I will be mixing them together for the next generation after I feed out the aquarium worms in a couple of months.
I will be sifting for frass in a couple of months too. I'll have some veggies and bulb flowers coming up and I can't wait to see how they do on this stuff. I hope you enjoy my pictures. My best advice is keep them warm and have patience when waiting to see the first worms, they will eventually show up.
I got 100 worms from the pet store in November and dumped about 80 in a 10 gal aquarium with some ground up wheat bran cereal and some rolled oats that went through the blender for a bit of a chop. They don't sell wheat bran around here that I can find so I ordered some from Amazon to arrive by the time I got 1000 more mealworms from Amy at westknollfarms.com. The day those arrived, I took the adults from the aquarium and put them in the top drawer of the first cart, and put Amy's in the 2nd drawer. The very next day there were lots of pupae from that drawer so I put them in the bottom drawer and in about a week or 10 days they were adults, so all 3 drawers were getting busy.
Six weeks later and the top of the bedding in the aquarium is just roiling during the warmest part of the day and the worms are attacking the carrots. They were so small at first I had to get a bright light to see them. And Amy's in the middle drawer were turning into pupae and then beetles so fast! The newspaper was shaking and we could hear them walking around on it! So I decided to transfer all the beetles I could find into another cart I had hanging around, and they went straight across, top to top, middle to middle and bottom to bottom. The bottom 2 of each cart are from Amy's, and the top drawer and the aquarium are pet store. It won't matter after awhile, I will be mixing them together for the next generation after I feed out the aquarium worms in a couple of months.
I will be sifting for frass in a couple of months too. I'll have some veggies and bulb flowers coming up and I can't wait to see how they do on this stuff. I hope you enjoy my pictures. My best advice is keep them warm and have patience when waiting to see the first worms, they will eventually show up.
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Hypertay, I clicked on your photo bucket link and all I got was an error message. Looking forward to seeing your wormies and system.
- Oct 10, 2009
- 300
- 9
- 128
Always happy to oblige...That gave me tears i was laughing so hard! And i have noticed too, they grow better on oats. going to get a bag at the feed store and try it a while on the newest batches!
Hypertay
Chirping
- Nov 21, 2012
- 69
- 7
- 84
Lacy Blues, thanks for letting me know about my link. Photobucket won't show me the public link for some reason, so here are the pics directly.
I keep trying to get a short video of the aquarium roiling but my camera keeps crapping out on me.
I keep trying to get a short video of the aquarium roiling but my camera keeps crapping out on me.
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- Jan 14, 2013
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Hehehehe Showed my mom my mealies. First.. I got her reading this thread, she's Momma T somewhere on this site.. Second, you guys have her all excited about the idea of mealies (thanks!!!). Third she's was all cool and gross when she got a look at them. I have FIVE shed skins and there was a freshly shedded mealie when we took a peek. I call her Mildred
She's been reading enough that she wants a three drawer set-uo, but not the skinny drawer, the longer, wider drawer. Mom asks, is there anyway to increase mealie space in the same size?
Umm, yes, mom. I can cut a drawer in half, and put a bottom on, either screening, or I can cut thin acrylic and silicone glue it in place. That would give 3 double drawers per unit, and if we screen, adults in the top, feed the chickens we DO NOT yet have from the ones that fall to the bottom.
Mom says OK, cool, we're going to have to do this.
All I can say is thank goodness I desensitized my mother to bugs over 30 years ago when I was a wee thing bringing home creepy crawlies in my pockets, lol. Can you imagine the kind of training I would have had to do with her had I not put the effort in as a kid?
She's been reading enough that she wants a three drawer set-uo, but not the skinny drawer, the longer, wider drawer. Mom asks, is there anyway to increase mealie space in the same size?
Umm, yes, mom. I can cut a drawer in half, and put a bottom on, either screening, or I can cut thin acrylic and silicone glue it in place. That would give 3 double drawers per unit, and if we screen, adults in the top, feed the chickens we DO NOT yet have from the ones that fall to the bottom.
Mom says OK, cool, we're going to have to do this.
All I can say is thank goodness I desensitized my mother to bugs over 30 years ago when I was a wee thing bringing home creepy crawlies in my pockets, lol. Can you imagine the kind of training I would have had to do with her had I not put the effort in as a kid?
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