Mealworm farming

[JohnnyxRex]

If you want little or no maintenance just do a single large tub, toss a carrot in every week or so and forget it til next week. Not a thing wrong with oats, try it. Everyone needs to see what works best for them. Oats in small batches may be cheaper, but i know the wheat bran is a lot less costly for a 50# bag. I used the cardboard canister of Quaker oats (old fashioned kind) for my beetles. it does compress a lot less over time, and you can see spots where they have chewed.

Ok. Won't I have cannibalism issues? I don't mind a short once-a-week thing but I don't want to be touching them on a regular basis unless its to harvest and feed to my birds.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Usually if you make sure they get something once a week they are ok. I rarely see any issue with them, if there is, its the pupa that gets it. But they may have died and then became lunch too

.

 

[Kjordanov]

Isn't he cute?? I shall name him Patrick /img/smilies/big_smile.png

Ha ha ha!
Adorable!! I wish my family let me get some! Lol

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:

Patrick is a good hefty boy! I think he will do very well in his wonderful oatmeal home

And by the look of the others around him, I betcha there's going to be a bunch more patricks in a few days

 

[Kjordanov]

I

Newb here. Pictures would be great of your setup. I only feed my chickens scratch and after doing some research on here feel guilty about not giving them much else. Ill dig up worms with my daughter now and then and they love them. But raising mealworms sounds interesting.

Lol wish my mom was into the worms!! I seriously would love to raise mealworms! I wonder if you can raise earthworms easily??

 

[McPhersonFarm]

red wigglers aren't too hard and are pretty hardy too. they're great composters!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Well, I just wanted to let everybody know... I had gotten the bran and didn't see any baby worms. All my beetles up and died the other day. Was all worried about everything.

I decided to go ahead and heat the bran up, just in case there were babies in there. After doing that, while it was still warm (not hot) I dumped the contents of my little farm into another tray, put the warm bran in their tray and then dumped the old stuff on top of the new. As it was sitting there waiting for me to finish the other little pan, I saw movement! I waited to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me (which they do all to often) and it kept moving in a couple places so I guess I have at least 2 or 3 babies in there! I used the handle end of a fork to lift the movement out of the substrate/frass and blew very lightly on it to get rid of the materials and finally got to see a baby wormie! Yay!

Now I just need to keep feeding them til they get big again?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well, I just wanted to let everybody know... I had gotten the bran and didn't see any baby worms. All my beetles up and died the other day. Was all worried about everything.

I decided to go ahead and heat the bran up, just in case there were babies in there. After doing that, while it was still warm (not hot) I dumped the contents of my little farm into another tray, put the warm bran in their tray and then dumped the old stuff on top of the new. As it was sitting there waiting for me to finish the other little pan, I saw movement! I waited to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me (which they do all to often) and it kept moving in a couple places so I guess I have at least 2 or 3 babies in there! I used the handle end of a fork to lift the movement out of the substrate/frass and blew very lightly on it to get rid of the materials and finally got to see a baby wormie! Yay!

Now I just need to keep feeding them til they get big again?

hehe! WEE WORMIES!!!!!

yep feed em and look out, they grow fast now!

You have graduated to a wormie farmer

a neat trick is to lay a potato slice in, come back a while later half hour or more, the you really see how many you have

 

[kwol]

Well, I just wanted to let everybody know... I had gotten the bran and didn't see any baby worms. All my beetles up and died the other day. Was all worried about everything.

I decided to go ahead and heat the bran up, just in case there were babies in there. After doing that, while it was still warm (not hot) I dumped the contents of my little farm into another tray, put the warm bran in their tray and then dumped the old stuff on top of the new. As it was sitting there waiting for me to finish the other little pan, I saw movement! I waited to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me (which they do all to often) and it kept moving in a couple places so I guess I have at least 2 or 3 babies in there! I used the handle end of a fork to lift the movement out of the substrate/frass and blew very lightly on it to get rid of the materials and finally got to see a baby wormie! Yay!

Now I just need to keep feeding them til they get big again?

Congrats! I am right behind you waiting to see little wormies too. I'll have to celebrate with y'all online though because DH is disgusted by the whole thing but is tolerating it quietly.

 

[Mavrk]

Just as a note about my observations regarding higher temperatures...

As some of you may know, I increased the heat and moved the majority of my beetles into a new bin. Both bins are at this new heat, but the worms in the new bin are growing faster than the old one. I chalk it up to the shorter time as an egg since the heat makes them hatch faster. So even though the old bin is growing faster than before, the new bin is even faster. Obviously the old one has some eggs that were layed at the same time, but I can't tell those apart.

In conclusion, I still highly recommend higher heat for a shorter life cycle duration. Mine are in the low to mid 90's which is ideal.