Mealworm farming

[Yurd Ahd]

Funny my boyfriend is kinda freaked out I do it ;b

 

[greasemonkey88]

Funny my boyfriend is kinda freaked out I do it ;b

:

 

[jenneverett]

I can't wait to start a farm my wife will probably make me keep it in the coop when it's built, but I know my RIR girls will love them.

mine are in the garage but i think the coop would be fine because i open it and close it every day and that gives you a chance to check the carrot,potato, or other water source. I went to the Natural food store and bought Wheat Bran in 2 lb bags for only 2+ per bag. use it it is very good for the worms which is good for the hens ='s good for the eggs and ultimately ...YOU.

 

[jenneverett]

I think we almost have a beetle! Pupa is getting very dark.

it takes two to tangle....heh heh heh

 

[Yurd Ahd]

here's a nice trick: grind up the wheat bran into a powder for the substrate then you can just use a sifter to get the mealworms out in bunches to feed your chickens. Very helpful when you establish a decent colony! The bran will eventually be consumed by the mealies and be replaced by their droppings (frass), which makes an excellent fertilizer for house plants

 

[KefirGuy]

Hi, first post here. I found you via Bluebird threads. My interest in raising my own mealworms, for the birds so to speak and for my friends and family to feed Bluebirds, caused me to lurk for awhile. OK, so now I've gone legal. I'm located in central Maryland and as you see by my handle I make my own Kefir from natural grains. I also look after a 10 yr old sourdough starter which is used to make all of our whole grain breads and pizzas.

I have cruised through the 700 pages of posts and have noticed some common questions and methods and outcomes. I must say, there are many excellent contributors on here that would have been helpful to me when I started out. I use the one container method having progressed through as many as four while testing out a theory or just being curious about what happens, "if".

Some observations I would like to share with you, and I've seen most of these already addressed by others, may or may not support what has been offered.

I have used quick oats because we are known for our oatmeal raisin cookies and quick oats is the best and we have tons of it. I have also used wheat bran from the bulk bin at a health food store.

I've seen no difference in the health or successful raising of mealworms using either quick oats or wheat bran.

Many of the pictures I've seen on here of perceived problems are normal. I believe if you are not seeing what you think a healthy colony should look like, it is because of low temperatures or low temperatures with high humidity. Even at that, your results will not be disastrous. Just not pretty to look at maybe but hey, we're talking about worms. You will still have plenty.

I have never had a problem with high temperatures with high humidity. Low humidity has not been a problem as there is always fresh carrots or other vegetable matter provided. Even if room humidity is low, there is enough surface humidity from the veggies to keep everybody happy. As you can see then. Warm temperature equals "good", low temperatures equal "not so good" (but your worms will still progress, just not as fast or in numbers you might want).

One more thing, then I will have to stop this one. I have tested, or tried to, the cannibalism issue and if it does happen it is so insignificant the topic discussion should just be dropped in favor of researching other causes of mealworm death, at any stage of development. More worms will die because of the container environment then will die of cannibalism.

Whew! Sorry for such a long first.

 

[Yurd Ahd]

I use quick oats too I have also used leftover birdseed with success, however, it's not as easy to sift through. I agree that the environmental problems are the real danger. A year ago I let my colony get too humid and didn't clean it for a while and the colony got infested with little mites... I had to start a whole new colony since that cause the things are **** near impossible to get rid of! The mites are not good for the mealworms. So keep your bins clean ;b
I put the old colony in a shoddy camper we have for storage through the winter and just noticed a week ago the mealworms actually survived and are making a come back

 

[csaiz100]

Can anyone point me to a post on how to start with Mealworm farming please. I tried it a few month ago and was told by the salesperson at PetsMart where I bought 100 worms to puty them in a plastic box with dirt in it, then sprinkle chicken starter in and 1/2 a cut-up potatoe. Needless to say that did not work out to good

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Can anyone point me to a post on how to start with Mealworm farming please. I tried it a few month ago and was told by the salesperson at PetsMart where I bought 100 worms to puty them in a plastic box with dirt in it, then sprinkle chicken starter in and 1/2 a cut-up potatoe. Needless to say that did not work out to good

Try this.

 

[Yurd Ahd]

Dirt? LOL

http://www.herpcenter.com/breeding-feeder-insects/breeding-mealworms.html