Mealworm farming

[Jensownzoo]

Has anyone heard of mealworms being a source of botulism for chickens?
Someone brought this up in another thread. 

I did a search and didn't find anything and I don't really see how it could be so. 

Unless you are feeding them contaminated food, the risk would be almost nil.

 

[jak2002003]

Thanks for the advise about the chicken feed. I think the chick starter must have been medicated.. although it did not say so on the bag.

Since changing the substrate.. and using oats and the cheap all round adult chicken feed there has been no more problems with any worms dyeing.

Its been a week now and all looks well.

I don't know if it was the medication in the chick feed, or some DE added to the feed, but something was killing them.

If this DE stuff is so dangerous to insects how come its OK for the chickens and humans? Won't it irritate the birds digestive lining?

 

[aart]

Thanks for the advise about the chicken feed. I think the chick starter must have been medicated.. although it did not say so on the bag.

Since changing the substrate.. and using oats and the cheap all round adult chicken feed there has been no more problems with any worms dyeing.

Its been a week now and all looks well.

I don't know if it was the medication in the chick feed, or some DE added to the feed, but something was killing them.

If this DE stuff is so dangerous to insects how come its OK for the chickens and humans? Won't it irritate the birds digestive lining?

Probably not the medication.....at least here in the US, medicated feed is usually an anti protozoan to reduce coccidisis.

DE works mostly by desiccation(drying out).....it can't do that when it's wetted.
It's 'cutting' properties are most likely moot unless a LOT is ingested...WAY more than the bit in feed to deter insect habitation.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I got 5000 mealies a couple days ago. I have them in oats. I never expected to be so fascinated! We'll see when they become Beatles though. It's pretty humid here, so I put some broccoli stem on a lid.... and they drug it off of there. I'm lucky if my house hits 70, so I wonder how long it will take before I have a colony large enough thriving to be able to feed them out? They seem a lot easier to maintain than my composting red wigglers, and less gross to harvest. Both are a feast though, in my observation.

In my shipment from rainbow, I only saw 1 dead meal worm. That seems pretty good to me.

There is just something soothing about having your hands in the dirt. It keeps me thinking young.

 

[Jensownzoo]

I started out with mealworms from rainbow in February. They've pretty much all turned into beetles now...and are busy reproducing. Some are starting to die off, so I imagine that soon I'll just have bins of eggs and microscopic worms. Once they grow up, I imagine that I'll have enough to start feeding out...so maybe 9 months or so?

 

[abqferreira]

I just started my first mealworm farm a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I found about 3-4 beetles, but they are light brown, dried out, and stuck on their backs with their little legs moving. I am worried we don't have enough humidity here in NM to support the little guys. Is this normal when they first hatch? What can I do to hydrate them?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I read the beetles sometimes have a hard time getting upright in wheat bran (I've been using oats and don't have experience with beetles yet). A piece of paper on top will give them some footing. Use veggies to hydrate them, same as the meal worms.

The color sounds normal. They will darken as they age.

To add humidity, you could put a wet sponge or small bowl of water on a little platform so it doesn't wet your bedding but adds moisture to the air.

Not perfect, but some good information. http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm#freeze

I hope this is helpful!

I just started my first mealworm farm a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I found about 3-4 beetles, but they are light brown, dried out, and stuck on their backs with their little legs moving. I am worried we don't have enough humidity here in NM to support the little guys. Is this normal when they first hatch? What can I do to hydrate them?

 

[Kusanar]

I just started my first mealworm farm a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I found about 3-4 beetles, but they are light brown, dried out, and stuck on their backs with their little legs moving. I am worried we don't have enough humidity here in NM to support the little guys. Is this normal when they first hatch? What can I do to hydrate them?

The light brown is normal, I try to separate my life stages, so I put the pupa in a small Tupperware with the vent lid (small hole in the top of the lid so the lid doesn't blow off in the microwave) and put a moist paper towel in the bottom, misting every week or so to keep the paper towel moist (not wet, you shouldn't be able to squeeze water out of it) and I keep the lid on with the vent open. It seems like the pupa and very young beetles are the most at risk of drying out, so I try to keep them moist (also, they don't eat, so you don't have to worry about food going moldy) then I just catch the beetles out of the pupa container once per day or every other day depending on my schedule and put them in with the other beetles.

 

[abqferreira]

I had wondered whether it would be useful to have a spray bottle handy to mist the colony. Maybe I'll try and it and see if it helps!

 

[Kusanar]

I had wondered whether it would be useful to have a spray bottle handy to mist the colony. Maybe I'll try and it and see if it helps!

Just be careful, grain products mold fast, it doesn't seem that oatmeal is as bad as the horse feed I have mine in, I mist the oatmeal, but I'm very careful with the horse feed to avoid mold. Maybe, if you take a flat plastic lid (like a sour cream container lid etc) and put a wet cotton ball on top of it that would be better, then they could all go to the cotton ball to get a drink but the bedding wouldn't get wet.