Mealworm farming

[Cricket Creek]

With regard to the 3 drawer setup I really don't put any effort into seperating out the different stages. Every now and then I just toss a couple dozen of the larger worms up into the top drawer to keep the cycle going. The beetles are so long lived they easily keep chugging along for several months on their own. Other than an occasional check of the bottom drawer for emerging beetles, my weekly maintenance amounts to all of about 5 minutes. 4 minutes to cut up a couple potatoes and 1 minute to take a drawer outside and blow off all the chaff.

Another thing I like to do is place a few layers of cut up brown paper bag atop the bran and then slide potato slices inbetween the layers of the bag. This keeps the potao from getting the surrounding bran all damp and it entices the worms to crawl bwtween the layers of paper making them easier to harvest.

One thing that caught me by surprise is the amount of food these little buggers can blow thru once they reach adulthood. They ate their way thru 4 cups of bran and 5 or 6 potato slices in a little over a week. And when I say they ate the potato slices I mean they ate it ALL. Not a hint of them were left

I'm really thinking a 5 drawer set up would be more ideal for my needs as the worms take a pretty good length of time to grow out. I'm thinking that I can rotate drawers once a month so about the time I get to the last drawer the first is ready to harvest.

Brett

 

[WestKnollAmy]

When I let the meal worms out of the bag I found several pupae in the mix. It won't take long with mine on a west wall and outside temps near 100 for these to start maturing and giving me another colony.

I find the life cycle very interesting but do not have much time to devote to watching it. Checking them every other day is about all I can manage, if that.

My first colony, in 2 big plastic tubs, is still thriving well with lots of beetles that eat like crazy. I gave them some cereal one day and they seemed to enjoy that. They really like the wheat bread I give them but the carrots are their main joy. Those must have plenty of juice in them because I think they all pull out a straw when I put fresh carrots in the bins.

I took some mealies down to the keet brooder but the keets didn't have a chance! The dark Brahma chicks were like piranhas! The keets looked like they were interested but were no match for the chicks. I have fed these chicks worms from my hands before and they knew what to look for! However, the keets were in the brooders when I fed mealies, too but I think they are just too skittish to come to my hands. I need to build them their own brooder so they can enjoy being fed yummy treats by scary humans.

I am hoping in another month to actually see my next generation of mealies crawling around. They are so tiny right now!

 

[crazy huhn]

Quote:
Very nice set up Hunterlauren93.

I was the one you had send the PM and I PMed you back. You actually even answered my PM with the question if I just can mail out pupae and beetles. And I PMed you back that yes, I can do that, too.

If you need me to resend both PM, let me know.....

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Sorry to hear about your UJ's dead worm drama feliciamckee. Let's hope the second order is all healthy and wiggling.

Kassaundra~ We're honored to meet Adam and Eve!!!

Hunterlauren93 ~ Nice set up! Love the photos!

 

[hannakat]

WestKnollAmy ~ I just know you have THOUSANDS of wee wormies in your bins! If my mesily 1000 has produced all these wee wormies...your's have done the same only multiplied. Even with the loss of the one bin, betchagonnabesohappy!

 

[bobbyc1970]

I got about 100 pupae about a week and half old.

 

[hannakat]

Yea bobbyc!

 

[bobbyc1970]

Hoping to see beetles soon. thinking bigger drawer system.

 

[Mommato5]

Hello! I've been lurking.

We just got our chickies 2 weeks ago and they came to us scared of humans and not interested in treats. I bought some mealworms from the pet store and they LOVED them! Ate them right out of my hand! It was so exciting, I just HAD to jump onto the mealworm farming bandwagon.

I just got my order of 3000 mealworms from Nature's Way and I am BEYOND impressed!! I ordered Monday, it shipped Tuesday (priority). They arrived Wednesday but they were put on the truck and the mailman was running super late! I checked the mail a bunch but it was never there. I ended up checking again this morning, Thursday, and there was my box of mealworms! Yikes! Out all night! I opened it up this morning and I swear I've seen a total of *3* dead ones! Amazing! I 100% recommend this place! (Although, the medium ones that I got are smaller than I expected) They are just so healthy!

I have ground up oatmeal for substrate and cut an apple from our backyard tree in half. They are so crowded on the apple halves that you can't even see them! They must have been hungry/thirsty.

Some also got to meet the inside of my chickens. Man, they love mealworms!!

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
I'm going to do Gallo's one big bin system, if I have problems w/ cannibalism I will modify it to add a small bin inside the big one just for the pupa and as soon as the molt into adults putting them in the one big bin.

The place I have them located right now is 80' of I move them to an area that is 76' will that slow them down a lot?