Mealworm farming

[WestKnollAmy]

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Yeah, sorry about that. For some reason everyone likes my eggs. I am glad since I love my pretty babies and enjoy being able to share. It is just odd that no one has wanted my meal worms....until now. AyeUpChuck is getting a good start.

That swap thread is so much fun. Sometimes it does go so quickly I can't keep up and other times it can drag. You all should join us sometime and Trish, good going on making a swap page!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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My best advice is to go back to page 1 and start skimming through the posts. There are some fantastic photos all through this thread and we all seem to do things a bit differently. It is super simple and really a lot of fun. I spend maybe 10 minutes twice a week with all of mine and I have 4 large plastic bins so far and getting ready to add more because they multiply so well.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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I lost a big colony and a small colony to grain mites. I was near tears when I had to feed them to the chickens but then realized that it was okay, they enjoyed the treat and I had plenty to continue with since I have several bins going all the time now.

Grain mites are horrid little buggers and they crawled down out of one of my bins into another on the floor. I got them by making the mistake of pouring the leavings of DD's Guinea Pig pellets out of the bottom of the bag directly into the bin. If my old brain had been working it would have known that was wrong. Now everything gets put into the freezer for at least 24 hours if not 48 before going into a bin.

Look at all the white stuff on the table leg (an old dog grooming table, don't laugh at the legs) and all over the floor around it. Bad, bad Amy! Bad, bad mites!

 

[hannakat]

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[Kassaundra]

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Nope, not just bantams. I have LF, as well.
I am finally getting down to the 500 mark which is where I would like to be, if not a bit lower for chickens, Guineas and ducks. These meal worms have been great for me to feed my chicks.

Go to my website and spend a bit of time looking around. It is sort of big and I need to add many more pages but I never seem to find the time.

as in 500 chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No wonder you are looking for alternative treats / food

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Here is my set up today. It changes every time the DD wants to clean the room (not often enough since that room is always a mess but it is hers

)

I have the bins in 2 different corners of the room but will only show this one. I keep the covers over them to keep the cats from using them as a playground or litter box. You just never know with cats what they are thinking. I keep the lids where air can move through there though.

Here are my 2 oldest bins. I have found they love to be under newspaper and it provides an excellent place to put out fruit or veggies.

If I lift the newspaper here is what I see........

And when I get ready to take some down to the chickies, this is what I use to scoop and sift them back into the bins with. The eggs, small wormies and anything else like the wheat bran goes back into the bin for future use. As you can tell I eat quick meal food sometimes. I got this snap together strainer from a microwave meal and it is just the right size for lots of worms to go to the barn. The beetles and big worms stay in the container but some pupae does, too. Mine still eat the pupae but I would rather it be all worms. I can't tell that the chicks care though.

Hope I helped some get ideas!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
Nope, not just bantams. I have LF, as well.
I am finally getting down to the 500 mark which is where I would like to be, if not a bit lower for chickens, Guineas and ducks. These meal worms have been great for me to feed my chicks.

Go to my website and spend a bit of time looking around. It is sort of big and I need to add many more pages but I never seem to find the time.

as in 500 chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No wonder you are looking for alternative treats / food

Yeah, I hit around 700 this summer and it was working me to death so I figured I better cut back. I am no spring chicken

and it is hard on my old body.
We have a farm so there are plenty of foods in the summer but winter is harder and I like my chicks to have other foods, especially something as good as meal worms.

I have a pile of old bags that I grow larvae and maggots in for the free ranging chickens and some of my breeder pens. I use nylon woven bags from our local grain mill to put in my brooders (I don't use shavings) and every day or two when they have to be changed I throw them out in a pile that is below my barn where the water run off is. Today I went down and started pulling back some bags because we have had rain the past few days and there were tons of beetle larvae and maggots in, under and around all those bags. Stinks like the dickens but the chickens were flying over my head trying to get a spot where they could grab some. There are tons and tons and it is another source of good nutritional free feed.
I scoop some up in a shovel and try to take it to the breeder pens either in a wagon or wheel barrel but I have chickens flying up and helping themselves, knocking the shovel out of my hands and fighting over the wheel barrel. I often have to try to do it first thing in the morning before I let them all out or after they go up for the night, but neither time is easy for me to see them so I try to work around the chickens.

Meal worms are so much more dignified!

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:

as in 500 chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No wonder you are looking for alternative treats / food

Yeah, I hit around 700 this summer and it was working me to death so I figured I better cut back. I am no spring chicken

and it is hard on my old body.
We have a farm so there are plenty of foods in the summer but winter is harder and I like my chicks to have other foods, especially something as good as meal worms.

I have a pile of old bags that I grow larvae and maggots in for the free ranging chickens and some of my breeder pens. I use nylon woven bags from our local grain mill to put in my brooders (I don't use shavings) and every day or two when they have to be changed I throw them out in a pile that is below my barn where the water run off is. Today I went down and started pulling back some bags because we have had rain the past few days and there were tons of beetle larvae and maggots in, under and around all those bags. Stinks like the dickens but the chickens were flying over my head trying to get a spot where they could grab some. There are tons and tons and it is another source of good nutritional free feed.
I scoop some up in a shovel and try to take it to the breeder pens either in a wagon or wheel barrel but I have chickens flying up and helping themselves, knocking the shovel out of my hands and fighting over the wheel barrel. I often have to try to do it first thing in the morning before I let them all out or after they go up for the night, but neither time is easy for me to see them so I try to work around the chickens.

Meal worms are so much more dignified!

 

[OwensMom]

Amy, had no idea that you had so many chickens. That is alot of work!!!! Your farm is beautiful, by the way. Out here we don't have to many maggots. Chickens have free run of the animal pens so get the flies and eggs. Mealworms will be the best i think. We control the nutrition for the mealworms so we know the food quality. And you don't have to fight off the chickens to harvest them!!

 

[hannakat]

Quote:

as in 500 chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No wonder you are looking for alternative treats / food

Yeah, I hit around 700 this summer and it was working me to death so I figured I better cut back. I am no spring chicken

and it is hard on my old body.
We have a farm so there are plenty of foods in the summer but winter is harder and I like my chicks to have other foods, especially something as good as meal worms.

I have a pile of old bags that I grow larvae and maggots in for the free ranging chickens and some of my breeder pens. I use nylon woven bags from our local grain mill to put in my brooders (I don't use shavings) and every day or two when they have to be changed I throw them out in a pile that is below my barn where the water run off is. Today I went down and started pulling back some bags because we have had rain the past few days and there were tons of beetle larvae and maggots in, under and around all those bags. Stinks like the dickens but the chickens were flying over my head trying to get a spot where they could grab some. There are tons and tons and it is another source of good nutritional free feed.
I scoop some up in a shovel and try to take it to the breeder pens either in a wagon or wheel barrel but I have chickens flying up and helping themselves, knocking the shovel out of my hands and fighting over the wheel barrel. I often have to try to do it first thing in the morning before I let them all out or after they go up for the night, but neither time is easy for me to see them so I try to work around the chickens.

Meal worms are so much more dignified!