Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

Quote:
Frozen mealworms actually return to their unfrozen consistency but they don't move. They are not mushy. If left out for a couple of hours they will turn black but I only let them thaw for about 15 minutes before feeding them to the girls.

Mealworms are not hosts for parasites. Hope this helps.



Egg Incubation: 4-19 days (usually 4-7). Another source says 20-40 days
Larva: 10 weeks. Visible after about a week
Pupa: 6-18 (18-24?) days
Beetle and Egg Laying: 8-12 weeks (followed by death). Egg laying starts 4-19 days (average 12) after emergence


Beetles lay eggs that hatch into wee wormies. The worms grow, sheding their exoskelton up to 20 times before pupating. The pupae then morph into beetles and the cycle begins again. Check out the photos on my mealworm page....

Screen depth: whatever the container allows or 1-3 inches.

 

[FrenchToast]

Has anyone ordered from EBay from Washtington state? TastyCrawlers? Looks like they have good prices?

I have tons of chickens so want to order alot and get a reasonable price too !!

Thanks

 

[Resolution]

Be careful who you buy them from. Unscrupulous breeders sell a predator of the mealworm along with the mealworm and they're not easy to distinguish.
The predator makes sure you don't rear as many mealworms as you'd like to.

If you want the mealworm to be nutritionally valuable, you'll have to feed it a better food than just wheat bran and fruit. Try grinding up dogfood and mixing this into the wheat bran. It increases the nutritional value of the mealworm.

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Seriously? Only predators of mealworms I know of are birds, lizards and such. Don't think they can hide in with a bag of worms

Thinking more about your post....I don't even feed my dogs commercial dog food (I make their food~Had a short thread about it a while back under a different topic).

It is my understanding that to change a mealworms nutritional value, you gut load them right before feeding them to the chickens (or lizard or bird or frog). You can raise them organically as crazy huhn does athough that doesn't change their nutritional "value" either, but that does make a difference if you're goal is to raise truely "organic" chickens laying organic eggs.

Just my rambling thoughts....

 

[FrenchToast]

Quote:
Feel free to PM me with any sellers you know that have good healthy mealworm stock !!! What is the predator actually that they send?
Also another question. Can mealworms be carriers of other things such as tapeworm, gapeworm, cecal worm, round worm, just to name a few? Blackhead protozoa ? (sp)

Thanks

 

[FrenchToast]

Oh and as long as I'm asking questions here. How many mealworms would you have to feed your chickens, ducks, guineas or peafowl in order to cut back on their regular food consumption?

Of course I would like to feed them the mealworms for a good protien boost but it sure would help to be able to save some on their food bill too !!

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
ummmm....again....."Mealworms are not hosts for parasites".

You might want to PM Resolution to ask that question since he is not a regular on this thread...at least not yet! Maybe he'll join us.

 

[oneofseven]

Be careful how much extra protein you give your babies. Too much on a regular basis can cause health problems.

 

[binders]

Quote:
You don't have to put the lid on either. This is just to keep things from getting in. The mealworms/beetles won't climb out of the bin. By leaving it open it will get a lot more air so it can dry out. Also try to feed drier things and don't leave them in for very long or feed less often. I live in NM which is also very dry and I have to add moisture to my set-up because I thought it was too dry. I do this by putting plastic tubs with sponge pieces in them into the drawers but keep it away from the substrate. Hope this helps.

 

[Resolution]

Zoos have been farming waxworms and mealworms for a very long time while, a few centuries actually. In zoo trition manuals they maintain that the mealworm is only as good as what it's been fed. Its cellular structure is derived of what it's been eating. Gut loading is one way to insure this but rearing the mealworm on a richer food is necessary for birds like beeeaters and baby cotingas. In many zoos the mealworms will be strained out- into different sizes for different animals- reptiles- amphibians- different species of birds and conditioned accordingly. They'll be gut loaded on egg powder topped with a reptile colour enhancer for many species or fed on the maintenance fare of another species. For example, cotinga chicks are fed mealworms raised on frog food. Crickets will also be gut loaded from nymph stage on.

I was surprised to lean about the predatory beetle that is sold along with mealworms. I'd never heard of it until one of the old pro breeders told me about it. He told me that over the last few years of his experience it had suddenly become more difficult to rear mealworms because people were selling predatory beetle larvae along with mealworms. They look a lot alike but obviously one is a scavenger and the other a predator of the scavenger.

I've been hearing a lot about fly pupae and think that they are more sustainable with less management required than mealworms for people with larger flocks.