Mealworm farming

[andrea98]

I have baby worms!!!!!!!!!

 

[wolftracks]

I have baby worms!!!!!!!!!

Congrats, but I'm sooo jealous!

 

[galanie]

I have baby worms!!!!!!!!!

 

[andrea98]

I thought they would never come!!! They are sooooooo tiny!!!
I have found two diff sizes , the small one look no wider than a piece of hair...

 

[jrhbull]

Check out the Super Worms their much bigger and the chickens love them.

 

[onafixedincome]

I like big worms as much as anyone, but SuperWorms are just too much!

So...I'm up around 6-700 beetles and still morphing, with several hundred pupae still to change...and a couple thousand of worms yet to pupate.

My d'Anvers hen is eating me out of house and home and will actively hunt me down if she has not had hers for the day, even in the presence of company. LOL! Maybe sometime soon she'll fly up for them (although as fat as she is getting, I suspect ballast might be an issue, heheh).

 

[wsmoak]

Wendy...I wonder if we were "peering" at our bran at the same time last night? LOL--what a funny picture that gave me! So nice of you to use them for bluebirds...are you a rehabber or do you put them out for the parent birds to feed to the babies? Neat pic too! Terri O

I just feed and monitor the wild ones that come to my nest boxes. I'm hoping to get some good flight photos this year using the mealworms to bring them to a platform with a nice backdrop.

I think I'll wait for the worms to grow a bit more before I try to put them in a new box. It took five minutes to find *one* tiny worm to relocate!

-Wendy

 

[donnavee]

I see others who have opted to raise some kind of cockroach instead of meal worms. Of the two, I have no plans on raising an insect I can't stand in or around my house -- so cockroaches are out. Even if I would get a lot of pleasure out of seeing the chickens consume the nasty critters. I figure I've chosen the lesser of two "evils." Besides mealworms aren't that bad an option when you really think about it. Now fly maggots...that would peak my gross-out meter!

I'm one of the "cockroach people" and believe me, I would never have thought I could do it but they aren't that bad once you get over the "yuck" part. I have tried mealworms a couple of times and always end up with a moldy mess. Guess I'll go through this thread and maybe consider trying again. The girls go absolutely nuts over the roaches when I throw them out and I also give them dried meal worms from time to time, but they do get expensive.

 

[Kassaundra]

I'm one of the "cockroach people" and believe me, I would never have thought I could do it but they aren't that bad once you get over the "yuck" part. I have tried mealworms a couple of times and always end up with a moldy mess. Guess I'll go through this thread and maybe consider trying again. The girls go absolutely nuts over the roaches when I throw them out and I also give them dried meal worms from time to time, but they do get expensive.

I do both, but my meal colony isn't big enough to feed any out yet, so the girls haven't ever had any, but they will smooth take you out for a dubia!

 

[binders]

I,ve got LOTS of pupa. Have remove and isolated over 200 per day for the last 3 days and already had many more before that. Some of them have become battles now and it is so much fun to watch the change. I am setting up a new 3 drawer bin tonight to get another place to put the beetles bacause may other 2 beetle containers are pretty full already. In my first bettle drawer I am starting to see quite a few dead beetles so Iam thinking that that group will start to slow down a little. I have had my first larva from those origial battles start to morph into pupa now so I am going to be working on my 3 generation soon! I can't wait until I have so many larva that I don't feel guilt when I pull some out to feed the chickens. That is what I started this for (although I am having so much fun with it)!