Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

Ok, I am on page 33 but I am getting my mealworms today and have some questions:

Can I feed them layer PELLETS? Or should they be ground up? Seems better if you grind them up....speaking from personal experience.

I was going to get oatmeal but I can't right now so I have to improvise. I also think they will be more nutritional for the chickens if they are eating layer feed and I plan on giving them to the chickens daily.

Can I feed them flax? This I don't know. I've given them pieces of whole grain bread in the past and they seem to eat around the whole items. Try it and let us know!!

Also to make them more nutritional. Would I need to grind this or can they eat it whole? The heat from grinding flax changes the nutritional value so I'd try whole first.


The lady I am buying from (local) is throwing in some beetles to my order! Yay! Yay!!

And Welcome to The Farm!!!

 

[ddeviltlc]

sounds like the right idea now all I have to do is find live ones to start. If you saw the prices for just a small jar of the dead one you would be\ shocked.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Howdy ddeviltlc! Welcome to BYC!!!

 

[galanie]

sounds like the right idea now all I have to do is find live ones to start. If you saw the prices for just a small jar of the dead one you would be\ shocked.

Maybe not. I was just at the specialty bird store that I adore and their mealworms were $12 for 500- and lots of them in there are dead. The bad part is that I actually bought some because my farm has done so poorly due to moths and I wanted the girls to have a treat. What can I say? It was the 1st of the month and I was splurging!

 

[Kassaundra]

Mine have been on layer pellet substrate since day one, I don't grind it at all, just freeze and put in, I will try microwaving it next time for time's sake.

 

[lolita117]

I have pupae!!!!!!!!!!! I've only had my farm going to about 2 weeks. The day before yesterday I noticed one lone pupa, and today its like my plastic bin has exploded with them. Here's a pic!!!!

 

[galanie]

I have pupae!!!!!!!!!!! I've only had my farm going to about 2 weeks. The day before yesterday I noticed one lone pupa, and today its like my plastic bin has exploded with them. Here's a pic!!!!

And soon, yet another of us will proudly be proclaiming, "I have worms!"

 

[Emily1220]

I vote for more walks in poo!!! The calming effect of the chickies and laughter at their antics is waaaay better than any pill!!!!

 

[NightsInWhiteSilkies]

Okay so pretty much all the worms turned to pupea and are now beatles. Ick! lol...Theres still some pupea in the bin but most are beattles.
So is this when I start giving them to the chicks or do the beatles now lay the worms and the worms are what I feed the chicks?
I liked the worms better than seeing all these black beatles crawlin around in the plastic bin. lol....

 

[OkChickens]

Update on the Incubator with mealies in it. I checked this morning and all but 2 have pupated and I have 3 Beetles in this bin. In my control about half have pupated. I have decided to end this experiment. I also made the decision that I will have a mealworm colony in my incubator from now on. They have been growing 2-3 times as fast. This was a great Idea that Amy came up with! 1 thing that I did notice is the veggies need to be replaced almost daily. They dry out very fast. Now I just put in all of the worms and Pupa I have in my 3 bin setup and they are in my incubator now!

Nate