Mealworm farming

[gavinandallison]

try West Knoll Amy on the South Carolina forum, she sells and ships! I got over 3000 from her....

 

[G-Man]

Congrats on the Pupas and the Beetle! I am glad to hear that they are growing!

Nate

Thanks Nate! There's over a dozen very light colored beetles cruising around now.
They're moving through their life cycle much faster that I had expected. It's pretty interesting.. I could totally see this as a school science project.

 

[OkChickens]

That's great to hear! I got 10k Mealworms at the very beginning if January and All but maybe 50-75 are Beetles. Of those 50-75 there are maybe10 worms and the rest are pupa. I have 2 drawers full of Beetles and 2 Drawers full of very tiny baby worms! I am about to sift out my beetle drawers to replace the wheat bran so all of the eggs can become worms! They grow very fast!

Nate

 

[Tivona]

That's great to hear! I got 10k Mealworms at the very beginning if January and All but maybe 50-75 are Beetles. Of those 50-75 there are maybe10 worms and the rest are pupa. I have 2 drawers full of Beetles and 2 Drawers full of very tiny baby worms! I am about to sift out my beetle drawers to replace the wheat bran so all of the eggs can become worms! They grow very fast!

Nate

10k beetles? You didn't feed any to your birds? Just out of curiosity, are all yours in the two 3 drawer set plastic storage in your pictures? I just ordered 3k of mealworms and I am still trying to figure out how much I can put in to my bins.

 

[OkChickens]

I started out with about 3-4k in each drawer and them when they became beetles I bought another 3 bin setup and I now have the beetles in 2 drawers. I only have 1 drawer empty right now. I might need to get another 3 bin soon!



In the next few days I will cut the bottom out of the top 2 drawers and glue window screen and put the beetles in there with with rolled oats for bedding. This way the eggs and small worms will fall through the screen to the next drawer.

Nate

 

[Ivywoods]

OKChickens-I'm thinking I will move up from my one bin system to one of the 3 drawer systems like you pictured. I noticed it looked like you had your drawers pulled forward a bit. Do you leave them like that for extra ventillation?

The thing that has held me back is the fact that I see those little moths around sometimes. I absolutely don't want them in my worm bins, so I've ordered some of those Safer brand moth traps and am waiting for them to arrive.

I was thinking I might cut some narrow slots in the sides and back of the drawers toward the top and put screen over that in order to allow more ventillation. I'm not sure if I will do that yet or not. I will definitely cut the bottom out of the top one and put my beetles in there, then hopefully I will just be able to rotate the bottom two bins.

 

[OkChickens]

OKChickens-I'm thinking I will move up from my one bin system to one of the 3 drawer systems like you pictured. I noticed it looked like you had your drawers pulled forward a bit. Do you leave them like that for extra ventillation?

Yes I leave about 1-2 inches open on each drawer.

The thing that has held me back is the fact that I see those little moths around sometimes. I absolutely don't want them in my worm bins, so I've ordered some of those Safer brand moth traps and am waiting for them to arrive.

I was thinking I might cut some narrow slots in the sides and back of the drawers toward the top and put screen over that in order to allow more ventillation. I'm not sure if I will do that yet or not. I will definitely cut the bottom out of the top one and put my beetles in there, then hopefully I will just be able to rotate the bottom two bins.

You don't really need to put screen over it if they don't fly or climb up the plastic. I plan to do this in the next few days.

Nate

 

[galanie]

They do fine without any extra ventilation in those 3 drawer things.

 

[Ivywoods]

Oh, I wasn't worried about them climbing or flying. My concern was the darn moths we tend to get with my DH's parrot food. I sure don't want them finding my worm bins. If the worms don't need the extra ventilation, then I probably won't worry about cutting the extra windows for ventillation.

Maybe the only reason they would need extra ventillation would be if the humidity and dampness were too high and mold was an issue??? but I don't think I need to worry about that here.

 

[mychookschick]

Hello everyone!! I just bought 200 wormies (not a lot, I know) and 3 containers (to use like a three drawer system, but they're not drawers). Beginner question: Is the "oat bran" like the bran that you can use for horses? All that it says on the bag of bran for horses is "table bran". Is that okay to use for my worms??
Thanks!

ETA: I just realized that the worms that I got a couple of weeks ago and refrigerated are giant mealworms and the other hundred that I just picked up are just regular mealworms. Will the big worms hurt the little ones if I put them together??