Mealworm farming

[Kassaundra]

If it were to rain in that window they could get too wet and have mold or mildew problems. Moths can get through screen and I have heard they can cause problems in a meal worms bin. Mice are really attracted to meal worms but if it is covered you may not have a problem.
Those are the only concerns I would have other than direct sunlight, which they do not like.

I can attest to that, lost my whole colony in just 2 days to a mouse. My bins are covered now and not w/ screening I drilled a hundred or so holes in the plastic locking lid w/ a small drill bit.

 

[mychookschick]

Oh noooooo........dont stop the pictures here. I want to see the rest of the hatching pictures!!!! That is adorable.

Ok... You can see more pics on the hatch along thread in my siggy. But I don't remember if there are pics of my chicks yet! I have pics of them, but they are still on my camera. Haven't had time to upload them yet. We are getting ready for my sisters wedding, so I don't have a lot of time on here. Just a few minutes!

 

[Kassaundra]

Ok... You can see more pics on the hatch along thread in my siggy. But I don't remember if there are pics of my chicks yet! I have pics of them, but they are still on my camera. Haven't had time to upload them yet. We are getting ready for my sisters wedding, so I don't have a lot of time on here. Just a few minutes!

I saw the reference to Lewiston, ME in your signature line, my step mother is from Lewiston, until marrying my father and moving to OK I think she had lived in and around Lewiston her entire life.

 

[onafixedincome]

Okay...I've now gone through my beetle bin, removed 99% of the bedding because it was TEEMING with worms, re-bedded the beetles in fresh bran (ooh, they loved that!)...and I have a nasty sinking feeling that I'm going to be overrun with mealie larva very very soon now!

**gee, won't that be AWFUL?**

I have a large Sterilite tote that is now full almost to the top with hatching bedding, and that's going to need to be split up into flat bins so they have room to grow, but...OMG....I am just absolutely gobsmacked by HOW MANY babies there are already (not to mention how large some of them are!)....!!

What do you folks do at this point, O Gurus Of Grub? Just split it up into smaller containers and pull out worms as they hit feeder size, or keep it in one big box, or ....?

And how long until it's safe to discard the hatching bedding as exhausted? I tried the 'put a veggie on the surface and get lots of babies coming up' and got nothing despite being able to see zillions moving around....

Thanks all!

 

[sillybirds]

What do you folks do at this point, O Gurus Of Grub? Just split it up into smaller containers and pull out worms as they hit feeder size, or keep it in one big box, or ....?

And how long until it's safe to discard the hatching bedding as exhausted? I tried the 'put a veggie on the surface and get lots of babies coming up' and got nothing despite being able to see zillions moving around....

I'd split your colony up into at least a couple boxes, so as to "not have all your eggs in one basket". Given proper space and food supply mealworms can propagate fast and get out of hand fast! The number and size of boxes you choose will depend on your goals. That is, how many worms do you want to raise to feed to your chickens per given time period. As far as how long before it's safe to discard hatching bedding... during warmer weather, worms will usually grown out by a month or two. I always freeze the collected frass/waste bedding at least a day before discarding into my compost pile.

Here's a picture of about half of my set up at it's peak a year or so ago. It's now about a fourth of this due to my waning interest and lack of time to deal with mealworms sales.

 

[onafixedincome]

Sillybird--wow! Gorgeously organized and clean and everything mine isn't...LOL...

Now that it's warming up (I'm up in the Oro-Chico area of CA), the mealies are getting the boot from the house to out in the barn on top of the rabbit cages, since that stays anywhere from 80-92 F or so in daytime.

Sooo...sounds like the dollar store is going to make a bit of $$ from me here; go get about a dozen more of the big flat 'keeper' boxes and melt a buncha holes in the tops, then start splitting...I'm thinking that, since most of what they currently are in is frass, I'll do half fresh bran and half 'stock' with all the babies and see how it goes....? What density were/are you raising them at for best growout?

What have you found to be the best way to hydrate the teenies? I tried carrots and while they adore them, the darn things keep molding up on me even in an open box! Now doing a 'wet bedding' arrangement where I pour a small amount of weak tea down the middle of the box and they seem to migrate to that and be fairly happy...?

I plan to keep two bins of about 3,000 beetles going, swapping bedding about once a month for growout. So I'm figuring the first 6,000 worms big enough to pick out are set-asides for breeders and the rest get to grow out and be either fed or frozen for winter feeding. It's not like the chickens think that there is ever enough of them, after all...! Monsters! Of course, being just down the road from the lake, I figure on a few bait sales to help pay for the bran and time.....

But I must admit, there is NOTHING like mealworms to get your chickens up in your face waiting for the next one!

 

[laughingdog52]

I have 2500 coming on Monday,, so thanks for all the info. I don't have any room in the freezer for the bran, so I guess I will microwave it. So much great info here and on u-tube.

 

[Auscal]

Edited to delete my question, since I found the answer elsewhere in this long, but very informative, thread.

 

[Emily1220]

I'd split your colony up into at least a couple boxes, so as to "not have all your eggs in one basket". Given proper space and food supply mealworms can propagate fast and get out of hand fast! The number and size of boxes you choose will depend on your goals. That is, how many worms do you want to raise to feed to your chickens per given time period. As far as how long before it's safe to discard hatching bedding... during warmer weather, worms will usually grown out by a month or two. I always freeze the collected frass/waste bedding at least a day before discarding into my compost pile.

Here's a picture of about half of my set up at it's peak a year or so ago. It's now about a fourth of this due to my waning interest and lack of time to deal with mealworms sales.

I love this set up and it gave me the perfect solution idea to moving my mealies out to the garage for the warmer season. But I am totally confused as to why you would freeze the frass before putting it on a compost pile.

 

[Kassaundra]

I love this set up and it gave me the perfect solution idea to moving my mealies out to the garage for the warmer season. But I am totally confused as to why you would freeze the frass before putting it on a compost pile.

So was I, I meant to ask but forgot.