Mealworm farming

[joan1708]

Please show me your sifting apparatus! What has worked best for you.

Also have a question about pupa. Do you find them on top of the litter or are they buried underneath it?

 

[Zany Chick]

So Im moving out of the house, I have a babysitter for my birds, but not my wormies... so I have to feed them to my birds.... I guess I'll start over later on.

You could try refrigerating a bunch of them. I think you can even refrigerate the pupa, at the colder temperature their metabolism slows down and will pick up again once they are in a warmer climate. At least that's what I remember. It's been about 5 or 6 years since I had my last mealworm farm going.

 

[Zany Chick]

Does anyone start kind of all over and separate everything?
Like, Heat the Wheat Bran all over again to re-steralize?
Clean all the skins out?
Freeze the worms?
Have only beetles in the tank?
To what extreme?
I have seen all the fancy cabinets and 3 and 4 drawer stuff but I have a 10 gallon fish tank only and its been 4 months now so is there any tank maintenance at this point?

Could anyone jump in here and give me a process or ideas at this point? (Im beetles only almost now)
What next to get them up to feeding the girls again? In the beginning there where 100's of worms NOW ZERO!! Whats up?


Thanks in advance

Your beatles may be eating the eggs and small larva. I would move the beetles to another container with fresh wheat bran.

I think I used to pull the pupae and put them in a butter dish until they turned to beetles and then put them in the second container.

Then I would cull a bunch of worms the size I needed and refrigerate them so that they wouldn't turn into pupae, leaving enough to develop into beetles.

As far as food/bedding I used to feed some carrots, it made it easier to see how much wheat was there compared to the skin. I would sift out a bunch of the skin and add more wheat.

I haven't had my farm up and running for about 5 years, so I'm a little foggy on exactly how I did it, but I had at least 2 containers, maybe three. I just used shoebox sized storage containers with holes drilled in the lids. Im curious to see these "fancier" system/containers.

My frogs are long gone, but now that I have chickens I was thinking of starting up again. I need to scrub out those containers! I hope that helps some, or that someone with more recent experience have advice.

If none of this makes any sense to you, I appologize, I didn't have my morning coffe yet

 

[Zany Chick]

I want the beetles because I dont want to wait for the mealworms to turn. I have mealworms now, but I want about 50 beetles to start out my farm, That way I get a large farm faster.

Im still looking for beetles if anyone has any they would sell me!!! I need at least 50, but if you have more, Ill buy as many as you will sell!!!

I think the first time I bought mealworms (years ago) it was from someone on ebay and I got a container from their farm with all stages in it. I don't know if other places sell like that. I had raised them for frogs and turtles I had. Now that I just got chickens, I'm planning on starting up again.

 

[Kassaundra]

Today I noticed some webs and clumps in my mealie bins. Ugh!! I think they are moth larva. Soooo.......is it best to just dump the bins and let the chicks eat the mealies or is it possible to try to save any of them?? If I miss one little egg or larva are they just going to come back again?? I would rather dump them than have the rest of my bins infested. Please give me your opinions quickly before I have a disaster on my hands!! So far only one isolated bin has the webs. Thanks for any and all replies!!!!

I have not dealt w/ this problem, but I know someone else was earlier, but don't remember what she did.

 

[onafixedincome]

Webby bits...go through, handful by handful and delicately remove every bit of those to the chickens. Screen the tops of your other bins--if you're right and it's moths, you'll thank me later.

You might consider just feeding out that one bin if the above doesn't work; scrub and start that bin over.

ZanyChick, welcome to insanity . It really is well worth the time to go through all OMG HOW MANY pages of this thread (yes, really all of them) and read it end to end. It took me two days.....on dialup.

SteveBaz, yes, I've started over and over .

I don't worry about sterilizing the bran. I know, I'm weird but so far so good. The chickens, I figure, will eat anything that moves, so things like grain beetles don't bother me. The moths around here are far more interested in critter fiber, so no worries there...and not humid enough for mites (which is nice).

When you're down to just beetles, don't give up! There's more going on in there than you know. Change your beetles over to a fresh container and fresh bran, and hold the first container for about a month, checking weekly by scooping a huge handful and then sitting very still and watching the bran. You're looking for tiny flake movements--lots of them. You won't necessarily see the larva yet, but a big magnifier helps.

My delay from beetles-only to Hey Wow Looka This was about a month, and another two weeks down the road, I'm sifting out feedable worms again. Not a lot, but some, and there's still zillions of teensy tiny ones in there!

You can buy and start a whole new batch in addition, to spread the ages out a bit, but natural variation in egglaying will do that for you if you are patient.

I've never yet seen a patient grasshopper, so I'll just say PERSISTENCE, instead.

 

[ChickenWifey]

So, I have 3 bins. One with worms, one with pupa, and one with beetles. Is this the way everyone here does it? Whats the best temp to keep each bin at for them to grow as fast as they can? Should I be keeping them all in the dark? Im just wondering how everyone else has done it.

I am kinda celebrating though. I have had the setup for about 4 days, and today I pulled out 7 pupa from the worm container!! Yay!!

 

[Klwright1122]

I agree, I would take several hundred of those beetles and put em in a new bin. You have either
Pulled all your worms outta there or let em all pupate. When my worms start to pupate I sift
Through it daily pulling out several hundred Pupa and put in a clean new bin--I let em turn to beetles and make me a Bunch of new worms. Then I havest the biggest worms and put in the freezer (or feed to the chickens) allowing the little ones to continue growing...And feed out until I appears there aren't Any left. Then I dump the whole bin in the chicken yard...they eat dead beetles,worms, and the substrate. I wash the bin and get it ready for a new batch of pupae. I have 7 bins. I usually start a new bin every month...but u would b ok
With a couple, maybe 3..one with worms, one with beetles a couple months younger .....and
As your worms start to mature pull a Couple hundred pupae...every two months I would suggest.--that wud b your third bin. Cuz it Takes 2 months Before the worms are big enuff to do anything with. As your starting ur third, u should be Just about through with the First one. Or keep it long enuff so that the second one is really flourishing--then toss the first in the coop.
Also, I can see "wee -tiny tracks" on the Bottom of my Bin, underneath, while holding it above my head...then I know I have baby worms in there..

 

[Ivywoods]

"Also, I can see "wee -tiny tracks" on the Bottom of my Bin, underneath, while holding it above my head...then I know I have baby worms in there.."

AHA! This is the first time I've read that. I'll have to go have a look-see. I'm still waiting to see little tiny wormies, but I've got LOTS of beetles.

 

[Ivywoods]

I came into the extra bedroom where I have my worms and beetles right now. The sun hits the totes for a very short time in the morning. I came in at just that time. You couldn't see a single beetle in there! They must hate sunshine and had all burried themselves. What cryptic little creatures.