Mealworm farming

[wolftracks]

I used 30% Game Bird crumbles and I stick a carrot in every once in a while. I made to much fuss last time. My worms have gotten so big and I have beetles this time. Not a dead tub to toss out. I'm using one small show box sized tub for now, but I'm going to need a bigger one, since they are all growing and morphing on me. It's getting crowed. YAY!

 

[destin0709]

So I am using the drawer system, beetles one drawer, pupae drawer and worm drawer. Do you use the same food like oats, game bird crumbles, wheat bran in all the drawers? Or should they have different foods at different stages? Do they even need food in the pupae stage? I'm sure someone covered this before but I have dial up and you can only imagine how long it would take me to get threw all the posts. Thanks!!

 

[bobbieschicks]

From my research and reading as many posts as possible - I found that the food can be any combination of oats, bird crumbles and wheat bran or just one of those. The only stage that doesn't eat is the pupa stage - but you will want a substrate in there for anyone who turns into a beetle before you get to them. And for moisture you'll need to put something like carrots or potato slices in with the beetles and larva stage. Page 3 has the original poster, Hannakat's setup with pictures.

So I am using the drawer system, beetles one drawer, pupae drawer and worm drawer. Do you use the same food like oats, game bird crumbles, wheat bran in all the drawers? Or should they have different foods at different stages? Do they even need food in the pupae stage? I'm sure someone covered this before but I have dial up and you can only imagine how long it would take me to get threw all the posts. Thanks!!

 

[destin0709]

bobbieschicks - Ok thanks, That's what I did. I did get to page 10 of all the posts and it was taking forever. LOL

 

[Klwright1122]

Does anyone have an easy way to separate beetles from worms? I sifted all the substrate out with an old
Screen kitchen strainer but now I have live (and dead) Beetles and worms...I would like to freeze the worms and give the beetles to the chickens...
My beetles are living much longer then 30 days. As a matter of fact, the babies that hatched are pupating before all my beetles die.

 

[Johann T]

does anyone knows how much protein mealworms have? If you can choose between mealworms and superworms (Zophobas Morio) what would you choose for your chikens? (considering rasing Superworms is harder)

 

[Ivywoods]

Mealworms are 58% protien. I assume superworms are about the same. Regular mealworms are easy to raise, so why would you want to mess with the others? I guess since I chose to raise regular mealworms that would indicate my preference for those.

 

[Kassaundra]

I don't think there is much of any nutritional diff in super and meal worms from what I researched. The big diff is the size, takes a lot less super worms to fill???? (ha ha like that is even possible) a chicken then the meal worms. I am a very lazy insect raiser, that easily loses track of days and times so for me the less hands on the better, I chose meal worms specifically for the ease. I would not raise any feeder insect that requires a lot of fussing w/.

 

[Johann T]

Mealworms it is! - I checked how to raise super-worms and it is quite harder. thanks guys!

 

[wolftracks]

The only thing I got from super worms was dead worms. I want very little trouble and less effort. I need the energy for other things.