Mealworms... my story. Almost impossible not to raise them!

[Nifty-Chicken]

You know how hard it is to stop weeds from growing, but vegetables take a lot of work? Seems like a lot of things are like that. Pets are often hard to maintain, but pests seem to breed and thrive no matter what you do!

Finally, I've been able to leverage benefits from some of these things we'd usually consider a problem!

5 months ago I orders a ton of mealworms from BYC member sillybirds. We gave the majority of them to our chickens and ducks but reserved a bunch that had already turned to pupae to try and breed them.

We took a handful and put them in a nice home to develop into beetles. We know they aren't fans of being in the light so we put them in a nice secluded area. Well, we're terrible mealworm farmers and completely forgot about them... for like 2 MONTHS!

When the wife was doing some organizing she found them... and all were beetles. We thought for sure they were all dead... and while some were, there were a bunch scurrying around! I gave them some fresh potatoes & carrots and thought we were back in business.

Well... that is until we forgot about them again.

Another 2 months went by and the wife found them again! This time, unfortunately, all were dead.

I was going to toss all the carcass to the chickens when my wife made yet another discovery... hundreds and hundreds of tiny baby mealworms (about 1/4 inch long) crawling all over the container looking for food.

I used a small screen to sift out all the iddy biddy poo particles and then used a larger screen to sift out all the baby worms from the beetles... worked perfectly!

Now I've got them in a new container with lots of food in a place where I (hopefully

) won't forget about them.

What's even better: We found a super tiny baby alligator lizard and didn't know what we were going to feed it... well, we sure have that base covered now!

Tenacious little buggers! Almost too easy to raise! (I hope they don't get into our food storage

)

 

[Whispering Winds]

I have to get a start of these . . .I just read where finches love them, and with 15 of them and more coming, I have a definite market for the first batch and if I get my chickens next Spring (please, everyone, think good thoughts for me!!) I will have them ready to go for them too!! If you can abuse them like that, then I think I can handle them too!!! They are ugly though, I don't know if even a mother could love them!!!

 

[Muggsmagee]

We ordered 5,000 mealworms back in April, to feed to our young chicks. We've had no problems raising 1200 or so into beetles, but we sure thought they were sterile. It took MONTHS of looking for eggs...before we finally found itty bitty worms working their way through the wheat bran. Now we have tens of thousands of mealworms and our chickens go NUTS over them! There is no easier treat to raise, than these. Especially for those of us with a limited growing season for veggies, etc, these can be raised year round!

I quickly got over the creepy crawly issue I had, and now I can grab them by the handful! I highly recommend raising them.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Quote:
I threw out my mealworms since my roaches were superior to them. The exotic roaches I have don't climb, don't smell, breed like mad but only when kept over 90 degrees, and only move at about an inch per second making them very slow for roaches. Best treat you can breed for chickens and IMO, better than mealworms. Mealworms have around 20% or less of digestable insect protein, while my Blaptica dubia roaches have around 36%. And to top it off, they are a good 2 1/2 inches which makes 5 roaches equivilent to 100+ large mealworms. Of course, you don't need as many as I have unless you has numerous reptiles/chickens to feed. www.theroachguy.com has the best prices for a starter colony.

They are not for the squemish, but if you get over the roach factor, get them as soon as possible for your chickens!

 

[Cindy in PA]

Where do you guys keep mealworms, basement or garage? I really don't need bugs in the house. I was all set to pay the price for freeze dried mealworms for the girls until I saw they all come from CHINA! Don't need melamine fed mealworms. Just me, but I just couldn't buy them. Would love to grow them, but figure I could handle earthworms better.

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
I threw out my mealworms since my roaches were superior to them. The exotic roaches I have don't climb, don't smell, breed like mad but only when kept over 90 degrees, and only move at about an inch per second making them very slow for roaches. Best treat you can breed for chickens and IMO, better than mealworms. Mealworms have around 20% or less of digestable insect protein, while my Blaptica dubia roaches have around 36%. And to top it off, they are a good 2 1/2 inches which makes 5 roaches equivilent to 100+ large mealworms. Of course, you don't need as many as I have unless you has numerous reptiles/chickens to feed. www.theroachguy.com has the best prices for a starter colony.

They are not for the squemish, but if you get over the roach factor, get them as soon as possible for your chickens!

Roaches, eh? Once my brain processes the possibility, I may research it. It is a tad gross to think about, but so were the worms! Thanks for the info!

Cindy in PA wrote: Where do you guys keep mealworms, basement or garage? I really don't need bugs in the house. I was all set to pay the price for freeze dried mealworms for the girls until I saw they all come from CHINA! Don't need melamine fed mealworms. Just me, but I just couldn't buy them. Would love to grow them, but figure I could handle earthworms better.

We got our worms online...I think it was through PetCo. I can't remember. There are plenty of American businesses and hobbyists who grow them. Depending on the quantity you want, meaning speed of production, will factor on where you keep them. We keep ours in a lidded plastic tub in the den, but will likely move them to a cooler location where they will "slow down" their breeding/growing. Also, you can just walk into a PetSmart/PetCo and buy 50 mealworms for about $3. Don't put them in the fridge if you want to breed them. Put them in a tub of wheat bran with a carrot or 1/2 potato for moisture. They will grow, shed their skin a few times, turn into pupa, then after a few weeks you will have darkling beetles. Each female beetle can lay close to 500 eggs. If half of your mealworms are female (25x500=12,500) worms. The way your chickens will eat them, they will go fast!

My chickens refuse to eat earthworms.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I would also encourage all chicken raisers to grow mealworms. It is so easy. I have a page describing how to raise them, just click on the link at the top of my BYC page. I'm still working on convincing the family on Pet Duck Boy's roaches. I would like to raise those too, but that's a pretty hard sell around here.

 

[sillybirds]

Way to go Nifty! I'm glad you've got a worm colony going now. Give them a water source, e.g. carrot slices or pieces of potatoes once a week or so, and you'll get higher yields. They are easy to raise. Enjoy!

 

[sillybirds]

Pet Duck Boy, I've got some blaptica dubia roaches too. My chickens love them (of course, being the ravenous omnivores that they are!

). I started a couple colonies of the roaches about a year ago to feed to my gecko and chickens, and now I have thousands! I've given a couple free samples (crack for chickens!) to a couple of my mealworm customers.

 

[Tdub4chiks]

I've been raising mealworms for a few years now. I sell them through a small pet supply business I have. I have customers with bearded dragons, hedgehogs and turtles. They love them. Then there are the bluebird enthusists. If you want to attract bluebirds, bring on the mealworms. When I got chickens for the first time in June, I had no idea they liked mealworms. Wow....they go crazy over them. I only feed them mealworms a couple times a week, otherwise, I wouldn't have any for my customers. lol