My own Meaties Experiment

[kizanne]

Quote:
I have mealworms that are from eggs to large.

I'm feeding them small to medium and they are tearing them up and they run toward my hand instead of away because they love them soo much

I sprinkled some grit over their starter before hand. Now I'm putting a small number on a plastic tray and they are just having a blast one will pick one up and then run away cheeping. Of course then the chase is on even though there are more. They are playing alot like my other chicks have. They are eating more, they are pooping more but for the most part it is normal chick city so far.

To cornish20

Quote:
I don't really want this thread to become a soy thread. I'm trying to document my journey not debate soy no soy or organic, non-organic.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

I think it's a pretty nifty experiment - ESPECIALLY if you can raise your own meal worms...which is not in my bag of tricks yet

But I'm watching this just to see how it goes!

 

[kizanne]

Day 5 update (I've only had them 3 days the first 2 was shipping)

I lost two within the first two days. One came very small and weak and would only drink but not eat. tried sugar water, sav-a-chick and egg yolk
the other did eat and drink but got sleepy and was dead within 4 hours

All the others appear fine, all are eating, drinking and running around with the zoomies especially during mealworm time

the current weight gain on average is 56% with the minimum being 14% and the maximum being 90% that is about 1 ounce in 3 days
average weight upon arrival was 1.58 ounce now average is 2.51
Min is 1.9 ounces max is 3.21 ounces

Their wings already have quite a few feathers coming in

Edited to ad Average /min / max data

 

[kizanne]

EggsforIhop raising mealworms doesn't take a whole lot of anything. You get some worms, stick them in a container with sides, give them some wheatbran about $8 for a 25 pound bag. Keep them 'watered' you can do this with veggies (I use stuff out of my garden that other bugs 'ruin') or veggies you wouldn't want to eat like old but not moldy carrots, potatoes that you know you aren't going to eat the whole 5 pound bag before they get too soft. These are their water sources. I also just use a mister and mist the colony with water when I don't have some veggies to get rid of. They are not like earthworms you can't compost in there they do well in a dryish environ without mold but I've found I can get rid of quite a bit I used to compost (free food). I assure you I get plenty of mealworms way more than you get at Lowe's petsmart what have you for my $8 and I could save a little by getting the 50 pound bag or using another meal (wheatbran is just my choice). I also plan once I get way ahead on my chicken treats I plan to sell them locally for $10 / 1000 or something like that. Which is how I got mine although no one local had an ad so I had to get mine while I was in another town. I think the ones you get in petsmart and bait shops are sometimes great other times been in that container too long so I am sure there would be a local market for local fresh mealworm that are actually cheaper than petsmart and stuff. I sell one container and my feed is free. I do the same thing with my layers. I buy what I want (organic feed, non-GMO corn, no soy, fish meal for protein), I treat my ladies the way I want, pampered, treats daily, and time to free range and I can't keep enough eggs to sell but I sell them for $3/doz which pays for their overpriced feed. Saving me 2doz. store bought or other local bought free range, organic eggs weekly which around here is $6-8 a week and mine taste better and I'm sure are healthier.

My whole first setup cost me about $28. I sprung for 2000 worms at $20 (you can get a smaller number just takes longer to build the colony) and an $8 bag of wheatbran. I use a storage box I already had laying around. Each female beetle can lay 20-40 eggs a day and lay between 200 and 600 eggs in their life. So 2000 worms (which I'm sure like most small things being sold I got a few extra) that would be approx. 1000 females. On the low end 2,000,000 eggs and the high end 6,000,000 so then you pull out how many you want to keep breeding when they pupate and do it again leaving plenty to feed to your chickens or sell.

Mealworms are 42% protein the beetles are like 51% protein. I feed the beetles to the chickens too as the beetles get older and I'm sure my bin is seeded with more eggs.

Over the summer I use Black Fly Soldier larva cause they really are free they like chicken poop and other things you'd compost like banana peels but when it gets cool they slow down.

Add to that my free greenery from the yard and I grow a few collards for the chicken (or give them spent beanvines, squash vines, of any veggie ruined by bugs or left over from the table)

With all that my feed goes at about 1/2 the published rate of 4oz. / day / adult egg laying
I do not have specifically production egg layers like ISA but I get 90 to 100% lay in the summer and so far 80% in winter so not bad. I don't supplement light.

There is a mealworm forum right here on BYC and it has tons of info and half the people end up getting mealworms after reading through our fun.

 

[kizanne]

Day 7 update. I've only had them 5 days but they are 7 days old.

So according to the Welp chart I'm behind but I'm still amazed at the growth.

The average chick has doubled its weight these 5 days.
The smallest gain was 19% and the largest was 138%

The smallest weighs 1.98 ounces
The largest weighs 4.37
The average weight is 3.28 ounces.

The chicks are healthy looking and running around like crazy during mealworm time

I now just put a small tray of mealworms down instead of trying to feed each one.
They still have access 24/7 to food at 19%

They have many wing feathers most have 15 small feathers on each wing.

when they first arrived from shipping they seemed cold at the lower temp of the brooder so the first two days I raised it to about 92, I have slowly lowered it to about 85

 

[kizanne]

day 9

There are definately some performance differences. I have about 4 that are on the slow tract. Figure 2 of those might be girls.

I have one that is now 240% of his original weight. If he doesn't end up with health issues I might save him out and see if he can fertilize one of my mutts who is a largish barred rock cross. It will depend how much he crows as I do have neighbors.

They are still loving the mealworms and run around like crazy during that time (2x a day).

I am not on the Welp chart for growth and my feed is 19% so I'm leaving it out 24/7 still

I don't appear to have any health problems right now. The small ones are eating and waking around so I don't think they are sick. no signs of bad poop.

 

[Matrix Escapee]

Quote:
I know you are not doing this as a business, but you gotta give more credit to yourself, your birds, and what you are doing/feeding...and raise your price up from $3/doz. From what I can gather about you from your thread, I'm thinking you want to do something nice and make your eggs affordable for folks that enjoy your eggs/you want to cover feed cost, but you should be charging at least 5 bucks per dozen. Don't sell yourself short even if this is not a biz for you. You deserve to get a premium for your hard work and acceptional methods of raising your hens. You are in a class all by yourself in this regard. Sure, folks can buy "free-range eggs", but to find someone who is soy-free/organic/true free-range/bug supplementing, that is rare and people should feel privelaged to pay for this. Sorry for sidetracking the original subject of the thread. I just see so many passionate egg raisers around here that do alot for their craft and give away their gold.
We do pretty much everything the same, but I raised redworms instead of mealies. We charge $6/dozen. Not everyone would pay that, but we are low volume and find that there are more customers than eggs.
Just my 2 cents. Good stuff on your meaties experiment. We did 19% from start to finish (24/7) on our flocks this season. Worked just fine. I cant see paying for protein higher than that, unless you are really trying to crank out batches in 7 weeks.
BOL!

 

[kizanne]

Matrix thanks for the pep talk. I might raise it when I have to develop new customers this summer. I am a teacher and I'm currently selling to my friends and co-workers who are all teachers as well so $3 is about as high as I dare go. But this summer when school is out I doubt I'll be able to unload 3-4 doz to those people cause I won't see them. I think I try to develop some neighborhood sales which I might can go up to $4. I live in the south and you can get 'farm' eggs for 1.25 on craigslist. I also have a friend who is interested in a meatie. So my cost is gonna be high on that I think but we will see. I'm working on a small homestead. If I could just make all our food free or have someone else paying for it that is actually worth alot around here because for some reason we spend way too much on food.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

Kizanne - I agree, it IS hard to get more for things than what the going price on Craigslist is - it seems as you said "farm eggs" are a dime a dozen sometimes in some places. The trick is to build up your "regular" customers - and perhaps even during the summer you will get a few phone calls where they want a couple dozen eggs and are willing to stop by or meet you somewhere convenient for them.

I myself was pleasantly surprised when I quit working at how many people stayed in touch and would call for eggs, fresh chicken, goat milk...it was CRAZY! So you too may be surprised at what happens come summer time...just be sure they have your contact info, an email, phone number, something

I to this day cannot walk back into my old job just to visit without someone asking for my number and some eggs or milk or what not! If you stay good to the people you deal with, they in turn will almost always take care of you as well

And...as for the meal worms....I dunno...meal worms remind me of house plants...a bad combo, house plants and I....If things don't thrive on benign neglect, like cacti, or holler at me when I forget about them, like the horses...well...let's just say survivability of quiet things is not very good at my house

(Cacti are not even safe with me, as I managed to kill a few of those one time too...apparently they do need a LITTLE water now and then....)

I wouldn't mean to forget about them...but I see things going south with me and meal worms the more I think about it...I may give it a shot sometime, perhaps after kidding season, to see if I can handle it...I just hope they know how to send an SOS or smoke signal or SOMETHING if ever I forget about them!

 

[speedy2020]

Just be careful how much treat you gave them. Once they got hook and won't eat anything else but treat.