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.
