Questions about raising Meal Worms

[cfdf]

I started a meal worm farm this winter and so far so good. I had bought some at Pet's Mart as a treat for my chickies. I figured they cost me $.34 each. So, after reading on BYC about how easy it is to raise meal worms I decided to raise my own. I went back to Pets Mart and bought 2 containers of them. I want to say they had 30 in each container. I put mine in chicken crumbles with sliced potatoes. For the longest I couldn't tell that anything was happening. Then I saw the beatles. Ok, that's progress. Then one night I was checking to see what was happening and low and behold there are tons of tiny worms. Now I have big meal worms, tiny ones, beatles and pupa. I have started a second colony now. I can only imagine what it would be like if I had started with 500-1000 worms. It's as easy as pie to grow them. I just keep mine in a warm place in the laundry room. (they grow faster if you keep them in a warm dark place) This summer I will move them out to the barn and add more colonies. It's cheap, easy and educational to watch. I highly recommend raising them for your chickens and other poultry.

 

[HorizonSon]

I almost completely lost my three colonies to mold

I life on the pacific NW coast and it is right near 100% humidity all the time. Add to that; I had (i think) too many carrots directly in the bedding material (wheat bran and some cracked/smashed oats). Today I salvaged most of the younger beatles and pupae to the one bin that seemed to be okay... I put some cardboard at each of the far ends of the bin and placed some carrot pieces on them... Here's to hoping for some success. I lost about 85% of my colonies

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Sorry to hear about you colony problems HorizonSon. Moisture is the biggest cause of colony crashes. I also had to be very vigilant when I kept them outside in southern Louisiana. Under conditions of high humidity, I only feed low moisture vegetables like carrots and potatoes. It doesn't sound like that helped you much though. If you haven't already thrown away the three lost colonies, keep them for a couple weeks (combine them and store them away from the survivors) to see if some of the smaller worms and eggs might survive. Good luck!

 

[HorizonSon]

I hand pulled out most of the younger beatles and the pupae and transferred to the one colony that didn't seem too bad. The rest in the other two bins where sifted outside and fed to our adult birds. The remaining (and all of one container) where dumped into the compost. Unfortunately; the totally ruined colony was my huge one

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
I live in the Pacific NW too but I don't have moisture problems with my mealworm colony. This is my 2nd year raising them, we started last year with a container of mealworms from Petco and we're on the 4th generation from that start. Here's how I grow them:

1. 10 gallon rubbermaid container with the lid lying sideways across the top, leaving 1/3 of the top open for fresh air
2. Wheat bran about 3" high initially - adding more when necessary, so they always have bedding & food to eat (their poop isn't bedding)
3. Several whole carrots on top, replace them per week, as they are consumed
4. Egg carton torn in half, as carrot holder and to suspend them just above the bran
5. Once every week or two, toss in a handful of layer pellets, or calf manna, or dry cat food, or brewers yeast, or powdered milk, etc. for extra nutrition
6. I cut a large grocery paper sack so that it lays flat and covers 2/3 of the top - the worms like to hide below it.

Our home is not kept very warm, so I make sure the wheat bran bedding is thick, otherwise the worms don't grow much.

I found that apples attract fruit flies. Potatoes get black & moldy. Winter squash, sweet potatoes, and yams get moldy. I tried a damp sponge, but it either got moldy or dried out. Carrots don't attract flying insects & seem to stay pretty fresh, if they aren't wet to begin with. I'm still learning, though.

Mealworms are a FAVORITE treat for my hens. Nothing, I mean Nothing, gets eaten faster than mealworms!

 

[HorizonSon]

Thank you for the PNW input

If the cardboard "trays" don't work; ill see about using the egg cartons as an alternative... I love this family forum community

 

[feathersnuggles]

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You're welcome, HorizonSon! Just to clarify more about the egg cartons, I use old dirty paper egg cartons that I can no longer use for storing eggs. I tear off the entire lid (or lids) and place it on top the bran, using it as a cradle for the carrots. The cartons that really work best for this are the ones that aren't solid. You know, those that have "windows" on the top lid. Like this picture:

Those slots work well, for keeping the carrots barely above the bran.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

Yesterday I put a folded damp paper towel in one of the colonies. Today I found that the worms had crawled between the folds. Today we emptied a 3lb margarine carton which is not recyclable so I took the lid and put the folded damp paper towel on it so it does not touch the bedding and cause mold.

I sifted the oldest colony and found that the dust has LOTS of tiny worms...very difficult to see but when sifted in the dust and it is not very deep, they are visible. So I may put this dust in a smaller container and let these grow enough that I can easily move them to one of the other colonies.

This project has been so much fun for this senior citizen.

on a side note: One night my DH was talking to our DS...he told him I had worms. My DS (dear sweet thing

) replied, "Well, tell her to stop biting her fingernails after she has been out in the chicken run!" Just see if he gets anymore free eggs!

 

[feathersnuggles]

Boo-Boo's Mama :

I sifted the oldest colony and found that the dust has LOTS of tiny worms...very difficult to see but when sifted in the dust and it is not very deep, they are visible. So I may put this dust in a smaller container and let these grow enough that I can easily move them to one of the other colonies.

You can put a few carrots on top of the sifted "dust" (mealworm poop) and that will give your tiny baby worms enough moisture and food until they get big enough for you to remove them from the poop box, and put them into some decent bedding material.

When the poop is finally free of inhabitants, it makes great fertilizer! Directly applied to potted plants, or anywhere else you need it. No need to compost it, either; it's ready to use.​

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

Quote:
Good to know...I'm always looking for something good to add to our soil. Currently layering mulched leaves and rabbit poo or chicken poo in Rubbermaid containers til I can get another compost pile built.

I posted on FreeCycle that I needed bagged leaves...made out like a bandit! Plus my neighbor behind us has several trees and left several bags of leaves at our back gate.

I've been dumping a full bag of leaves in the chicken run. The chickens love to scratch and look through all of it which in turn mulches it and mixes with some of their poo.