Raising mealworms question - sifting

[juliect]

Quote:
I have never seen Darkling Beetles fly. Their wing covers are fused together, so I don't think flight would be possible.

Cut and pasted from Lawrence Hall Of Science"Mealworms and darkling beetles are excellent classroom animals—they exhibit interesting behaviors, they are small but not tiny, they don't bite, smell, fly, or jump, and they are extremely easy to care for."

On cleaning day I leave the covers off of their containers for extended periods of time. Yesterday was Thanksgiving gut-load day, so the larger worms would be an exceptionally good T-Day treat for my chickens...and the covers were off all three containers for probably 3 hours...with absolutely no escapees.

BTW gut=loading is not as gross as it sounds.

It is simply feeding the worms highly nutritional food 24 hours before they will be fed to chickens (or other animals) so that they will be nutritionally dense. I currently use JurassiDiet Git Loadand fresh fruits & vegetables (carrots, lettuce, spinach, kale, apples, etc)

 

[sillybirds]

Quote:
You're welcome! I know what you mean about raising mealworms to be "oddly meditative and relaxing". I kind of enjoy running my fingers through a bin of thousands of worms when I go to retrieve any uneaten carrots.

 

[BeccaSmith]

I think I answered my own question! Soil sieves...the thought just occured to me 30 minutes ago... http://www.joebonsai.com/bonsai-soi...et-finally-back-in-stock.htm?___store=default plus I ordered some of the different size screens to fit this sieve as well , so it can serve as a multi-use tool for the garden/greenhouse and maybe trips to the beach for sifting for shells!

Here is a link to a cool instructional video on cleaning mealworm farms

Hi! I know this is an old thread, but I was curious about what size of screen you found worked best with the soil sieve? The link in your thread is no longer valid but I am able soil sieves for purchase else where that have different screen sizes.

 

[juliect]

4.5mm is my most used, but I switch sizes depending on the bedding and size of worms. My sieve came with 4 screens and I purchased an additional set.

Hope that helps!