Raising Mealworms

[RIR's Rock]

I am thinking of using 5 gallon buckets for my mealworm farm. Here is what I am thinking of doing. Please give me some feedback.

I will put 1000 mealworms in a 5 gallon bucket that is half full with bedding. The bedding will probably have non medicated chicken feed, wheat bran, whole wheat flower, and brewers yeast. I will give them a potato half or and apple half and shredded carrots on a plastic lid for moisture. I will place a few layers of torn newspaper so they will pupate there.

Once they pupate I will move the pupa to a small storage container, and when a pupae is about to become a beetle, I will move it to a bowl (inside the pupa container so as to save room) so that I can readily transfer it to a new bucket. The new bucket will have the same bedding as the first bucket. I will a few put toilet paper tubes in the bucket for them to hide in. Once all the beetles are in the second bucket, I will wait 2 or three weeks. At that point, I will transfer all the beetles to a third bucket so the continue to lay eggs, but do not eat the eggs in they have already laid. They will live the remainder of there lives in this bucket

Once the mealworms are big enough, I will take 1,000 mealworms and start the process over in a new bucket. The other mealworms will be given to our chickens.

How often should I change the food and clean the bucket?
Will the mealworms be crowded in the second and third buckets?
Will the mealworms do fine at a temperature of 55F-65F degrees?
How many mealworms can I expect with this setup?
Are there any problems with my setup? Do you have some suggestions on how to improve it?

Thanks!

 

[sillybirds]

That sounds like a pretty good plan. Like someone mentioned earlier, If you do use buckets, I wouldn't put more that two or three inches of substrate in it, because they don't seem to use as much depth as you might think, and also because deeper substrate might retain more moisture and have more of a risk of developing mold.

Starting with 1000 mealworms, you're going to end up with a lot of beetles. More than I think are going to fit in two buckets. Even conservatively assuming 500 beetles, each laying 200 eggs over their lifetimes, that's 100,000 mealworms! That's too many for two buckets. (But to keep it in the proper perspective, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? Some are going to die or eat each other? It's not like we're talking about chickens here or anything!)

Good luck with your mealworm farm!

 

[RIR's Rock]

Thanks for the help.
I think I am going to use rubbermaid 64 quart tubs. That way, they have more room.

Thanks!

 

[Boyd]

RIR's Rock :

Thanks for the help.
I think I am going to use rubbermaid 64 quart tubs. That way, they have more room.

Thanks!

That would be my suggestion. Have you looked up the super meal worm? A Little different species but the beetles don't fly​

 

[redbone]

Check this guys video out: