About the mealworms, it took longer that I though it would too. But I got some instructions from Sillychickens on BYC and it seems to take awhile to get going, but if you get multipl containers going at different stages, you should have continuous worms eventually. The silly beetles mate a lot! I just bought like 3 containers of worms from the pet store and threw them in a container of bran with 2 potato halves, and waited, and waited. When I was just about to throw it out, is when I noticed I had tiny worms. They don't produce or grow as fast in the lower temps. It's pretty easy! My girls will be excited!