Mealworm Farming - From Mealworms to Darkling Beetles
A little over a month ago we acquired some live mealworms. I'm please to report our mealworm farm is doing great! I thought for a while they had died, but then I noticed they had simply pupated.
Mealworm Pupa
Then the other day I noticed some of the pupa had changed into adult beetles! I read that the adult beetles, called Darkling Beetles at this point, will eat the remaining defenseless pupa so they need to be removed to a different farming container. I've been picking these little guys out of the bedding in the little aquarium and putting them into the bedding and an empty cardboard egg carton in a larger aquarium.
The adult beetles will feed on grains and live for two to three months. In that time the females will lay hundreds of little white eggs, which will hatch in 4-19 days. It is those mealworms that we hope to begin feeding to our chickens. We will keep some back to allow to grow into beetles again and start the whole cycle again.
Thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned!
That is great you decided to start doing it yourself. You should rotate your beetles into a new container weekly to keep them from eating eggs and also so all your worms in that bin are within a week of each other so will be close to the same size for feeding. You should get you some 5 gal bucket sifters off amazon. The 1/8th is great for sifting the beetles into new bins and the 1/30th is for frass. I run a mealworm group on facebook and a small worm business that we also do mealworms and superworms. I get around 100k mealworms a week with around 30 minutes to an hour of work sifting the bins. If you don't rotate them you will spend that much time hand sorting one bin. I did an article awhile back that has the link to my facebook group on it and you can find a lot of information there along with information on frass. You will not want to waste that resource it is basically worm castings from insects instead of composting worms but has lots of benefits in your garden. I am pretty sure I commented on your first post awhile back so you may have already gotten this information. Congrats on the farm though.
Thank you so much for your advice! I did join your facebook group when you shared it before. I really should utilize my FB groups more!
I didn't realize they would eat their eggs. I will definitely have to invest in a few sifters. I wasn't sure how old the beetles would be when they started laying eggs.
Thanks again, @liberyworms!
I LOVED raising mealworms when we had chickens!!!!!
Cool! So far I'm the only one in the house who isn't grossed out. This is our first time raising them. I was so afraid I had somehow killed them right before they pupated.
A few times we had accidents like floods, AND THEY STILL SURVIVED!
Insert shocked face here! I heard they can even survive on styrofoam...which I wouldn't feel comfortable doing since I want my chickens to eat these.
I used to raise mealworms for the hens. They loved them! But then I got too lazy and that was the end of that. It was fun for awhile though.
I can't wait to start feeding them! I've never been so excited about bugs before. Haha!
I had no idea you had to be actively involved raising meal worms! Makes my red wigglers seem easy!
I run a worm business and I actually spend more time with my composting worms then my mealworms. Biggest thing is keeping the beetles rotated which is actually really easy and fast once you learn how. Dealing with feeding, PH, Temps, moisture and sorting composting worms is much more work then mealworms.
Wow! That's quite a bit of work!
My worm farm is on a pretty small scale, and is no effort at all! https://steemit.com/nature/@melinda010100/a-most-unusual-christmas-gift-a40b9fcc1ae22 Here is a post I wrote about it last Christmas.
You've got that cool worm farm to do all the work for ya! I love it!
! SWEET! I am going to raise some mealworms myself when I start raising chickens in a couple months!
So excited for some backyard primal/paleo chicken eggs! :D
Good luck! It's pretty easy!
I'm vicariously enjoying your mealworm adventures since I still haven't gotten around to seeing if I can get any locally. Ugh. Waaaayyy too much on the wish list. It's so fun seeing your enthusiasm!
I still don't know where the teacher got these from. I'm guessing a teaching supply company. I honestly thought maybe they were all somehow unable to pupate and that they'd all died. I gave up on them for about a week but thankfully didn't dump them out. That's when I noticed the pupa. It's actually really cool and I'm not nearly as grossed out as I thought I would be.
Hai can you give me information for what mealworms people use?
I'm farming them as food for my chickens. Some people roast and eat them though. I've heard they taste like almonds.
Eat? really. I think it's good for chicken
They will provide a lot of protein for the chickens. I think eating them myself sounds gross!
I raised mealworms for the chickens, as snacks, for several years. They were very little trouble.
Aww, little mealworms! I raised them as a kid, too, for some pet reptiles. I raised Wood Roaches, too. They were easier, because they just lived off decaying bark that I could pick up in the woods. Your mealworms should make good panfish bait, too, if you ever go fishing! Enjoy your chickens! :D