More on mealworms

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Margaid

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I bought abbout 1500 mealworms and split them between 4 containers, 2 indoors and 2 in the workshop where it's cooler - it's 28 degrees C in the mobile home at the moment. I know how several dozen pupae but no sign of any beetles yet, although I thought they emerged after about 10 days. They are in the workshop so maybe it's a bit cool but I haven't room to have them in here as well. I'll keep you posted if and when I get any beetles, but it will then take several weeks before I get the next batch of worms.
 
I have the first two beetles! I "reorganised" the mealworms; one container has about 150 pupae (this is where the beetles came from); the beetles are in their own container; about 25% of the mealworms are in a container in the fridge to slow them down; the majority are in a deep cat litter tray and I'm collecting a couple of dozen pupae every day which I have put in yet another container. Every time I go up to see my girls (which isn't as often as I would like) I take some - but I have to take enough for all the chooks, about 22 including the Houdan chicks. If most of the pupae turn into beetles and half the beetles lay a couple of hundred eggs which turn inot mealworms I won't have any problem keeping all the chooks happy!
 
Quite possibly, but you'll have to wait until the new lot are big enough which could be as soon as 6 weeks but probably longer. I know have 4 beetles but they take 5-10 days to mature - I hope there's at least one female amongst them! I have to stop them eating the eggs but I think I've got that sorted. Hopefully the hatch rate will speed up - some of the very early pupae were distorted or not fully formed but the later ones are fine. I think I'm going to have to put more worms on the fridge otherwise I might run out before the new lot are ready. I'll need to check on the postal regs about how to send them - unless you want to come and collect! (Not when you've moved to France though).
 
I feed dried worms and they are fine as long as there is water available as they do make the birds very thirsty - you could try soaking them first, but they stink!
They're also a bit of a 'naughty' treat, so not too many :)
 
That's the benefit of live ones; they are presumably juicier and they don't smell. I get mobbed when I visit my girls as all the hens are beginning to associate me with mealworms - fame at last!

They will keep for weeks in the fridge in a smooth sided container on a bed of bran. I have had two ice cream cartons, without lids, in the fridge for 6 weeks with some of the original lot - they become quite lively when they've been out of the fridge about 15 minutes.

I have two deep boxes with lots of beetles in each and I think one of them now has tiny mealworms. The only way you can tell easily is to take a handful of the "bedding" and hold it on your flat palm. If it shows signs of movement then there are baby mealworms in it. It means that with luck I will be feeding them to the girls in about 4-6 weeks. One or two beetles have died, which is about right as they live about 30 days and I had a few hatch before the main batch really got going. The second lot hatched from pupae even more quickly but I think it was warmer.

I have become totally unsqueamish about picking up mealworms, pupae or beetles although the beetles are best transferred using a spoon as their wing cases are still soft when they're newly hatched. I pick the pupae out with one hand and put them in my curved palm to transfer them all to the other box, the warmth of my palm livens them up so they wriggle which tickles so much I nearly dropped them the first time.
 
I've spoken to my wife about this project Margaid and apparently it's now designated as 'a husband job'. As soon as we have moved I can give it more attention. House hasn't sold so I will be back monthly.
 
That's a pain Chris, I don't envy you having taken over a year to sell our last house. You'll have to visit here on one of your trips - 25 mins from Telford.
 
I go over to Telford to be a 'Victorian Plumber' at Blist Hill on occasions. Intend to do the odd day there on my trips over, so could call in. Problem is the 1500 mile round trip! But if I take it steady and camp over on the way there and back I should be fine. Just not many open over Winter.
 
At last I have some tiny mealworms - they're about 5 mm long. The beetles are only supposed to survive for about 30 days - some one ought to tell mine! I still have dozens scuttling around in a deep plastic crate. I had them in two shallow (cat liiter tray and washing up bowl) trays for several weeks, so I fished all the beetles out and left the bran, bits of dry bread, dried out cauliflower stalks etc in the trays as they can lay their eggs on these.

I've fed the last of the original batch to the hens - they have been in the fridge in open boxes with bran in for 11 weeks and still wriggle once they warm up. I have bought a few more live ones so my 4 an 5 year old great-nephews can feed some to the girls next week and mine are much too small.

I'm hoping that in a few weeks I will be able to feed them my home bred worms. I think maybe I'd better retrieve some big ones to allow them to pupate and keep the "farm" going, otherwise I won't have any beetles for about 2 months and there'll be a gap in production.
 
Should have explained that the bits of bread etc may have eggs on them. The beetles still have their bits of egg crate to congregate under and fresh bran, and bits of veg for moisture. The baby worms also have bits of carrot for moisture.
 
JUst thinking about feeding grubs etc. mealworms are not a prob for me as my son used to have lizards, so what about crickets or maggots from the fishing tackle shop, are these suitable i wonder ?? I am new to hen keeping, kept everything else mind you and still have a house full of doted on pets but chickens all new ground.
x
 
I fussed about it quite a lot early on but recently I've just left them to get on with it. I suppose it's a chicken substitute as my hens are still with my friend's hens. The house roof panels are now in place and the material handler will go off site tonight or tomorrow so I can at last start making plans for my chickens to come home. The cattle took down a length of fence we were thinking of moving, so hoepfully the electric poultry netting will provide a temporary barrier and I won't feel guilty about pinching an area of the field for the hens enclosure.
 
It's quite obvious that my mealworm beetles haven't read the instructions about mealworm farming. They are still going strong another month down the line, although I think some of them have died off. It's difficult to tell as I think the dead beetles get eaten, but there don't seem to be as many in the crate.

The new batch of worms are growing quite well although still too small to feed to the hens. I have some big ones in the fridge and think I'd better get some out and let them pupate so that I don't get a gap in production.

I'm still battling to get the girls back here, but there are now empty tile crates dumped where I want to put the run initially and neither trailer (needed to bring the Solway house back) are accessible because the huge window frames are being painted. It will give me time to work on the wooden coop, although I hadn't really intended it for their occupation, but I want to be sure there are no redmite lurking around before bringing the hens back.
 
How are you finding breeding them margaid? OH found it too time consuming.
 
I check them every couple of days and put some more green stuff or carrot in for moisture. I fussed over them quite a lot at the start but just leave them to get on with it. They're in OH's workshop on top of a plan chest. I suspect the slowish development is because it's usually only about 17 degrees in there, unless he puts the heating on. I found every stage took longer than the info said. Probably the most time consuming thing is picking the pupae out of the mealworms which I did at least once a day, and the same with the beetles, but at that stage the box (ice cream carton) was in the kitchen so I just lifted them into another container when I noticed them.

Later today I'm going to amalagamate the two lts of young worms, take the beetles out and empty the bran they've been in into the tray I will free up with some fresh bran. Then I'll put the remaining beetles back in the plastic crated with fresh bran, the bits of egg carton and some greenery. I'm going to take one of the cartons of adult mealworms out of the fridge and let some of them pupate to provide another batch.

It only takes me a few minutes but some of the info on the internet makes it very time consuming - not necessary in my view. I don't bother to shake the frass out from the adult worms - it sinks to the bottom anyway, I just top up with some fresh bran. Then maybe once a month I take all the worms out and replace the bran completely. If you do it when the worms are newly hatched you risk losing eggs.
 
You can understand why they're quite expensive to buy! Actually I think they're cheap at the price, when you realise what a labour of love it is to grow them. I did try it once but didn't have your persistence - mine ended up being fed to the girls, all stages in together, they liked the crunchy pupae best.
 
It's quite easy really Marigold - I suddenly have this guilty start that I haven't checked them, so I go and check they're wriggling and put more veg in. Or I go to ask OH something and notice the trays and think Ooops, time I did something. They should be much more advanced than they are but I'm not bothered - still too distracted with kittens. The first three are 5 months old so I have to come up with a strategy to catch them, hopefully less traumatic than catching Big Puss. Mum appeared with the latest litter today - by her size I was expecting at least 4 kittens but she only seems to have 2 - but they are sooooo FAT. I'm sure they are a lot bigger at 5 weeks than the previous 3 were at 8 weeks, but I headr somewhere that summer kittens are bigger than the early ones. I'm hoping to tame them more quickly - I've already picked one up when he got frightened and ran off, and mum doesn't seem to mind be being fairly close. At this rate we're going to end up with 7 cats! So fiddling with mealworms is quite therapeutic.
 
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