SCMW Mealworm Farm Tour and Weekly Maintenance Routine
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
- Take a tour of my new mealworm shed, and find out how I sift and sort my worms every weekend. Over 90 minutes of tips and tricks!
Pupae Sifting Trays: tinyurl.com/pu...
Green Bucket Sifters: tinyurl.com/bu...
Black Concrete Mixing Tubs: tinyurl.com/co...
White Dough Proofing Boxes: tinyurl.com/do...
2oz Condiment Cups for Supers: tinyurl.com/2o...
Rainbow Drawers: tinyurl.com/ra...
BucketHead Shopvac: tinyurl.com/HD...
Join our International Mealworm Farming Co-op! www.mealwormfar...
Music by www.davidcutte... with permission via Patreon
My mom was a science teacher...weird pets at home and in classroom. She grew meal worms in her china cabinet...never knew why she had them. No friends from church were allowed in the China cab.. (dad was the pastor... what if word got out? Lol). As I watched your vid I got all excited and inspired to do this... and realized, 'today I have become my mother'...
That's funny!
Ok I just love that mom was a science teacher and dad was a pastor. That's awesome
That is hilarious!
@@lbschangemylifeand kind of odd….
Fantastic video. Taught me a great deal. Actually bought your pupae sifter so thank you. Best tutorial on mealworm raising…bar none.
That is a first class operation my friend!!! My hat is tipped to the genius of the design!
i just started a small mealworm colony. thank you for sharing your methods. i got a lot from that. really helpful !
Whenever I want to start something on a personnal hobby scal I look at how the business do to understand it well. Thanks for all the details !!!
I do exactly the same thing!
I bought these sifting trays and they are amazing! Sifted through thousands of worms in no time. Thanks for the recommendation.
I have followed your process to the letter! I am building a small farm. Not looking to sell, but my reptiles love them. Thank you for the detailed explanation. You are a natural.
I don't have a shed like yall but I plan on raising mine in my room, how can I keep beetles warm in winter? You know, to keep them mating and producing mealworms through the winter?
@@invaderzim1265 If you're keeping them in your room then the regular house heat should be enough I would think.
Excellent how-to. At first when I saw 90 minutes time, I rolled my eyes thinking it'd be another dolt yammering on but this dude (sorry, I don't YET know his name) kept me interested all the way. I do a lot of the stuff he does but he really has the process refined. Time for a new mealworm supplier for me.
Name is Scott, btw 😉
Definitely covered everything.
I cant believe I sat here and watched this entire video on bugs. I don't even like bugs. Great info and thank you.
😂😂😂
Hi from Denmark 😀
I’m just startet rasing Mealworms to my chickens.
I use to spend around $100 to $140 on Mealworms each month so I’m very dedikadet to make this work 😀
I had some questions about the raising and this video has all the answer, so thank you for this great video.
And for all the links to the materials you need.
Now I’m so ready to be a good mealworms-breeder 😉
Kind regards
Rie
I just recently had a couple pupas that transformed into beetles. The first one didn't have any back wings/back hard shell ! It looked absolutely weird !! You could actually see what the back hard shell hides ! It lived for a week ! The second one was a freakin' ALIEN, I swear ! This one in its pupa stage, had two extra polyps, one one each side. Looked like arms. I kept an everyday eye on this one ! I was overly excited to see what this one would turn out to be ! Well, my lil Alien transformed into a freakingly lookin' beetle ! It looked like it had a parasitic twin ! The face had normal eyes, but the head was flat. The polyps turned into these funky lookin' arms. This one also didn't have any wings/back hard shell ! I put this one out of his misery after a week ! My frog stared at it for a long ass minute, then looked at me as if he were saying : Mom, what the fuk is that ?!!!! I had a huge laugh !!
I got about 30 worms for $12.90 2 days ago. I'm doing well with the superworms and crickets so I decided to get worms. Haven't managed to bred anything yet, just pupate supers and make crickets grow.
I absolutely love this video. I am a fellow mealworm farmer, and am in a Facebook group with you. I’ve watched your previous videos but they were short and left me wanting to know more. This is wonderful!!
Great jams as well during fast forward.
-Sonya
Sonya Meade thanks for the kind words! Any topics you’d like me to cover for the next video?
Why yes! Do you have issues with high humidity and heat? I saw your A/C unit but in that FL heat, how do you keep the humidity right?
I saw that you freeze your bran, but some have said it needs to be a serious deep freeze to be effective against mites and other bad dudes. I had mites, it was hell, I fed off thousands of babies to the hens, and then bought a big boy dehumidifier. Best thing ever!! I live in NJ, so it’s cold and dry now, but it was 90% humidity in he basement (where my farm is) pre-dehumidifier.
I’m definitely going to get one of those vacuum tops. I’ll see if that’s in your Amazon link. Right now I either hand pick the fluffs or blow them off. Blech.
Anyway, great frickin job on the shed! That’s a much better environment than the garage!!
@@spacecoastmealworms I'm definitely going to start a mealworm farm. One question for you though. What if i dont use any bran once my worms are medium size but just use vegetables?
They will likely starve then. Similar to asking if you can just give your child water after they become teenagers. They are mealworms and need meal. Feel free to experiment with a small batch to try on your own,, but I don’t believe it will work well for you.
@@itisfinished7377 they are called “meal” worms! They eat meal which is ground up grains. Space coast makes a really good comparison to teenager needing actual food, and as we all know, teens need a lot of food! My mealworms eat the most bran during the medium size part of their lives because they are growing but also a good size already. Once they are older and ready to pupate, though, they start to slow down and not eat as much.
They need bran!
Love watching your videos, very well documented. PLEASE reduce the volume of your music, I have to have the volume up high to hear you talk, then the music blasts and I am left scrambling to reduce the volume. Thanks Linda
I never even heard his music. Lol
This is the video I wish I had watched first when I started mealworm farming. Excellent. Also I appreciate that you aren't callous about their quality of life/death. Yes they are food but they are worthy of respect.
Great Video, thanks, very comprehensive. I respect that you take such good care of your worms and are sharing your knowledge for others to learn from your experience.
Great video a lot of great information thank you for posting ❤
You're fine. I'm a professional decorative Painter. You need that patience. It's necessary but most people don't have just that... patience. Thank you for all that you do.
Awesome set up! Love your attention to detail and care! Thanks for sharing your information. Will be following you for sure.
I'm definitely wanting to get several sets of mealworm towers so I can hopefully one day not have to buy any chicken food. I'm figuring once I get up to 1 lb of worms a day I can stop feeding them bought food. I've also have a garden so garden scraps are always on tap. That and grass clippings and weeds are among their favorites.
Thanks for your smooth flowing speaking and detailed information, I am inspired!
Best mealworm video ever!
Thank you for the beetle and worm separating egg carton technique.
Wow, amazing video. Great explanation and love the tour. I started a small colony in a letter page sized storage system with the intention of feeding our 5 chickens... But I think I need a bigger colony because the chickens gobbled them up in 1 go.. It's only about the size of one of your rainbow colored trays. And it took me ages to get full sized worms. 🤣
Impressive video. I have learned more about mealworm farming here than all the other videos I've watched. Much thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience, you earned a new sub 😁
I really like this setup
Love your set up. I just started my own set up, so it's still just mealworms. I did purchase your larvae sorter box and I bought the bucket head vacuum with buckets you recommended from Hope Depot. Will be giving it a try this coming weekend. Thank you for all your tips. I hope to have as much success. We have 3 bearded dragons, a water dragon and 2 geckos that we're feeding. I also have started dubia roach farm and superworms as well.
Great to hear I’m inspiring others! Keep up the great work, and feel free to join our Facebook Group (just search for mealworm farming co-op). We also run the website mealwormfarming.com
I"m going to order one of your pupa sifters today.
Happy sifting!
Thanks for showing your worm set up.
You’re kicking ass at life good job
1:05:11 I am very glad to see you stack the trays at this point rather than walking back and forth.
I have a tip: Just work from that side of the table. Move your wheat bin a little closer and you can just rotate in place without travelling around the table. There is no unstable stack that could get knocked over. The plastic on the bottom is not subjected to extra weight, the bins won't become out of order or require any thought to maintain order.
when he did that, I could finally take a deep breath ahahaha
Just finished the video. Great work. It is appropriated. Liked and subscribed
I go up to the Space Coast all the time, I'd love to check this out in person sometime! Awesome video :)
7:59 "Instead of blowing them outside like I used to do, I suck them". That's a very clever way of coming out of the closet.
Love your video! Thank you! I have ordered an acrylic pupae sorter and tray, excited to try them out!
How are you liking it?
Educational information. Very helpful. Thank you for the information.
Awesome shed!!
My dad always raised them in the corn crib.
What is a corn crib?
🙉YOU BUILT THAT SHED🙉
Love of god dude, it looks better then my house😄 Great job and awsome setup😊
Thanks! To be honest I purchased it from Home Depot. A trio of hard working Mexicans assembled the thing in a few hours. All I did was insulate, drywall, add flooring tiles, and paint.
@@spacecoastmealworms it came out great bro
Great system you got there, I have chickens and can't buy mealworms but if I raise them myself it might work out to were I make a little bit of money. I'll subscribe to your channel and buy your equipment so I can get started.
Fantastic video! Subbed! I would like to do this for my chickens. But then they would be a great bartering tool as well with other farmers on my mountain
Basically I'm thinking black soldier fly larvae during the summer, because it's a build it and they come. But during the winter they are no where to be found. So summer soldier flies and winter mealworms.
We are just starting out as a little hobby farm for our bearded dragon. Watching this makes me want to have a lot larger of a farm. My only suggestion would be to use a tripod for your videos, as someone who gets nauseous from the shaky camera, the video took me a couple days to watch the whole thing.
I like the moving. Tripods get stale without alot of editing.
I'm just learning... Love the video.. will follow..
Great video. Thank you for sharing your setup. Love the tips and tricks you share, I already apply some but have learnt some more time saving measures. Very thorough video. 😊
I want to raise some mealworms to help my grandson feed his duckies.
Helpful information:
Mealworms LOVE freeze-dried crickets.
Crickets LOVE freeze-dried mealworms.
(unfortunately, freeze-dried crickets are very expensive.)
Put in some freeze-dried crickets with your healthy mealworms and watch the wheat/oats erupt when they smell it. I would love to know a cheaper alternative that they love equally, I suspect they love to eat dried meat. I know a lot of things they like to eat, but i haven't found a cheaper alternative to the crickets that cause them to get super greedy and energetic.
I’ve seen some folks feed fish remains and other animal bits to the worms. They also go crazy for spent brewer’s grains, which are usually free if you ask your local brewery for some!
To save even more space, you can use disposable tin baking trays and cut whiles in the sides. You put the pupae on top and once they crawl off, they can’t get back up to cannibalize the pupae. It also give the beetles more darkness.
I actually sell ‘pupae bridges’ on my website for this exact purpose!
Super cool video, done well
Wonderful setup! My inner kiwi number 8 wire mentality + OCD approves ❤
Talk about complete!!!!!
A soft long haired paint brush might help with removing pupae from sifting tray
Thank you so much for the information, your pupa trays are the best
Bought my sifters. Probably overkill for me but will be so much faster
Subscribed because of this
new subscriber here, good job, great explanation
This is the best video I've seen on the entire mealworm production, and I've watched many. Thank you for sharing! I am planning to start raising them soon, going to start very small first. I do have a question: would your process be the same for raising mealworms for human consumption?
Tanya Bannavong thanks for the kind words! The process would be the same for raising them, but I imagine you’d need to add some additional steps to safeguard sanitation, especially if you plan to sell them to restaurants or other customers. What these additional steps consist of I have no idea. I’d check with other insect companies who currently do this. Maybe a place like Cowboy Crickets or even Rainbow Mealworms would have knowledge on this topic.
@@spacecoastmealworms Thank you for the great advice. I love Cowboy Crickets and I'll definitely check out Rainbow Mealworms. Happy New Year and wishing you much continued success! ✌❤🙂
@@spacecoastmealworms Good morning. What would happen if I cut the bottom out of a bind and put a 1/30 screen on the bottom. Do you think it would sift enough frass out?
@@spacecoastmealworms Also, I heard that mealworms are dying out because of inbreeding. How do you catch wild ones to introduce new DNA into your farm?
@@itisfinished7377 yes.. Jord Productions, a mealworm farm in Nebraska, does this with their worm farm. They have a tower of trays, and every fourth tray in each column is a frass collecting tray. Rest of the trays have screened bottoms.
This video is a great resource as someone starting a business farming insects. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
I use a plane tacklebox with small compartments to pupate superworms
Whatever works! 👍🏻
Good video, I've recently started a super worm farm and have 1k beetles going. Always interesting to see what other people are doing.
Thanks for supporting IKEA ❤️
i would suggest just putting a small handle on the round sifting tray. so its easily placed in and taken out
you should separate the pupa from the beattles of the superworms, put a higher tray so when they become beatles they go down away from the rest of the pupa
In your experience do the super beetles mess with pupae? I’ve always just put em together and hoped for the best. They usually leave them alone
Great video! Thank you for sharing the process & your microphone is just fine!!! Searched to buy your worms...didn't see them on your website....thinking I need that pupae sifter! Just getting started though & appreciate you sharing!!!
I don’t sell worms anymore, but I strongly recommend buying worms from www.midwestmealworms.com or www.pnwmealworms.com
@@spacecoastmealworms oh my goodness. U don't sale these worms anymore? Can I please ask you why. Im really thinking hard about starting to do this. And now just reading where you no longer said worms. Well needless to say worries there Holly crap outta me.. Was it to much work, was there not enough money to be made in Saling these.. idk again would you care to in lighten me, I understand this is sum old vid, but it's brand new to me😊
Awesome setup! Very professional!
Just curious what is the income like with something like this?
I’m going to guess not much since mealworms sell pretty cheap and this looks like quite an investment.
@@catfish307 not now... Huge meal worm shortage
@@catfish307 super expensive for me here in the UK. I order them online in bulk but still pay more than I want. my chickens love them so I'm going to start breeding them myself 🤟🏽
Make sure you spray a little water so you don’t kill your worms. They die from lack of water.
They actually have the ability to pull moisture from the air. But have no fear, they get plenty of veggies off camera
We did put a screen on top thank you. Would you please share a link for where you buy your cups for selling or giving mealworms?
You can find 2.5oz condiment cups on Amazonnor most restaurant supply shops
How do you seperate your dead beetles from the live beetles?
Best video I’ve seen so far, thank you!
How many pounds of mealworms per week are you looking at in a setup like this?
Curious to this as well! I've no idea how my much smaller setup will produce yet and I'm hoping I don't need to get to this level to produce enough to replace a lot of store feed for my quails...
@@h.s.6269 Same! Also starting to raise mealworms for our quail. They go through A LOT of mealworms!
Hello. if it's not difficult for you, you can give a link to where I can buy black and all types of boxes that you have in the video. Or what are they called, can you write? like a locker you have a drawer there too. black boxes and white plastic boxes. Thx
Have you tried reading the description for this video? All the links you request are there! ;)
When you sift out the beetles from the bin with the eggs on the bottom. I'm curious why you put the beetles back on that bin? And at what point (time frame) do you remove the beetles permanently from that bin. Wouldn't the beeltes snack on the eggs eventually? I thought once you sift out beetles you move them to a new bin and let the old bin hatch. Thanks so much, very informative video.
Those eggs will eventually hatch and the babies will join the eggs when you sift the beetles a couple weeks later. You could try to scrape the eggs off the bottom, but you’d risk killing them in the process.
@spacecoastmealworms thanks so much for the reply
I keep seeing worm farmers are saving the molts.. why? What do you use it for
It can be mixed in with the frass since they’re both made out of chitin. Great fertilizer material!
Do you add some type of moisture in your egg trays? Your videos are excellent, and I have learned so much from them. Thank you!
I usually don’t add any to egg trays because it just goes to waste. I usually wait a good 2-4 weeks before adding moisture. Mealworms have the ability to pull moisture from the air, so if your area is humid like mine (Florida) it isn’t too big of an issue. If you do choose to add it I recommend cutting carrots in food processors so the pieces are a lot smaller and spread out more. Worms shouldn’t have to cross the equivalent of a desert to reach a piece of carrot. 😂
@@spacecoastmealworms thank you!
Very informative video! I've been thinking of doing very small scale mealworming to provide for my reptiles. Would you mind me asking about how many mealworms a farm of your size produces?
Kenny Norton never enough, is the official answer! It’s hard to gauge since I sell whatever I can, but I’m guessing 20-60k a month
Tickle them out .. lol. Jokes aside...best content vid out there. Thank you for this. Love the organized clean environment too ..wow.
Lol clean is the opposite of what I’d call my shed now!
Las zophobas k estan listas para pupar, son las que se te quedan en el carton de huvos enroscadas en forma de c. Y supongo que ya te habrás dado cuenta con el tiempo, pero es bueno que los escarabajos hagan el cambio en los botes y luego los separes, porque sinó van devorar al resto de pupas, yo lo qye hago es agujerear las tapas con un alfiler y me funciona bien😅.
Perdona, que yo he empezado hace poco a cultivarlos, pero me informé muchissimo antes de empezar
38:50 I reckon if you let them self sift you would not have to waste so much time manually clearing stuck pupae.
You could take a break or work on something else while they shuffle around.
Has anyone had success dehydrating mealworms? I have used my dehydrator on the lowest setting after freezing them first. By the time they are dry they are black. I also tried without freezing them first with the same results.
I am confused tho. I do research, but nothing gives me a straight answer. How long about do your beetles live? As I have found the life span is 2 weeks to 16 years, which is incredibly helpful
16 weeks seems more accurate. Main thing to know is that they lay their eggs over time in a sort of a bell curve, with Weeks2-6 being their most productive. After Week 12 they should be culled and fed off to create more space for new beetles
@@spacecoastmealworms thank you!!
What temperatures should the system be in?
Are the supers a different subspecies of something from the regulars or are they a result of your breeding program?
Supers are related, but a different species altogether. 78-83°F is ideal. Any hotter and you run the risk of mites and cooking the worms. Any colder and you slow down their growth
@@spacecoastmealworms Thanks
@@spacecoastmealworms
Any ideas if I don't have a building like yours? I gonna have to raise mine in my room so how can I keep them 78°F - 83°F in winter?
@@invaderzim1265 a space heater or reptile heating pad could work
This is my first time trying to raise worms. All my worms are turning black and dying and I don’t know why. I’m using bran and chic starter and feeding them potatoes. Maybe my home is to cold?
Maybe I missed it but wondering if the tub the beetles are in could have a screen bottom so the eggs fall thru?
I have tried that, and it’s a common strategy for beginner farmers. But the eggs don’t always fall through the mesh, and there is no way to consistently maintain the age of your worms if the eggs are always falling into the same collection tray.
chick starter has antibiotics in it and a high corn content. We couldn't use these for some of our songbirds
This is why it’s always good to ask your mealworm supplier about their diet before purchasing worms. 👍🏻
Why not set some kind of trap/transfer tray? something the darkling beetles can crawl up but the worms cannot? that way you cut out at least half of the sifting
Waaay ahead of you my friend! www.spacecoastmealworms.com/products/beetle-self-sorter
Great video. where do you get your round mesh shifters
tinyurl.com/bucketsifter
I feel like if I get a sifter, everything in the world will be okay
What do you do with your sheds if anything. I don’t remember hearing if you said anything about it in this video and I’ve watched it multiple times lol
@@cooreypan1856 hi there! Yes I knew all of this. I was just wondering if there was something specific he did with the sheds/chitin
I.e. mix them into the frass. Sell separately. Bag separately. Etc
I have been bagging it up for future use, but not sure exactly how to use it. I am away that mixing it in with the frass is beneficial, but that takes a lot of work with the procedure I have been using!
That egg carton flat trick is great.
So I went to your store and I don't see mealworms. Are you still selling them?
I stopped raising worms back in 2021. I developed a bad allergy to the frass, unfortunately. My shed looks a whole lot different now, because I just do laser cutting.
Question.
How can I keep beetles stay warm in winter if I don't have a building like yours?
Heat mats and ceramic room heaters are what many farmers use
Why doesn’t the larvae have moisture and only wheat bran ?
Seems like you could make a "cone" over your vac hose with a cut off 1 or 2 liter soda bottle and experiment with optimum height to get just enough suction to pick up only the sheds
Please, I want anything officially documented from any internationally recognized official government agency that explains and emphasizes the benefits and importance of these worms, such as a report or video, for example, because people don't know them in Egypt and don't believe it, and this is a big marketing problem. Do you understand me? Thank you very much
You really have a great set up there. I breed mealworms at home, not in the quantity as you do, but I am trying to figure out how I would get rid of the frass. If I sift the whole container I am wondering how many eggs and brand will follow through with that Frass
The trick is to not have eggs in the frass at all. You can do this by removing the pupae and beetles from the worms. Pupae and beetles don’t create much frass, so they don’t need to be sifted. The egg-rich substrate from the beetles should be switched out every 2-4 weeks, and these trays shouldn’t need to be sifted for frass until the babies are large enough to be caught in your sifter screen.. around Weeks 6-8. If you do this you won’t have any eggs in your frass!
@@spacecoastmealworms very nice! Thank you so much for your time
@@spacecoastmealworms OK where I think I was going wrong is when I sift the pupa and beetles from their container I usually sift straight over the container with the meal worms thinking that the eggs will just grow up with the bigger worms. But you’re saying when you sift the container with the pupa and beetles to drop it in a separate container by itself to let the eggs hatch? And thanks again for your time
thanks alot sir
I have a question. When you’ve gotten the mealworms to an optimal size for selling, what do you do to keep them from pupating? Fridge"?
Yes most people that I have seen (my farm hasn't quite gotten to that stage yet) keep them boxed up in the fridge just waiting to be shipped. That's my plan but I'm hoping to find enough locals to not have to ship 😅
Is there a way to contact this creator to place an order??
I am the creator, and yes! www.spacecoastmealworms.com
How do these worms and beetles not crawl out of the tubs and boxes
The plastic walls are too smooth for them
There are no lids on the trays? How to keep the worms and beetles in ir do I just not see a screen?
I made wooden frames with screening material stapled to it
Why you're not applying the self sorting system? For beetles and eggs!
I never had much success with the screened bottom method. This is ultimately easier for me.
When the beetles die off naturally, do their heads detach? Or is it something in the bin killing & beheading them? 🥺😬
Decapitation is never natural lol