How to Start Your Own Meal Worm Farm // After 6 MONTHS // LIVING OFF THE LAND (Part 3)
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- Опубликовано: 9 июн 2022
- This week we provide you with an update on our Meal Worm Farm. It has now been 6 months and we show you how to sift out the Frass (Mealworm poop), do some repairs, and also start moving Pupa into a seperate bin so they can turn back into Beetles and keep the cycle going!
VIDEO 1: How to Start a Meal Worm Farm: • How to Start Your Own ...
VIDEO 2: Meal Worm Farm 3 Month Update: • Update on the Mealworm...
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Hi, I have never seen anyone in a video use anything but veggies for hydration of the MW's. I have been raising meal worms for over 10 years in TX.. Trust me it's hot (especially this summer, 2022!) the heat is great for reproduction but veggies aren't enough water. For many years I have been cutting up cheap sponges in quarters, soak in water.. Put a small piece of plastic wrap or wax paper under the sponge (so no mold in the bran/oats) the worms & beetles swarm the sponges, love the extra water. Every week I soak for a minute or squirt a few drops of water on. Hope this helps with the extra water as it has me :)
Hi there...I am in southeast Texas. Do you keep your meal worms outside year round or how do you manage the 1-2 month winter we have? Thanks for the sponge tip. Jesus bless.
Oh, an do you think it would be possible to use shallower trays and thereby have a bigger population in less space?
@@sandrarichardson2713 hi, I never keep them outside in the elements but normally keep my 3 sterilite drawer system in the barn, well covered with a blanket on 3 sides (for air) & add extra bran because I lost part of my colony during "Snowmaggeden". I just started a 2nd "system" in a spare room in the house 2 weeks ago but plan on putting them out soon as they start to pupate (they & fruits & veggies get smelly by a month or so) IE: carrots, zucchini, apples, lettuce, cabbage heart ect. I feed whatever is going "bad" from the fridge.. Aalso I use the more shallow, wider drawers but don't think it really matters as long as you keep plenty of food inside. You will be able to tell you need to add because the frass is a slightly different color & looks like fine sand at the bottom. I didn't know about the "screen system" 10 yrs. ago so keep the frass pretty deep because that is where the eggs tend to live & hatch in my setup. It has worked for a very long time & I feed my hens a cup/day + dead beetles. Also I bought the giant MW once & they tend not to reproduce so stick with the large. Hope this helps :)
How often do you feed them
How much light do these beetles and worms require?
I just dump a couple caps of bottled water in the oats every few days. Works great. I started doing it because the veggies alone werent enough.
I glued the screen on the outside of the drawer, so the beetles can't chew off the glue. So far I haven't had to fix anything since.
I have been farming mealworms for years, I have one container that they live in all of them they reproduce they do their own thing all I do is clean it out once or twice a year and I never buy mealworms. I guess it's an every mealworm for itself situation I find if you keep plenty of food in there such as grits or oatmeal and every now and then you toss and some fresh vegetables they will respond well and not eat each other..
Are you aware that the Sterilite drawers can be stacked? You can remove the top off one and fit another one on top. Saves room.
Great info. I want to start my own mini farm and these would be perfect. Thank you.
What do you mean? The drawers don't have any top on them.
@@akbananachucker2441 No, you take the top off of the part that the drawers are in.
Thank you for your honesty with the mistakes and keeping it real it is much appreciated. I will be starting a farm soon as I plan to get quail in the spring. Thanks again.
I'm really enjoying following your journey this go-round. You learned so much last year!
I used glass aquarium. Food source was dry oatmeal. Water source was just slices of potato which they would bore into and even lay eggs into. Sliced side down on top of oatmeal. Used light colored worms ( freshly molted) for food for my leopard gecko. I did same with crickets but they required a screen lid on top of aquarium. I would go thru about once a month and remove dead ones. When oatmeal started getting to a lot of poop I'd set up new aquarium with fresh oatmeal. Id transfer live worms and other life stages into new aquarium. They I'd let old stuff sit to see if new eggs hatched for at least a month. I'd pull out any if found. I'd keep adding new slices of potato for their moisture source. I raised lots! Crickets would also get big sections of tree bark laid on top. Little crickets would hide in nooks and crannies of the bark or under the wood. I live in Pennsylvania so it was the only way I'd have live food for my lizard in winter. On the farm chopped corn we used for cattle feed would get them in it too.
I raised meal worms in much smaller numbers at one point, I was feeding a single hedgehog, not a whole flock of birds. I am amazed at how the systems scale up. How frequently do your birds get a batch of worms out of this system?
Daily in the summer & every few days in winter. They are more active in the heat & go through the stages faster so more meal worms. I only work with 1,000. A larger scale would produce more
On it. Thank you for the info.
City prepper sent my over after watching your shared interview.
I watched two of your videos so far. Great content 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks so much and nice to meet you. Hope you enjoy following along
Awesome info! Great video.
How much oats or bran do you go through a month
Thanks for sharing. Was looking to start a Mealworm farm this year
Thanks Owen
Thank you.
Hey!!! Y’all are amazing! Keep it going🍀🌲
Where did you get your MW to start the farm?
Nice video. Very informative.
In order to have a small mealworm operation going to supplement a small flock of chickens, do you need to end up with five sets of drawers going? Or can you do it with one or two sets of drawers?
If you worry about the heat, you could lay a small plastic on top with a small cut sponge with cold water on it. Plastic stops moisture in oats wheat
Some vegie is good but get some gel water crystals. Keep about a 1/2 cup of gel in the center of the bin. I used keep a lot of bearded dragons and went thru a lot of worms per week. The worms eat mostly the bran! I did mostly super worms back in the day! Happy bug farming ! 😁
Can you share a snap to see how big the sponge and the cup or plastic container is?
Thanks
18:18 your fluffy T-Rex's love those mealworm , all gone in no time. A few random Ducks in there to.
Thanks, I wondered how people did this.
The feed stores around here are not carrying any. Thanks and will be looking forward to the video.
This was helpful for my indoor mealworm farm. Subd
I already know how, I worked at an insect farm. Good stuff.
Thank you for this information on Mealworms...... could you tell me where you bought the sifters?
They should be on Klaus menu twice a week.
Yes you Eat de Bugz , while i eat steak
And own nothing and be happy 😁😁 while we at the WEF own everything
Hey! Few questions.
1. How much time invested? Initial set up, daily maintenance, weekly, monthly? And how often do you do the sifting, how long does the process take?
2. What's the money investment? Initial costs, wheat bran, oats, and how often you need to purchase or replenish their substrate?
3. How much of the birds' diet has been supplemented with the worms thus far? How much do you intend/expect to supplement with worms in the future, as a percentage?
4. Do they not try to escape from the sides/top of those containers? If they get out, is it a risk of infestation in your house?
Thanks so much!!
I’d love to hear the answers to these questions too! Great questions. & Thanks for the step by step here you guys!
And what sift set is that? I really like it.
Curious to this as well, especially the maintenance and amount supplemented.
for #4 though as long as they have about 2-3" of slick siding like smooth plastic or steel they can't climb out and they don't fly. I'm concerned about the handling of the drawers accidently dropping eggs on the floor or carpet. Though I'd assume they can't develop past really small worms without feed, but the thought of super tiny worms on the floor creeps me out...
can u feed chickens the meal worms ?
@@steve3in142🤓
How often do you add new vegetables. When the old ones are gone or when the old ones dehydrate? Thanks
Those green screens are made to be on top of each other, so you can sift through several screens at the same time..
where did you get your green sifters? I would like to get one
This seams like a ton of work
I’m so sorry if this is random lol but what kind is your turkey?? I have one that looks like that but never knew which one he is. Thank you so much for sharing your experience!!
The one in the video was a Blue Slate turkey :)
Have you ever resifted the frass and found baby mealworms, if so what did you do for that. I resently purchased a #50 screen sifter tray to see if that helps any.
Are these for the chickens or are you making protein flour/powder for yourselves?
Do you have much trouble with mice? Trying to get into the bran etc?
Can you link the different size sifters and specify which you use for what?
Any luck on the sifters?! I am getting ready for my second farm and only have a small sifter😂: TIME TO MOVE TO 5 gallon sifters!
Where do you get the sifters?
An easy way to get rid of the exoskeletons is to use a handheld blower. Outside of course 😅
Hello!
Where do you get your sifters from?
Thanks for sharing!
Those sifters are used for gold prospecting. Some military surplus stores have them as well.
www.amazon.ca/SE-GP2-5-Sifting-Gallon-Diameter/dp/B00C7YCQIQ/ref=rvi_sccl_3/146-5044436-1331868?pd_rd_w=JOZLo&content-id=amzn1.sym.8b4d8c20-8e51-4634-a76f-c00a1995a502&pf_rd_p=8b4d8c20-8e51-4634-a76f-c00a1995a502&pf_rd_r=HP5SKD2K6YV7W9TDSRZ1&pd_rd_wg=kS40j&pd_rd_r=21897d65-987d-4d7c-9d1c-656ff62a9810&pd_rd_i=B00C7YCQIQ&psc=1
Where did you buy the sifters?
Any issue just letting the meal worms go to beetle form and feeding the chickens beetles? Is there a nutrition difference between stages?
There is more nutrition in the mealworms, but there are no issues in feeding the beetles, too. Once our bettles die, we feed them to the chickens as well.
What size of the mesh did you use for the beetle bin? Also what size is that sifter?
Where do you get your bran and oats? Can I see the bag
Where did you get your sifters from? I'm starting my mealworm farm next week and this looks like the best way I've seen so far for cleaning and maintaining. Thanks!
What size screens are you using? Thanks!
I found them for the best price at CAL Ranch
Those green sifters look like gold mining classifiers :)
What trays were you using and where do I get them
How many chickens do you have and what portion of their feed comes from the worms? In other words how much money do you save on chicken feed?
A lot ?? It's practically free.
Mealworms have no calcium in them and shouldn't be a complete feed replacement
@@tystone48 doubtful. The bin he fed the chickens at the end was a quick snack for those chickens. That bin took months to get to that stage. Multiply that by how many bins he has.... this is an occasional treat for the chickens but I dont think it will substantially add much to their overall size
@@davedunks4647 i agree not sub stainable
Depends. You need about 100 worms per chicken per day. He only started with 200 worms.
He also killed a bunch and had them in the house over the winter most of that time, which is a slower multiplication.
You wouldn't feed your chickens just mealworms anyway, that's only a fraction of their diet.
With your setup of 5 full storage tiers (without an incident of neglect or catastrophe) do you think once it's going well it would provide enough worms to give a handful or two a day as feed?
I have about 20 quail and they go absolutely insane for them like your chickens do. But i can't afford to keep buying dried mealworms every month, especially since I refuse to buy the ones grown in china, so it's a lot more expensive for north American grown mealworms or BSF larvae. I'm trying to figure out how much space it will end up taking to grow enough to at least heavily supplement me so I don't need to buy so much.
Hi, I think that if you take a different type of drawers (larger and flatter) you can stack them very easily on top of each other.
In this set up it should be easy to make at least 5 set ups next to each other, so you can have 5x more as shown here
Look into 10 drawer wheeled craft cart. Available from Michael's and sometimes Walmart
I’m interested in the beetle project
Every time, I get grain mites. Every culture. And yeah, I freeze the oats before using.
Maybe try wheat bran from an animal feed store. We have found this has worked well.
What sizes of screens do you use the most the green ones that fit in the bucket?
1/20, 1/50, 1/100, 1/30, 1/??
Hi, thanks for these clarifications on growing MW.
I have a little tip for you.
If you want to cut out the bottom of those drawers, make sure you have a piece of metal/ruler or a angled piece is even handier, where you can let your grinder run along.
It gives you a much straighter cut out and therefor easier to glue the mesh on.
Save you a lot of time on repair too.
Good luck and again, thanks
Great tip! Thanks!
I'll use this when I set our system up!
That's a great tip. Will definitely do that. Thank you
@@LovinofftheLand you're most welcome.
We're all here to help each other isn't it
Wonder if this process could be enlarged to say ...bathtub SIZE in order to step up production?
Anything can be made bigger. You'll just have to shift it all somehow.
I tried the catch, kill, grow, or raise challenge for a year. Of course I spent 100k at Costco first on non perishables and hid them in trees around the property for later foraging 😂
I forgot to ask you can I use rice bran?
When you use the poop for your garden, do the worms turn into beetles? I have fruit trees and don't want the beetles to eat my trees or garden.
no, itll be too wet and they die.
What size mesh is each of your sifters and you progress down to the small stuff?
www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B00C7YCQIQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
These are the ones we got. It has the dimensions for each one if you scroll down.
Not cheap, but we struggled to find any anywhere else
@@LovinofftheLand Thank you, I am familiar with the product. Was looking for clarification on which size you use when sorting the worms at which growth stage.
@@lst854 if you click on the sight above. Sizes are listed
Whered you get tge sifters?
I have two questions.
1. I saw you use three different mesh sifters. What are the mesh opening sizes of those three sifters you used?
2. Do you put the pupae in the top drawers with the beetles?
Thank you 🙏🏻
I hate that we got them through Amazon, and they were way too expensive, but I couldn't find them anywhere else
www.amazon.ca/your-orders/pop/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_pop?_encoding=UTF8&gen=canonical&lineItemId=nhqjnvpnlkkwqny&orderId=701-7053129-8897003&packageId=1&returnSummaryId=&returnUnitIndices=&returnUnitMappingId=&shipmentId=DqNMFlwsc
2. Only when we are going to start a new cycle. When the beetles in the top drawer start to die, they all get fed to the chickens, and a bunch of pupae get moved to the top to start again
@@LovinofftheLand
Thanks for getting back to me. 👍🏻
The link is taking me to an Amazon sign in page. 🤷🏼
I want to know what size the mesh of the ones you used so I can try to find different brands somewhere else or make them myself. I’ve seen the sets of the green ones on Amazon but I assume not all the sizes of mesh are needed.
Do you leave the pupae in the drawer with the worms and when they turn into beetles you move them up? I’ve heard that the worms will eat the pupae and that the beetles will eat the worms? Also, how much of your chickens feed has been replaced with mealworms?
Just ordered 3000 meal worms to start farming. Having trouble finding oat bran at a good price in NE Missouri. Where would be a good place to look. I was thinking about Amazon but not sure how many pounds I will need to start. Also how much will 10,000 consume in a month on the average?
Hey Cecil. We get ours from our local feed store. Same place we get our animal feed. It was $15.99 CAD for 20KG.
Especially when they are starting out that should last you at least 3-4 months.
New Video Out later this week that actually discusses this and how much time it takes to maintain.
Check a feed store. Mine has gone up but still a good deal. 50# for &19.00
What about grapes? Or fruit? Can they only get moisture from vegetables?
No, you can use fruit too. You just have to be careful with things going moldy and we find potatoes do a good job of not doing that.
Fruit is totally fine too though, just remove if it gets moldy
Hello .. is it better to have the worms warm.. or does that matter
Yes. They will breed much faster if it's warm
Do they need heat, I want to start a farm but don’t want them in the house because of mites, want to place them in the garage and it gets cold here, so how can I keep them warm
They do better with heat, but as long as they are in a garage, they should survive.
The main thing is that there life cycle will slow down a lot so they won't be as productive in the cold months
Whats vegetable skat?
Where did you get the sifters?
Unfortunately, on Amazon as we couldn't find them anywhere else
What is the optimal temperature for mealworms?
another video said 75 degrees farenheit
Thank you for the info
@@strawberrymilkshake9074
Where do you get your shifters from?
www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B00C7YCQIQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
What type of mesh? How big of holes in the mesh?
I don't have an exact measurement for you but we used screen door mesh. It would be the same as you get at the hardware store for a screen door
what size mesh is sifter?
You're gonna be busy 🙂
You forgot to give the duck some!!
Need to scatter the mealworms out more so the non dominant birds get some LOL
Haha. Definitely true. 1❤️
Awww, I was thinking the same thing, I always try to throw them some, but often the more dominant hens run to it faster and chase them away.
Stack the sifters so you can do have to do it so much
1kg, how much for thats price?
Do you keep your meal worms outside?
No, they are inside in an unheated basement.
what is the output of the farm?
My mealworms are climbing the plastic box what can I do pls
Taller smoother walled tub draws, maybe a smear of petroleum jelly on the top inch lip of the inside of the tub.
Hi, if you don't have paper egg carton inside do put some, cut up in 3-4 egg parts because the beetles like to hide under them. I have never in 10 yrs had the climbing problem but I have plenty of places for them to hide and breed :)
Nobody has shown the eggs. Can you video those please
Where do I get the Beatles
Message Chris
facebook.com/profile.php?id=100026059613584&mibextid=ZbWKwL
Could you please put the link where did you buy those set of screens?... thanks
Cheerio
I’m
More
Confused than ever
@Lovin Off The Land if you put a wet towel in there (top of a soap dish, so It didnt get the food wet) would the beetles be able to "drink" the water from the towel, like crickets?
I would be worried about mold and making the bran too wet
Those white mealworms are not about to turn into pupae they are freshly shed
mealworms drink i pit bottle cap water on top egg crate piece they crawl up to drink.
Save time do all five sift at same time much quicker
meal worm pov be like O.o
🤣🤣🤣
Melange
Do they stink?
There's a mild smell, but we don't find it that bad at all.
Hmmm How to start go back and see another video 😑
I love this idea but I hate the way they move!!! They creep me out
We stick ours in the storage basement. Hardly even have to see them ;)
@@LovinofftheLand LOL I honestly dont know how you put your hand in there! but like I said I would love to do it, that and worm farming looks so beneficial
Let me start with I hate crawly things.
I started a bin of red wigglers last year. The only time I don’t wear gloves is when I feed them. I think I can do mealworms the same way. I searched and searched before finding a red wiggler worm setup that wasn’t completely skeevy.
I believe I have seen a few ideas and containers I can combine for mealworms that I can handle. I already added 10” tweezers to my Amazon cart.
Honestly I think if you just keep watching an overload of worm videos it’ll be a little easier to overcome the ick factor.
So all this trouble just for a treat for the chicken's?
This seems pretty complicated… lol
Definitely some work to set up, bit really not much to it once it's going
You NEED to use a mask and advise people to do so. Not recommending and using a mask is irresponsible considering the HUGE number of people who develop allergies to the frass.
He did say to use a mask.
You can sell the worms to EU, they want to eat them.
OK, appreciate all the effort you put into the mealworms and the videos to date but OMG what a waste of time materials and effort. Hope you made some money off RUclips because this method of raising mealworms produces so little product to use as feed or even treats that it's just ridiculous and I'm sure you know that even though you're not saying it. Sorry, I'm not a hater, but many years ago I raised a lot of mealworms without this involved procedure and constant effort. I built a 4' by 8' by 2' deep plywood box with sloping hinged lid and attached 4 legs to put it at a good working level. I filled the box 3/4 full of bran flakes and added an initial batch of mealworms. Old vegetables suck for water source, If you have cactus or live where wild cactus grows it's the best, or plant cactus, even thornless if you like, easy to grow indoors and out and it will double production. I did nothing but leave them alone in the dark and occasionally scoop out a bunch of mealworms. Virtually no work or sorting efforts needed. The part about beetles eating eggs is mostly myth if they have enough food. Poop and garden compost is easily harvested off the bottom after scraping the other materials aside. So easy it makes raising mealworms somewhat sensible. Thanks for reminding me I think I'll do it again for my chickens.
Hey Weseng. That definitely sounds easier.
If there is no separation.... when you scoop out the frass, how do you make sure you're not scooping out thousands of eggs with it?
@@LovinofftheLand It's a good point, I never really worried about it. No doubt I was getting some eggs but never cleaned the bottom very thoroughly. In such a large area without bothering them too much and several large leaves of cactus you will have so many beetles and worms it just doesn't seem to matter.
@@weseng-wx3yi thx for the great cactus idea! How often do you have to replace the cactus? Does it last a long time? Can the cactus stay alive and healthy in the substrate? Dealing with the veggies is a pita 🥴
@@teresapisanello5464 Hi Teresa, yes the cactus will last a long time as it's mostly water and if you just lay it on top they will feed on it from the bottom so it takes a long time to dry out. Hopefully you have a fairly good source for the cactus and if it shrivels up too much after a few weeks just replace it.
@@weseng1tysm! Well I live in Florida and I have cacti w/thorns growing wild here so I'm thinking of planting the thornless variety. Hopefully it spreads like the wild ones I have here 🤗
Racist, you don’t give the ducks or turkeys any worms 😤
🤣🤣🤣
😆
Yeah what's up with that?
Are they smelly?
We don't find them too bad but we also don't keep them in the house