Update on the Mealworm Farm we started to Feed our Chickens (Part2)
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2022
- It has now been 3 months since we first started our mealworm farm.
Here is our initial video: • How to Start Your Own ...
Here is our progress Video at the 6 month mark: • How to Start Your Own ...
The process has taken a lot longer than we thought, but it is going well. In this video we go through what we have learned so far, and what things didn't work as well.
We are excited to check in on our mealworm farm again in a few months when when we should have a regular supply of mealworms for our chickens.
"Lovin Off The Land" was our 365 Day Challenge to ourselves to only Eat what we could Catch, Grow, Harvest or Raise.
Follow along with the next part of our journey on social media:
Instagram - lovinofftheland
Facebook - lovinofftheland 
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Hi, I haven't noticed in any videos how you add extra water beside veggies. I have been raising meal worms for over 10 years in the 3 stage bins for the hens & it gets hot here in TX (especially this year) I cut up cheap sponges in quarters, soak in water & put them on a little piece of plastic wrap or wax paper (so my bran/oats don't get moldy) the worms & beetles love the extra water & swarm the sponges. Every week I soak again for a minute or squirt a few drops on :)
Great idea.
Thanks for sharing
I just wet some egg cartons and they like to hide in there with all the moisture
Fresh whole grain bread works too
Grind of some egg shells as well and put in with mealworms. Increase calcium which goes back to the chickens eventually
Not sure if mealworms are the same as red wigglers, and have gizzards, requiring grit
dont do that, the pupae will be having troubles to get out the egg. the shell will be harder!!!!
@@reneebrown2968 mealworm is not a worm..... mealworm is a insect
Use a mesh strainer from the kitchen section to filter your beetles
Try a honey sieve. They are built the same but cheaper and fully metal, no plastic. Can be bought in different size holes
Thank you for being honest. You're learning to as we're going along too. 👍
I grew crickets years ago. They were interesting and within a couple of weeks I had mucho adults. Now I just breed worms.
Wonderful job explaining everything. Thank you!
Thanks for these videos. Definitely going to give this a try this year
Very interesting good job guys
I found them to be fond of canned dog/cat food (small amounts), but removing leftovers promptly is important. The worms actually swarmed it in a little feeding frenzy.
You spoil your worms! 🤣🤣
I most definitely would not feed canned dog or cat food, simply because you have no idea where the ingredients were sourced. I strongly discourage anyone doing this unless they know the sourcing.
Great demonstration! Clean explanations. Thanks so much! Thats all we need for a mealworms setup 👍
Affix something to the lower drawer that is not attached to the upper drawer but is in the way of it when you open it, so it will prevent you from being able to open the upper drawer unless you are also opening the lower. No more accidental messes.
Great idea. Will definitely add this in
Thx for the video tutorials on this 😊.
Wow it's becoming quite the farm.
Thanks for the update post and the hints and tips along the way.
Learning from other people’s mistakes is the best.
I was one of those who were thinking maybe my beetles didn’t lay many eggs, so thanks for explaining that it takes a looong time between egg laying and when you actually can see baby worms.
It definitely took longer than we were thought and we were worried it wasn't working
I have the same exact setup as you I just hatched about 10 beetles but have pupae still hope to have babies in the next couple months
Thanks for these mealworm videos! I'm doing my own colony thanks to your videos. You feed chickens with them, I'm gonna raise them to feed my tarantulas. Thank you again!
That's awesome. Let us know how it works out and if you have any questions
this video brings back memories, my dad raised mealworms back in the 60's to use for crappie fishing! He just had a single fiber board barrel with wheat bran and used cut up prickly pear cactus for moisture needs of the worms. That set up was more labor intensive and it had way too deep of bran. Not efficient method that way, you would need to do screening and house cleaning quite often. Your method provides for separation of development stages, highly efficient.
Hey Gary, That's awesome. Thanks for sharing and glad it brought back a good memory.
Thank you, now i want to do this
Cool idea, not only for chicken feed but snacking as well!
Your videos are quite interesting. I live watching them
Those sifters are used in gold panning. I have a few myself. Great idea using those bins! Wonder if you could use for earthworm farming?
Great video, keep up the awesome work!
Did you try it? I have never farmed earthworms but do have a red wriggler farm. I reckon earthworms would escape these bins. They more easily climb up the sides of containers. These containers do not actually seal off so the worms might just go everywhere.
These are great videos. I appreciate your work and your sharing of ideas. I began raising mealworms for lizards around my house. I have a family of blue-belly lizards that are normally really wary of humans but they've gotten to where they come up and eat the worms right out of my hand. Buying the worms at the pet store got expensive. I don't have hens anymore but I live on 3.5 acres with lots of trees... so naturally I have lots of birds. I feed them all regularly but have found over the last 2 years that if you want to become extremely popular with the birds... mealworms are the ticket. I had a decent farm going to keep the flow of worms going but as I get weaker and weaker from old age... taking care of the worms by hand is a lot of work. My biggest downfall was not getting the eggs and baby worms away from the beetles. What mesh screen are you using? I was looking for 1/8" mesh but I find that the small beetles fall right through with that. Is that regular window screen mesh? Because that's easy to find. I believe that would stop the small beetles from falling through.
Thanks for your tips and pointers. I guess with the way the world is heading... mealworms MAY end up being our steaks of the future.
Yes it was regular window screen that he's using.
All i read was... we dont have hens anymore
@colourful64able Lol... that's exactly what I said. I'm just old and long-winded.
Not sure about these beetles..but small hive beetles Hate peppermint oil..Even peppermint candy .People use it in beehives to get rid of small hive beetles .
Very nice information and explanations. Thanks for the help with getting mealworms started.
Do the bins need to be that deep or could they be shallower? I mean, would the beetles be successful crawling out if they weren't as deep? Glad you're doing updates to help us adjust to raising these with as few boo boo's as possible. Jesus bless.
My bins are 75mm deep (about 3 inches) and beetles can’t crawl out. I’ve had them in takeaway containers 2.5 inches deep before with no problems also
Do you utilize the third drawer often?
What about a metal sifter you can pick up at a dollar store
Which sizes of those sifting pans do you use?
Would this also be good for bearded dragons I'm wanting to grow my own for both chickens and bearded dragons
Love your set up! What size screen mesh do you put in the bottom of the Beatle draw. Somehow I missed that point. thx
It appears he is using window screen material left over from a screen door project.
Do you have any issues with the bettles escaping?
Any alternative to oats and bran that you can grow on your own homestead?
manure works
You did have to put holes for them to breath in the containers I'm wanting to do this for my chickens
@LovinofftheLand how long do the beetles live for? I guess my main question is how do you figure out how many mealworms to keep vs turning them into pupa and then beetles. Thanks! Great videos!
Thank you. We find they live for about 9 months. We usually wait until about 1/4 have died in the top bin. Then we know to start the next cycle and save some more to go to the pupae stage and eventually to beetles.
We find their life Spans vary greatly so this gives us enough time to get the next batch ready
When I see things like this it always makes me wonder if beings farm humans like we farm lots of other animals lol, thanks for the video!!
I hunt the most delicious game, humans
Is there a certain size mesh for the eggs to fall thru?
What kind of oats and brand? Is it commercial food grade?
Is it worth it? Seems like a lot of money and effort.
Wondering if you’ve ever considered harvesting black soldier fly larvae from a bio pod?
It might prove to be a less laborious way of collecting a protein source.
We've done Buckets with Meat and holes in the bottom hanging from a tree. Worked pretty well. Will have to do some more research on biopods. Thanks :)
What size mesh are you using?
How many Beatles should you start with, for a Medium sized indoor operation?
It's nice watching you grow, and hone in on your Skills...
Peace ✌️ ☮️ and Love ❤️
Thanks, Trixie. We started with 200.
You can start with that and always let more mealworms turn into pupae and then beetles if you want to expand.
And where do you buy them at?
First I want to say thank you for sharing. Second question the glue you used is not toxic to the beetles? Everyone is using the hot gun glue, just curious 🤔 ?
Hi Cindi! Ususally, hot glue is non toxic as soon as it's hard to mammals or invertebraes alike. It's actually a so called thermo-plastic. PET for waterbottles is an other example of a thermoplastic, you can easily mold it as soon as it's warm. Also, beetles are some of the most unaffected animals when it comes to any toxins. Hope this soothes your mind ;)
V good. Pls boxes size?
What size mesh is in the strainer you use to separate the beetles?
Where do you find your wheat bran? I'm just getting started with my grandsons assisting. It's a homeschool project for them, and some sustainable food for our chickens, guineas, and ducks!
We get it from our feed supply store here. 20kg bag is $18 and has lasted us 6 months for what the mealworms need.
Is there a risk of introducing an invasive species with these beetles? can they escape?
So only the top layer has mesh? The other two layers are the regular bottom?
That's correct. That way the eggs remain in the 2nd and third layers.
Does it matter what kinda of mesh
Could I do this in Maine? I'd keep em in my basement for winter. It still gets down to like 48 degrees down there though.
Yes, we have ours in our basement in the winter too. They slow down their life cycle but they'll be fine. Don't expect much progress over winter
One thing I havnt heard mentioned yet is if the chickens eat the dead beetles? Is there a reason you don’t just grow everything to the beetle stage & once a week feed the dead beetles to the chickens?
Beetles keep the system (colony) going and the actual worms are higher quality poultry feed. Also going to be cheaper to keep a set number of beetles to rear the worms.
Have you weighed or measured how much you are giving to your chickens? I am wondering size farm to get going to get a steady amount of worms to my chickens weekly.
Hey Rick. We haven't yet unfortunately. They are only just getting to feeding size now. It has taken a long time to get going but think we'll be able to get a steady flow going now. We'll do another update soon with how much we are getting and feeding them
@@LovinofftheLand thanks!
Bluebirds love them too.
Another couple of questions. Do you leave the dead beetles in there? The live beetles seem to like eating them.
Can you feed the dead beetles to your chickens?
I'm sure you can leave them in there as well, but we usually feed them to our chickens. Might as well get the most out of it
My Mrs will move me for making these hahaha. What temp outside is ideal for the little guys?
🤣 we find about between 20-25 degrees Celsius is ideal for them breeding and moving through their life cycle quickly.
They'll survive at much lower temperatures than that, but they almost go into a hibernation and their life cycle slows way down
do you think the investment of the whole set of screens is worth it, or do you find you use only a couple really the most?
Same question
So do you physically move the bigger larve mealworms into the bottom tray? If so, when? I don't understand the point of the bottom tray.
Hi. Good question. The bottom tray is for the mealworms that will continue the life cycle into beetles. About 80% from tray 2 are harvested for chickens. 20% go to the bottom tray so they can continue to turn into beetles. As they develop into beetles (and the beetles in drawer 1 start to die) tray 3 gets transferred to tray 1 with the screen, and fresh beetles start laying eggs.
Sorry, that's a little convoluted but hope it makes sense
@@LovinofftheLand So, you leave the pupa in tray 3 (bottom)? And then when the pupa develops into a beetle you physically put it in tray 1 (top)? Or do you watch for pupa and then physically put the pupa into tray 2?
And, you're harvesting tray 2 for chickens but aren't those in tray 2 the nearly microscopic tiny clear worms that just hatched from the eggs dropped from tray 1? For some reason I thought tray 3 was the harvesting tray with the bigger worms? Sorry I'm so confused! Thanks for answering my questions!
My cats love these mealworms hoping it is OK to allow this. They get into them by themselves little stinkers
I haven’t found mesh or correct size of mesh can u give me a couple good hints what to look for as in name n places to find itc
As in for the bottom of the bins where the eggs fall through?
We used the same screen mesh that you would use for screen doors. Most hardware stores should have it
What size is the mesh
Were do you buy your brand from or wheat germ
We get it from the feed store. Was $17 for a 20kg bag
Hey what size mesh do you use ?
I'd like to know this as well
Where do you buy healthy darkling beetles?
Message Chris in FB
facebook.com/profile.php?id=100026059613584&mibextid=ZbWKwL
How many chickens do you have? And how much do you feed to them?
Good question wish it was answered
Were did you order your mealworms from can you let me know
I ordered from rainbow mealworms
Where do you get the shelving unit?
China world.
Walmart
how do you clean out the frass?
Screening the biomass further. Separating the larvae from the bran and the frass it a series of siftings
If things go terribly wrong, you can start eating the mealworms to get the most efficient calories.
Always good to have a plan B 🤣
Bill Gates has some awesome recipes
@@justinsane7128 😂🤣😂
James is obviously a WEF bugman simp. Free men much prefer to feed bugs to our flocks and consume meat.
@@justinsane7128 🤣😂😅
Do the parent beetles fly or are they crawlers? I'm wondering if I need to keep my farm in a netted area or if they will stay inside when I bring them in for the winter.
they crawl
@@rambogaming230 can the crawl up the plastic wall/ or a stainless steel walled drawer. I dont want them getting into other areas of the house /food if they are brought in for winter.
@@connie5689 as far as im aware they can't climb, I haven't raised em myself but I've never heard of anyone mentioning problems with the beetles escaping
How many day harvesting time?
Been raising MW for over 10 years in the 3 stage bins. Harvest time is different depending on the temperature. When it's hot in summer I get thousands/week. Put extra worms in plastic food containers in the refrigerator to save for winter when it's cold they are "dormant". When it's cold they don't breed/grow fast. Hope that helps
How much do you feed the chickens everyday
We definitely don't feed them daily. They maybe get 2 handfuls every couple of days as an extra treat. We give them more in the winter when they need some extra protein. We are going to track the output more closely and do a video update on it.
@. We’re you buy the screens
You can buy a roll of screen at almost any hardware store. They are using the size openings that you use to fix a screen door or a window screen.
Do the beetles get out in the house 👀?
No. They can't climb the plastic
@@LovinofftheLand. We’re you buy the the green sifters
Chickens love meal worms and so can you!!!
Do they have a odor?
A little bit, but not to bad if you keep them dry. Starts to get worse if everything gets damp
Thank you for the reply. Been looking to do this.
No one tells you how terrible the frass smells! Not sure I could keep my little farm going.
👍👍👍🤠✝️❤️🙏
Won't the beetles crawl out?
In a smooth wall container like plastic they can't get enough traction to crawl out. A bare minimum of 2" above bedding should suffice
I have 4 years experience in mailworm farming if you have any vacance then sponsor me.I know all this farming work thanks.
Thanks for your message. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to do that at this point
The problem I'm coming to is that the wheat bran to feed the meal worms cost more than a bag of chicken food...
Costs are increasing fast. I get wheat bran from my co-op
Great videos but had to stop listening because of the water noises through the videos
idiotizm.