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 :)

Grind of some egg shells as well and put in with mealworms. Increase calcium which goes back to the chickens eventually

Use a mesh strainer from the kitchen section to filter your beetles

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.

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.

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!

Try a honey sieve. They are built the same but cheaper and fully metal, no plastic. Can be bought in different size holes

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.

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.

Wonderful job explaining everything. Thank you!

Great demonstration! Clean explanations. Thanks so much! Thats all we need for a mealworms setup 👍

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.

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.

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!

Thx for the video tutorials on this 😊.

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

Wow it's becoming quite the farm.

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.

Thanks for these videos. Definitely going to give this a try this year

What about a metal sifter you can pick up at a dollar store

Cool idea, not only for chicken feed but snacking as well!

Love your set up! What size screen mesh do you put in the bottom of the Beatle draw. Somehow I missed that point. thx

​ @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!

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!!

Any alternative to oats and bran that you can grow on your own homestead?

What size mesh is in the strainer you use to separate the beetles?

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 ❤️

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.

Would this also be good for bearded dragons I'm wanting to grow my own for both chickens and bearded dragons

Your videos are quite interesting. I live watching them

Very interesting good job guys

Which sizes of those sifting pans do you use?

Thank you, now i want to do this

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!

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?

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 🤔 ?

You did have to put holes for them to breath in the containers I'm wanting to do this for my chickens

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?

Do you utilize the third drawer often?

My cats love these mealworms hoping it is OK to allow this. They get into them by themselves little stinkers

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.

How do you separate the babys from the castings?

If things go terribly wrong, you can start eating the mealworms to get the most efficient calories.

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?

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.

V good. Pls boxes size?

Is it worth it? Seems like a lot of money and effort.

Does it matter what kinda of mesh

How many chickens do you have? And how much do you feed to them?

Chickens love meal worms and so can you!!!

So only the top layer has mesh? The other two layers are the regular bottom?

Hey what size mesh do you use ?

space coast meal worms has them

Were do you buy your brand from or wheat germ

Is there a risk of introducing an invasive species with these beetles? can they escape?

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.

Is there a certain size mesh for the eggs to fall thru?

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.

Do you have any issues with the bettles escaping?

No one tells you how terrible the frass smells! Not sure I could keep my little farm going.

How many day harvesting time?

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

What kind of oats and brand? Is it commercial food grade?

My Mrs will move me for making these hahaha. What temp outside is ideal for the little guys?

@. We’re you buy the screens

What size is the mesh

What size mesh are you using?

Were did you order your mealworms from can you let me know

Where do you buy healthy darkling beetles?

I have 4 years experience in mailworm farming if you have any vacance then sponsor me.I know all this farming work thanks.

Great videos but had to stop listening because of the water noises through the videos

how do you clean out the frass?

How much do you feed the chickens everyday

Do they have a odor?

Won't the beetles crawl out?

Do the beetles get out in the house 👀?

Where do you get the shelving unit?

👍👍👍🤠✝️❤️🙏

The problem I'm coming to is that the wheat bran to feed the meal worms cost more than a bag of chicken food...

idiotizm.

Where did you buy that screen, please provide link and what should be the size od the openings? Thanks