Meal worms: Super Expensive Form of Protein?

[WindingRoad]

Meal worms in any form are very expensive. So I raise my own and my chickens and blue birds go WILD for them. Easiest things in the world to raise. I bought 2,000 as my starter set from my local wild bird store and a plastic 3 drawer set from Walmart on sale. I put a 5 lb. bag (I used wheat flour this go around) in the top drawer and dumped in the worms. For moisture I cut a potato in half lengthwise and set peeling side down on the flour. BAM! You're raising mealworms. My intention was to get the whole life cycle going before I started feeding the worms to my birds. The worms will turn into pupae next and go dormant during that phase. When they hatch into the darkling beetles I pick them out and put in another drawer with the same set up. The beetles will lay eggs that hatch into worms and so the cycle goes. As the veggies dry out, replace. You can use potatoes, carrots, lettuce, old bread. BYC has great info on the choices. Now that I have established the full cycle I am feeding the full grown worms while leaving some to complete the cycle. The length of each stage of the cycle depends on how much food you give them and how warm they are. I made the mistake of putting them in a spare room that stays pretty cool and that slowed everything down. I made the room a bit warmer and things picked right back up. In the summer they can be raised outside if you have a protected place so wild birds and reptiles can't access buffet style. And people can eat them too.

LOL. Not this people. (eating them that is).

 

[Elfer]

Mealworms can be the cheapest form of protein you can find, if you put a little money into them upfront. I have a half-gallon ketchup container on my kitchen counter (what can I say? My kids like ketchup!) I poked many tiny ventilation holes into the upper half and the lid with a hot, empty glue gun. Next, I filled the bottom with about three inches of dry, rolled oats (generic oatmeal.) I then spent all of $2.99 on a small container of refrigerated (not vitamin-dusted) mealworms at our local pet supply (ours is PetCo,) sifted out the live ones and dumped them into my ketchup bucket. After adding a slice of raw potato for moisture (they don't need water) I let 'em be.

After about a month, I now have a self-sustaining colony and all the mealworms I need to keep a dozen bantams happy. The only real maintenance involves removing expired and/or excess beetles (and feeding them to the chickens) and replacing the potato slice every few days to keep it from molding. You can use apple slices, too ... but a word of advice ... no bananas. They get REALLY nasty REALLY quickly and the oats get moldy. NASTY!

I only serve mealworms as a treat, so if you want to augment your regular feed, you'll need a bigger set-up (there are lots of ideas here on BYC.) For our little flock of little biddies, the ketchup bottle is working just fine, and is pretty unobtrusive. Of course, it can be really entertaining when your brother goes looking for ketchup and finds something he is TOTALLY unprepared to put on his burger. I wish I'd had a camera for that one!

I'm gonna try this! Yes, they are terribly expensive, even in the giant bag that TRS sometimes has. But if you want to bribe a chicken into being held, they are the treat of choice. I've never found anything a chicken preferred over them. I had a part gamecock chicken that would come running out if she just smelled them, and would attack other chickens that wanted them. Would just about rip my hand off when it was empty. Made a noise like a dog guarding food when she ate them.

 

[WindingRoad]

I'm gonna try this! Yes, they are terribly expensive, even in the giant bag that TRS sometimes has. But if you want to bribe a chicken into being held, they are the treat of choice. I've never found anything a chicken preferred over them. I had a part gamecock chicken that would come running out if she just smelled them, and would attack other chickens that wanted them. Would just about rip my hand off when it was empty. Made a noise like a dog guarding food when she ate them.

it's not like you're giving them pounds of worms.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I’m with the majority on this one, mealworms are way overpriced. I use other forms of Protein as treats and have my own meal work farm.

Examples, when we buy a rotisserie chickem at the grocery, instead of throwing out the carcass, place it in your run. The chickens will pick it clean ASAP.

Food scraps food scraps food scraps. We don’t throw away any food, anything the three kids don’t eat goes to compost and chickens.

There’s lots of Protein in veggies
Like broccoli, spinach, beans, peas, etc. you can feed them these from table scraps, feed them what you don’t eat from your garden, and buy at store. I have worked out a deal with my grocery store, 2x per week they give me a box of veggie trim that can feed an army. Ask the produce manager if they’d be willing to give you their “trim”. You’ll be surprised about how much food good growcery throws away and will give for free.

OK, see, this is right up my alley. Kind of the point of my post. I can buy a fully cooked rotisserie chicken, feed my family (several times if I also make soup), and THEN give the flock a protein rich snack for less per pound than mealworms.

I feed all the food scraps I can. Our food scraps. Neighbors food scraps. Family's food scraps. Food scraps from work.

 

[MissChick@dee]

OK, see, this is right up my alley. Kind of the point of my post. I can buy a fully cooked rotisserie chicken, feed my family (several times if I also make soup), and THEN give the flock a protein rich snack for less per pound than mealworms.

I feed all the food scraps I can. Our food scraps. Neighbors food scraps. Family's food scraps. Food scraps from work.

Very true...like I said mine are spoiled. They get chicken, sardines, tuna etc. the beetles are just plain fun to feed.
I replaced my carrots today in my worm bin. When I did I noticed tiny baby worms feeding on them. So in a couple months I have a complete life cycle. Guess the true test will be after I’ve had them for awhile. So far we’re happy growing our own.

 

[RadiantJay]

OK, see, this is right up my alley. Kind of the point of my post. I can buy a fully cooked rotisserie chicken, feed my family (several times if I also make soup), and THEN give the flock a protein rich snack for less per pound than mealworms.

I feed all the food scraps I can. Our food scraps. Neighbors food scraps. Family's food scraps. Food scraps from work.

And you know what else.... if you have kids in a formal daycare institution like I didn’t previously (3 kids in daycare actually). I’m happy that monthly bill is gone!! Anyway, we all know that kids under 10 don’t eat anything green SO I spoke with the teachers and they used to give me about 2 gallons of scrap kid food per day. Instead of throwing all that food in the trash my chickens got spoiled!!!!

Try that one!! It is amazing how much food the world wastes and with a soft approach, you can sometimes get it given to you for free... grocery store trim, day care scraps, dinner scraps, neighbor scraps. You could virtually stop buying bags of food all together!!!

 

[paneubert]

It is amazing how much food the world wastes and with a soft approach, you can sometimes get it given to you for free... grocery store trim, day care scraps, dinner scraps, neighbor scraps. You could virtually stop buying bags of food all together!!!

Growing up, my parents had some friends who were "gleaners". Pretty much exactly what you describe. Getting old produce from the store, etc...

Here is where the term comes from.

"Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is a practice described in the Hebrew Bible that became a legally enforced entitlement of the poor in a number of Christian kingdoms."

 

[Jeanierose]

hahhhaaaaaahaa!

 

[stinbr]

So, I read a lot about people feeding meal worms to their flock for high-protein treats.

A quick look at tractor supply shows the price ranging from over $1/ounce (for a 10 ounce bag) to about $6.50/lb for a 5 lb bag.

So, what am I missing? For far less than $6.50/lb, I can buy many different kinds of meat at the grocery store....ground beef, chicken, fish, even many cuts of beef. Heck, sometimes ground turkey or chicken goes on sale for 99 cents a pound around here!

What is it about meal worms that make them better? Is it the fact that they're dried, so without the moisture content you're getting more raw protein per pound? Is it the snack-ready size?
If it's not that, what am I missing? If they're worth $6.50+ a lb, should *I* be eating them?!

Buy them online, they are about $30 for a 5# bag. Also, can feed them live mealworms. I buy from Rainbow mealworms. They were just running a special of 5,000 live for $20. You will need to put them in a plastic container with vented lid containing about 3 inches of wheat bran. Keep in fridge or at room temp. if you want them to grow and reproduce.

 

[dfgkfghggfasd]

I prefer to raise them myself. SUPER easy. They are very quiet and low maintenance Although they can eat each other. Especially the pupa as they are basically defenseless. You may need to separate them ever so often.

There are plenty of online tutorials: https://www.wikihow.com/Raise-Mealworms

I've noticed Petsmart sells them for cheap. Sprouts generally sells the bran for keeping them in.

For food you can just drop some food scraps in there ever so often. They take a long time to eat it.