Sourcing Mealworm in Northumberland area

[Home Grown Poultry]

Way back in the day i delt with this lady sometimes. https://thewormlady.ca/
but these guys were my main supplier for almost everything https://portcreditpets.com/
Oh and here is one more feeder supplier.... https://silkworms.ca/silkshop/Welcome.action

All of these places should ship anything, anywhere, they use heat packs when required.

Good luck and glad i could get even some of you to consider raising them. Its not that bad at all. When i worked at the pet store some customers would be totally grossed out at me touching them while counting them out..... so i would eat a couple and they would run away! LOL people are funny. There is absolutely nothing to fear with these little beetles and of all the feeder animals that one can raise they are without a doubt the easiest, least stinky and cleanest. You dont even really have to clean it very often. I kept them in a food grade bucket with a rubber gasket lid. I cut out most of the center and attached screen, i think i siliconed it on. Just like chickens they need proper ventilation and with it they really are not stinky at all. Every few months when most of the food is eaten and it needs to be replaced one would sift out all the mealworms and put them in the fridge or another container. you may need more than one size of sift to get them all. get out most of the waste and fill it back up with food and put your worms back in. Man it feels like it was so long ago when i had all the reptiles.

Im so glad your still culturing them Jaye!

[Jaye]

Thanks, Al. They are actually kind of interesting. I still get enthusiastic when I see pupae starting to develop in my large/feeder meal worm bin because it means I'll soon have new beetles, which will be breeding another generation of mealies.
My 6 bin system has beetles in the top; the base is screened so that the eggs and newly hatched larvae fall through into bin #2.
Bin# 3 is for small mealworms, bin #4 is for medium mealworms and bin #5 is for feeder size/large mealworms. This bin also has a screened bottom, so that frass falls through into Bin #6, which goes into the garden. Bins get rotated down a level once a month or so during the active growing/development season. I pick out pupae from bin #5 as they emerge and put them into a separate container until they morph into beetles, and then they go into bin #1. With every new generation of beetles the older generation is disposed of (in the chicken run for the hens) to make room for younger breeding stock.

Here's two pretty good mealworms 101 FAQ writeups for anyone who's interested:
https://www.northwestredworms.com/all/mealworms
https://www.mealwormfarming.org/single- ... -Mealworms

[kenya]

Have any pictures?

[Jaye]

No, but I can try to take some tonight..

[Jaye]

Here is my setup.

The beetles are in the top bin of the left bank unit, the right bank unit has the medium and large mealworm bins and the frass bin on the bottom. I use the small three bin unit on top of the right bank unit as a staging area as well as one of the drawers houses the pupae until they turn into beetles.

[WLLady]

alright....my bins are arriving tomorrow. as are my new-to-me mealworms.
OMG. wish me luck that i don't open the container and run screaming from the house.....LOL

[kenya]

Thats quite the setup ! Thanks for posting.

[Jaye]

LOL, good luck! You'll be fine, @WLLady . I was a bit squeamish at first too, but I got used to them pretty quickly. It didn't take long. I do wear surgical gloves if I really have to handle them, and I use a big plastic spoon to scoop them out if I have to get some as feeders.
I still don't much care for handling the beetles, so I don't if possible. When the bin needs cleaning I put on a disposable mask and just dump them all into a dedicated over-sink colander over an empty bin and sift out everything else, then just dump them out into a clean bin with fresh feed/bedding and carrots or whatever I'm using as their water source.

[Jaye]

Thats quite the setup ! Thanks for posting.

Thanks @kenya . And you're welcome! It actually does save quite a bit of time over the 1 bin system, although it works well too. It just takes more frequent maintenance, I found, and I think the less time I have to spend with larvae and bugs and their , the better.