I have a few mealworm questions

[Moppel]

Hi, it's been a while since I was here, life has thrown me a few curveballs.

Anyway, I started a mealworm colony, and so far it seems to be going great. I have a four container stack setup, three with bran as bedding, one plain for the pupae.

I have one container with the mealworms, the next is for the pupae, then below that one are the beetles, and the top one is the baby worms. I changed the beetles into a new container for the first time on February 12th.
Now I'm not sure what to do next. I have lots of pupae, and I think the beetle container is getting over crowded, there are a LOT in there. Plus, they've been in there since February 12th, shouldn't I take them out and move them again, so the eggs in there can hatch? But where do I put them? Do I need to buy more containers? Or do I move the baby worms in with the adult ones now? The little ones are growing rapidly, they're fairly easy to see now. If it's time to move the babies, how do I do that? They are so tiny! Do I use a colander or something?
I've read so many websites on mealworm breeding, but somehow, after the worms reach the beetle stage, that's it, info over.
I feel a bit lost.

If it's time to move the beetles, should I get another container and separate them so it's not so crowded? Or are they okay that way? It's REALLY full in there, the pic doesn't do it justice, as I took it right before I fed them, and that's when they go nuts, fresh food.

The setup itself, does it look okay? I feed them all on slate, it's easy for them to climb on, and it's easy to clean. Are the pupae okay with nothing but the tub?

Water. I have read so many different things on that one. Do I put water for humidity in every single one of the containers or not? Some websites said NO! cause it'll cause mold. Others say it's essential, they need the moisture. Right now I have water in the pupae container and the beetle container. Okay? Not okay?

And lastly, what is the best food for the babies? I'm feeding carrots and cabbage, they all seem to like those, and I've been shredding them for easier eating. Is that an okay diet? I also give "Insect Chow" from Rainbowmealworms.com.

Do you think our worms look healthy? I would say yes, but I'm still new to the whole mealworm thing. They are very shiny, which is hard to see in the pic, fat, and active.

I appreciate any and all feedback on this! Thanks!!

 

[Moppel]

Shoot, forgot to attach the pics, sorry. Here they are.

 

[Moppel]

Two more.

 

[Terrain_pull up]

Looks like a pretty rocking mealworm set up to me. I was breeding them for awhile too. I found the hardest part was seperating everything at every stage as well. I eventually just ended up with two bins, one for mealworms and one for pupae and beetles. I found the beetles would die off in a few weeks before they could eat all the eggs/baby worms so there was always baby worms.

I don't know if it will help you but what I've been doing for the last few years is blending rolled oats oatmeal and/or wheat bran in a blender so that it becomes a powder essentially. The reason I do that is when it's time to seperate worms from the bedding I just use a screen scooper and sift the worms from the bedding. I don't have the patience to pick out a couple hundred mealworms individually for each feeding session..lol I always kind of wondered how other people do it to maximize efficiency

 

[Moppel]

Thank you! I've been thinking about pulverizing the bran, I guess I'll give that a try.

 

[indyana]

I also got a bit lazy with the rotation when I ran a colony, but I didn't need to maximize my yield either. Next step would be to sift beetle bin and merge egg-laden bedding into mealworm bin, unless you want to run two mealworm bins (small vs large). I used a collander to sift worms and beetles from bedding.

As a note, when I overproduced, I would thin the ranks by freezing some of the pupae/beetles to kill them and then tossing them outside for the wild birds.