Raising Meal Worms

I have found that most of my finches LOVE meal worms. They are a favorite food of my owl finches, blue capped waxbills, star finches, orange cheek waxbills, and society finches. Even the gouldians will eat the very small worms.

I have had no problem keeping a meal worm colony growing. I use 3 uncovered containers and the whole life cylce takes about 3 months. Here's the method I use:

• I started my colony with 100 meal worms. I put them in a plastic container (Container # 1) with about 2 inches of bran mix. I use a mixture that's two thirds wheat bran and one third chicken laying mash (not the medicated type). Both of these items can be purchased very cheaply from a feed store.
  
  

• For moisture and food, I put a carrot on top of the bran mixture. At times I've tried using half of a potato or half of an apple, but I found that they turn mushy and gross. So now, I stick with carrots. If the carrot doesn't get completely eaten, it just dries out.
  
  

• I covered this with strips of torn newspaper.
  
  

• In about a month or two, the worms morph into pupae, then to beetles.
  
  

• In the beetle stage, they will lay eggs - plenty of them!
  
  

• One month after the first appearance of beetles, I prepare a fresh container (Container # 2) with bran mix, carrot and newspapers. I now remove all beetles, pupae and any remaining large worms from Container #1 and put them into Container #2.
  
  

• Container #1 now contains the original bran mix with lots of eggs (too small to see) and teeny-tiny worms. With a magnifying glass, I can see some of the worms.
  
  

• I wait another month. Then I prepare a fresh container (Container # 3) of bran mix / carrot / newspapers and move the beetles/pupae/worms from Container #2 to Container #3. If some of the beetles have died (and they will - since they only live a month or two), I get some worms from Container #1 and also add them to Container #3, so that I keep a continuous colony going.
  
  

• At this point Container #1 has plenty of small worms - just the size that my finches love! For the next month, I retrieve worms from this container to feed my birds. Container #2 now contains bran mix with eggs and tiny worms.
  
  

• After a month of using Container #1 as the feeding supply, I place any remaining worms from this container into Container #3 with the beetles. I clean out Container # 1 and add fresh bran mix, carrot, newspapers - you get the idea.
  
  

• Now I move the beetles / pupae / worms from Container #3 to the fresh mix in Container # 1. Container #2 now contains my worm supply for the next month.
  
  

• If I just keep this monthly rotation going there's always a supply of fresh small worms for my finches. I also feed some of the worms to the wild birds. Bluebirds and Carolina wrens love them!
  
  

• Other than this monthly container switch-a-roo, the only other maintenance I perform is replacement of the carrots if they get eaten or dried out. To avoid a moldy mix, I DON'T add any moisture. The carrots supply any needed moisture.   ** note - in the dry winter air, I find it necessary to spray the newspapers daily with water and apple slices seem to work better than carrots.