I've been mixing in a few dehydrated meal worms to the scratch I give the girls on the weekends just to give them some variety now that we are into winter and there are no bugs to be found in the yard. To give them some real meat in the depths of winter/early spring, I started a meal worm colony a few weeks back. At basement temperatures, it may be a couple of months before they go through a complete life cycle whereby the resultant beetles will lay eggs to keep the colony sustaining. In the meantime, it is wait and watch with the current crop of worms that came home from the pet store.
I'm basically following
the directions found at the Sialis blue-bird site for setting up the colony since it seems to be the most complete one out there. Here is a shot of the bin.
And here is a close up of a group of worms on the substrate. The substrate is oat bran, oat meal, and a little of the layer crumble that we feed to the chickens. The water bowl is to provide some humidity as are the potato slices. You have to be careful to provide just enough humidity to keep them happy without causing the substrate to go moldy. So far I've been replacing the potato slices about once a week.
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