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Congratulations on the hatch Carol. Hope it cools off a bit for you and the birds.
It was good to hear that the young ones are coming back to the feeder. Mine have not been back this year that I know of, although the feeder is empty most of the time when I go out to feed. Maybe after this last batch has grown a bit.
David
Stafford, VASo, if i have a stack of 3 trays, is the one on the top the only one that has a screen for the bottom? Or is it the top two trays?
The top tray is the only tray with the screen. But before you do that consider the numbers. If you are looking for 150-160 mealworms per day you should shoot for a hatch of about 1250 mealworms every 2 weeks. That would be about 50 beetles (50% female) producing about 7 eggs each per day for 2 weeks. I would not cut the drawer for this few beetles. I would use a set of 2 shoebox sized plastic containers and cut the bottom from one, put the mesh in that container and stack it in the other with about 1/2 inch of wheat bran or other food. After 2 weeks empty the egg container into one of your drawers and start over again.
It can take6 8 to 10 weeks for the eggs to hatch and grow into small larva. Their rate of growth depends on the temperature of the room where they are kept. The ideal temperature is 76 to 82 degrees and 60% humidity, but most of us do not enjoy those temperatures during the summer. If your room is cooler than 76 you can probably add another week to ten days onto the growth. That is where mine is. That is why I have the additional times for growth to medium size.David
Stafford, VAWhat I was trying to post before was a diagram of drawer progression. It starts in the left stack and goes down-left- and up. Notice that the #12 drawer is moved to the #4 position to receive new eggs. The 1,2 & 3 drawers do not fit the rest of the slots. I bought this stack before i purchased the other 3 sets. I will be glad to answer any questions here or you can PM me through the Cafe Mailbox.
David
Stafford, VAGood luck with your blues. It would be good if you could eliminate the HOSP some how.
You need to use a third party site like imgur.com to post the photos. It is very easy to set up a free account and then upload the photos that you want to use. When you want to post a photo you just select the photo that you have uploaded and on the right side of the page, go down to the line that says “BBCode”, click copy, then go back to your post and past the code in your text. it will appear as “(img]https://i.imgur.com/xyxysbcJ.jpg[/img])” in you draft but a photo will appear in the post when you submit it.
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David
Stafford, VAIt is good to see that the parents are teaching the young ones how to defend the mealworm feeder. Hope for good news on Friday or Saturday, Carol. Stay cool.
David
Stafford, VADon’t give up. I just returned from a trip to Phoenix and found a nest almost complete. both birds were carrying grass into the nest today. this is 2 weeks from when the 2nd group fledged.
David
Stafford, VAOne of the downsides to this approach is that the beetles are prolific breeders and if you do not keep the numbers of beetles down they will produce unmanageable numbers of larva. The female will lay between 5-10 eggs per day. So if you have 100 beetles and 50% are females they can lay anywhere from 250 to 500 eggs per day. That times 14 days equals 3500 to 7000 larva every 2 weeks. And they continue on and on!!! (Voice of experience – I have about 5000 larva in the refrigerator and 3000-5000 more in the drawers with more eggs incubating. Since I use only 120 to 150 per day, I have a lot more than I can use.)
Luckily I was visiting the Wild Birds Unlimited store near me and we were talking about feeding bluebirds and the manager asked me if I could supply her with mealworms. Still have to talk to her as I was getting ready to go to Phoenix and had let my breeding beetles die off. So I need to restart my colony and get the numbers up again.
David
Stafford, VAHi Chris,
Sorry to be so late with a response. I was at a Handbell Directors Conference in Phoenix last week and just returned to Virginia. Temperatures were terrible out there , 103+ degrees every day.
I have been raising mealworms for a little more than a year. Here is a link to a post last year about my “farm” http://bluebirdnut.com/forums/topic/mealworm-farm-update/
I have expanded my “farm” to a 12 drawer system using 4 three drawer plastic storage bins that I bought at Target. I cut the bottom out of the top drawer in one of the sets and put 1/8th inch mesh screen on the bottom, put about 1 1/2″ of oatmeal in the drawer and use that for the beetle drawer. The next drawer collects the eggs. I have about 1/2″ wheat bran in this drawer. I let the beetles lay the eggs for about 2 weeks (I shake the beetle drawer every couple of days to get more of the eggs into the egg drawer). I put another 1/2″ of wheat bran on top of the eggs and move in down a slot and put a new drawer under the mesh drawer for more eggs. I then just keep up this cycle and use the larva when they are about 3/4″ to 1″ to feed my bluebirds.
It is not recommended to use a single container for everything as the beetles will feast on the new and old larva (mealworms) and eggs and the larva will feed on the young larva and eggs in spite of the amount of food, bran, cornmeal etc. that you have provided them.
There are a lot of resources available online, on YouTube, and a very good “how to” on the Sialis.org website. If you have any questions PM me here
David
Stafford, VACourtney, so sorry to hear this news. Yes, wrens are determined pests – but if you keep removing their nesting material they will eventually give up. I would remove the BB nest and let them start a fresh nest. You said that you have another box out there. They might start building their new nest in there.
You will normally put up the wren guard after the female blue lays the first egg. Has anyone used the wren guard prior to the first egg?
Good luck on the next try.David
Stafford, VA -
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