Hi everyone

Dominique

My name is Dominique. I'm a french guy who has been enough crazy to buy the Hive and raise worms. As you can see my english is not very fluent and I asked myself if there are others french guys who have buy the Hive. I have my worms since one month now and they grow rather well. From the starter kit, the biggest worms begin to become pupae and I separate them every two days without using the shaker but I do that with my hands and a little piece of paper. It seems that a few worms of the oldest died and so a few pupaes. But for the moment I want to have the most possible of pupaes to have a chance they become beetles. When beetles will born, what do they eat : the same as the worms? the smallest worms grow well and eat a lot. I give to my worms dry bread, oat, carrots(they like very much) cores of salads... I like to read your experiences.

Clay

Dominique Welcome to this exciting movement Dom! Your English is fine.

The beetles eat the same thing as mealworms, except they usually eat much less than the mealworms.

Carrots are definitely one of their favorite and least likely to spoil/mold.

If you want more pupae, feed them regularly (every other day).

Also, it's natural for some worms, pupae, and beetles to die off. You will eventually grow a more stable colony as you find out their favorite feeding schedule, type of food, and more!

PNWW

Should we leave all our beetles in the inlay container? How do we transfer the eggs/baby larvae to the lowest container?

Clay

PNWW

There is only 1 beetle tray. Best to keep all the beetles and pupae to this tray. Pupae to the top of the pupae tower and beetles at the bottom of the tower.

The eggs / babies will automatically fall through the perforated holes to the bottom of the tray so you do not need to manually separate the eggs and the beetles.

When pupae becomes beetle at the top of the tower, they will eventually slide down to level right below.

Mvek

Clay Do I understand it correctly that I need to check after some time the bottom of the tray with the beetle inlay to find out soon enough that some layed eggs hatched and I need to feed the worms under it...?
At least in case I prolong the time between the harvesting (for any reason).

Clay

Mvek Do I understand it correctly that I need to check after some time the bottom of the tray with the beetle inlay to find out soon enough that some layed eggs hatched and I need to feed the worms under it...?
At least in case I prolong the time between the harvesting (for any reason).

You do not need to intentionally feed the tiny worms at the beneath the beetle inlay.
As the beetles are eating, the leftover small bits will fall through the perforated holes to the little worms.

EMac

Clay That makes sense the beetles eating would eventually create crumbs small enough to fall through the tray base holes in the tray to create a substrate for the eggs and future baby mealies. Thanks for illuminating how that process works. I had went ahead and added a bit of my substrate mixture below but realize that’s not necessary. ??

Dangoransson

And do you feed the beetles the same stuff as the mealworms?

Clay

Dangoransson And do you feed the beetles the same stuff as the mealworms?

Correct! They eat significantly less than the worms though so you will learn to adjust accordingly.

Mvek

Hm, I am still not so sure about wet meal for baby worms. Because I had beetle inlay from the first two trays for long time, longer than normally and I have very little worms now in both trays. I cannot tell, if it is possible that small worms died or there was not enough eggs (I think it is impossible to distinguish eggs from substrate fallen from beetles' floor).
But we will see for other trays, if the colony stabilize in future.