Beetle sifting

I did my first beetle sifting today.  I have tons of beetles in the wheat bran and had been looking for something to sift them out with.  I bought a colander at WalMart, but the holes were too big and lots of beetles fell through.  After trying several sieves I already had, I ended up using the inside piece of my salad spinner.  I put the sifted wheat bran in a drawer by itself. I don't know if the tiny worms will need veggies for moisture or not, but I put some carrot strips in it.

Last night I found 106 pupae in my latest batch of worms!  And there were about another hundred today.  All the worms are fat and look like they will be turning soon.  I've already started getting beetles from these pupae, and I'm putting these in with the older beetles.  I don't know that there's any reason to keep them separate.

I wanted to get rid on the oatmeal that I started with, since wheat bran is so much easier to use and seems to be better for them.  I sifted the oatmeal really well and put the dregs, a few tiny worms, and hopefully some eggs into the wheat bran I sifted the beetles out of.  There is some oatmeal dust, too, but it is about the same consistency as the wheat bran.  I saved the old oatmeal flakes in a plastic box, just in case some more worms hatch in it.