Cabinet picture

I never got around to taking a picture of my newer cabinet, so I'm posting it now.

I just combined my first three batches of worms since there aren't too many of them left. They are in the plastic shoebox on top. I've either harvested the worms or they have turned into pupae. I sifted my beetles again today, and I'm now on batch 8. Only the combined batches and the next one (batch 4) are big enough for harvesting. The pupae are in the plastic box under the shoebox.

Surprise worms!

I was picking out the beetles from the pupae box today, and saw a half-grown worm.  At first, I thought I must have had him stuck to my hand for him to get in the wrong place, but then I found several more.   I started stirring the bedding and found a couple dozen small worms.  I try and take the beetles out every day or two, but sometimes some get lost in the bedding.  I guess some were there long enough to mate and lay eggs, and now, I'm finding their offspring!  These worms haven't had any moisture.  I don't put fruit in this box, since the pupae are just dormant while they're in there.  I expect I'll find more there in the future.

Emerging pupa

I was picking out pupae today and found one that was just shedding its last worm skin.  Here's a picture of it.  You can click on it for a closer look.

More maintenance

I've rearranged my drawers during the past couple of days, picked out quite a few more dead beetles and modified my record-keeping method.

My first two siftings are down to not-so-many worms now, so I moved them to a plastic shoebox, since I planned on sifting the beetles again and needed their drawer for the new sifting.  The drawer which was sifted on May 21 is the only other drawer which has worms big enough to harvest.  I have four more drawers which have tiny worms.  I sifted the beetles again tonight, and when I looked closely at the siftings, there are already some tiny worms in there.

I was having a hard time figuring out how to keep my log, so I added a "batch number" to each sifting to help when I combine them as I harvest.

My last three drawers have been sifted at about two-week intervals, and that seems to be better.  I'm hoping my worms will be more uniform in size.