I've gotten into a pretty steady routine. I sift my beetles about every two weeks. If I go much longer than that, the worm sizes vary too much. I looked at my notes on the drawer labels, and it takes about two months from sifting until my first cleaning.
I've now had ten batches. I had combined the first four batches since there weren't too many of those left. I've just cleaned them, and they will be fed to a robin during the next week. He was the victim of a cat attack and has a nasty wound and lost all of his tail feathers, so he'll be with me for a while.
Batch five, my next big batch, is needing cleaning every four or five days! There are lots of worms in that drawer!
I have divided my beetles into two drawers. It looked like they were just too crowded in that one drawer. A friend of mine (thanks, Martha!) gave me another set of drawers, and I've moved the beetles to that cabinet. The beetle drawers are a little bit smelly. I don't know if it's because there are some dead beetles in there or whether it's because there are just so many of them. I know that dead worms can really stink, so I'm trying to pick out the dead beetles regularly. It's easiest to do when I put their apple slices in the drawer. The live ones cover the apple and devour it, so I can find the dead ones more easily.
