Fill your bottom drawer with a minimum of a 1-inch layer of edible bedding of your choosing.
Place appropriate vegetable matter on top of the bedding.
Add the live worms to one drawer of the mealworms habitat.
Place your cardboard or egg cartons in the drawer so the worms can hide from light. The ideal place to keep the drawer will be dark and warm (around 78° F is ideal) to encourage the breeding process.
Every few days, add more fresh veggies and remove old, dried pieces.
When the worms are 3-4 weeks old, they’ll begin the pupa stage. At first, the pupae be a light color and slowly become darker.
After 1-2 weeks, the pupae will begin turning into darkling beetles. They’ll be a white color that’s almost clear at first but turn darker after about a week. Put these beetles into a new, covered container or drawer filled with fresh bedding immediately so they can lay eggs there. I recommend wearing gloves and a mask when you are working with your mealworm farm.
After the adult beetles have had 2-3 weeks to lay eggs, move the beetles to a new drawer, leaving the bedding that should now be filled with eggs to hatch. If you don’t move the beetles, they will eat the larvae as they hatch and you may wonder why the eggs aren’t hatching.
Darkling beetles will lay more eggs in the new drawer. Move the beetles to a different drawer again after 2-3 weeks, and every couple of weeks after that. The beetles will live for 3-6 months, and it takes newborn larvae 3-4 weeks to pupate. I have a total of 6 drawers I use for my mealworm farm – you may need more or less, depending on the size of your colony.
You can begin to feed mealworms as treats to your chickens as soon as your farm is producing well.