Like to try your hand at raising your own supply of live food? It's quite simple to breed your own mealworms, all you need is this kit and some old margarine tubs to act as your mealworm breeding box, some vegetable waste (mealworms are particularly keen on carrots, potatoes, apples or bananas) and the whole mealworm farm kit won't take up much space and timewise you will need about 10 minutes a week. This is a practical and very inexpensive way to have a continual supply of mealworms.

Mealworm breeding kit contains:

• 120g mealworms,
• 1 bag of mealworm food
• full instructions for creating your own mealworm farm

WHAT STAGES DO THEY GO THROUGH? Like all true insects, mealworms go through four distinct stages in their development. The beetles are black and lay eggs that hatch into tiny mealworms. These grow into larger orangey brown coloured mealworms then develop into white pupas that grow into beetles. They take around 3 months to complete the cycle, but higher temperatures and more light speeds the process up.

HOW TO BREED MEALWORMS Find three shallow trays, old ice cream tubs will be fine, or small stackable trays or drawer units. Put the mealworms in about 4cm of bran (Tray 1). The mealworms need to be kept at a temperature of between 45 and 85 degrees. 77 degrees is perfect. Feed your mealworms small pieces of fruit or vegetables (they feed off the bran, but fruit and vegetables provide moisture). Replace the food weekly. The bran bedding must not get wet as it will ferment and kill your worms. After a few weeks, the mealworms will develop into white pupae which don't eat, but wiggle like mad if touched. Remove these and put them into Tray 2 and wait for them to develop into male and female beetles. Place the beetles into Tray 3 and add bran and feed with pieces of fruit or vegetables as before. These will now mate, lay eggs and die.

HOW DO I FEED THE BIRDS WITH MEALWORMS? When the mealworms are 15mm long you can harvest them from your tray. Place them in a steep-sided container and put on your bird table.