The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1896-04-07
A WORM FARM.
THE UNIQUE INDUSTRY OF A
COLORADO COUPLE.
Millions oil Meal Worms are Raise d
and Sold as Food for Mock
ing Birds and Other
Songsters.

.
Achert and his wife have been
In the worm raising industry in Dem
yer for over twenty years, says the
Denver Republican. Nevertheless no
account of their farm has yet appeared
In State agricultural reports. This
happened, perhaps, because it is the
only institution of it's kind in the
country, and was overlooked on ac-
count of its novelty.
The worms are chiefly bred to fur
nish food for hooking birds, and about
300 Denver people who own feathered
mimics of this variety are regular Gus
toners of the Achert farm. All soft
billed birds, nightingales, thrushes,
blackblrds, ETC., eat the kind OF worm
the Acherts raise, but there are not
many of these birds in Denver, so the
Achert farm provides delicacies almost
solely and entirely for the hooking
bird tribe.
Although Mr.. and Mrs. Achert call
their worm plant farm, there is very
little of the agricultural about it. 1t
looks more like chiffonier than n
ranch. Standing in the middle of the
little shop is large wooden contriv-
ance, fitted out with four drawers.
Each drawer is filled to the brim with a
moving, living mass. On the top of
each wriggling heap is heavy linen
cloth, eaten through here and there
into holes. Out of nearly every hole
Just now sticks the brown head of n
wrlggllnG meal worm.
AS explained by e. e. Achcrt, the
process OF raising meal wo1ms for the
feed of soft-billed birds is quite com
plicated business. The history of the
Denver farm is also interesting. To
begin with the Acherts came to Den
yer twenty years ago, bringing with
them pair of hooking birds. In the
old country feed for the pets was
easily obtained in the Touring mills.
They ate a yellowish worm, which
seems to generate and breed in ground
meal, flour and BRAN After arriving
In America the Acherts could obtain
none of these worms. They did not
seem to grow here, and they had n
hard time keeping their birds alive,
ignorant as they were of what other
food the hooking bird would eat.
1t happened that after couple
months stay in.Denver, Mrs. Achert
was called back to Germany, and be-
fore leaving she was instructed by her
husband to bring back some meal
worms for the pair of hooking birds.
In Frankfort she purchased a supply,
and these formed the nucleus of the
Denver farm.
From the worms brought here by
Mrs. Achert numerous millions have
since been raised. The staple diet of
the worms consists of beer, wooden
blankets and meal bran. Over the bot
tom of each drawer is scattered mess
OF bran, in which the meal worm bug
lays its eggs. Over the bran is laid a
section of thick WOODEN blanket, above
this more meal bran, and over all n
heavy piece of linen. Between the
linen and the bottom of the drawer an
interesting process of evolution is GO
ing on all the year round.
Where the evolutionary movement
commences is n question for abstruse,
hair-splitting scientists, but in
Achert's farm it began with the
worms. After lapse of about three
months his yellow, one-inch-long
worms grew hard snell of brownish
hue upon them and appeared to be
dead. Before coating themselves with
this armor they crawled out of the
upper strata OF the farm to the soft
bran Mt the bottom of the drawer,
and lay there, apparently without
power of motion. A few weeks more
and each shell burst, giving birth to
an ugly black bug of small dimensions,
and possessed of horns aud feelers in
plenty. These things swarmed in the
meal bran until they nestled all over it
and laid eggs. As fast as a bug laid
her due quantity of eg she rolled
over on her back and died. IF there
are male meal worm bugs the Acherts
have not become cognizant of the fact !;
all their bugs lay eggs
During the Matching period, which
lasts about month, there is no evi
dence OF life apparent on the worm
farm. At the end of the month the
lower stratum of bugs crawls and quiy-
ers with the life Of innumerable small
worms. These thrive upon the bran,
then eat their way through the blankets
into the second layer of bran; and
nnaIy appear IN wrlggiiDg mass I'M
der the jnon cover at the top of the
drawer.
When this occurs their diet is varied
with an allowance of beer. Meal worms
fatten rapidly upon lager beer. It is
sprinkled all over the linen cover un-
til that becomes saturated, and the
meal under it becomes soaked. Beer
fed worms are ready for tho market
after fortnight's guzzling They
are sold by the Acherts at the rate of
100 for twenty-five cent?, aud 800
hooking birds are supplied with daily
food regularly throughout the year.
Each bird eats from two to four worms
a day, So tho feeding comes cheap.
Durable Rrfcks