About this project
LIVIN Farms Hive
$145,429
*** DEUTSCHE VERSION AM ENDE DES TEXTES *** (German version below)
contact@livinfarms.com // press@livinfarms.com
Grow healthy and sustainable food in the form of insects in your home! With our beautiful and functional desktop hive for edible insects you can grow 200-500 g of protein-rich super food mealworms!
This replaces about the same amount of protein that you would otherwise consume in 500g of meat, animal products or other protein foods. Feed your mealworms sustainably on vegetable scraps from your kitchen and always know 100% what you eat.
Watch the TEDx Talk here:
WELL, FIRST OF ALL: THEY TASTE GREAT! But there is more to it:
Growing sustainable food is one of the greatest challenges of our century. We need new methods and technologies to feed the world!
1/3 of valuable fertile croplands are currently used only to feed the grains harvested to animals, 80% of antibiotics worldwide flow into livestock production. While seeking alternatives to industrially produced foods, many of us would prefer to avoid GMOs or pumping animals full of hormones.
Our passion is to empower you to be independent, grow your own healthy food and always know exactly what you eat.
Mealworms are healthy and good for the planet! They combine the best of meat and plant-based proteins: with a similar protein content to red meats like beef and the beneficial amino-acid profile of tofu. They are also packed with vitamins and enzymes to keep you healthy. Our design-driven approach and innovative technology empowers you to produce your own food with an efficient, pleasant and clean process.
We have done lots of taste and cooking experiments. Their taste is quite neutral with a bit of a nutty flavor. This allows to mix them into all sorts of recipes. Make them crispy as a snack, sweet or savory as an insect meat patty for your burger. Once we get funded, we will build a community platform and blog to help you start this food revolution!
See here our Taste Test at the ESA 15 conference in Minneapolis :
The mealworm is the larval stage of the meal beetle (Tenebrio molitor). The adult beetles mate and lay eggs of which little mealworm babies hatch. These grow into a mealworm of the size you like to eat (ca. 3cm long). Some of them will transform into pupae and be separated once you activate the harvest process. The pupae will become beetles again. That´s why you put them into the pupation chamber again to restart your lifecycle.
Here you see an overview of how the Hive is operated. You only have to feed each drawer and activate the harvest once a week.
With your exclusive mealworm starter kit!
When you receive your Hive you also receive our specially designed starter pack of mealworms. You will place these mealworms in the pupation compartment in the top drawer, add in some oats and vegetable scraps, and then the mealworms will mature into adult beetles in a few days.
These adults begin mating, once you see tiny mealworms in the drawer, you can begin feeding oats and vegetable scraps. From then on, every week the mealworms will be lowered using our mechanisms. Once the mealworms reach the 6th drawer, you can begin your weekly harvest. This entire process of populating your hole Hive for a weekly full harvest should take approximately 8-9 weeks.
It all started when founder Katharina left her little home village on the border between Austria and Hungary to venture into the world as an industrial designer. She ended up in Hong Kong where she realized that most of the food there was imported and almost no one knew where it came from. That´s why she started to investigate the current food system and looked into alternatives. Insects were one of the future proteins that were very promising and perfect to create a solution for people to grow their food independently at home.
Her first project and design was called "Farm432" and was a design rearing the black soldier fly larvae. This took her all around the world, for example working on insect breeding in Africa and Hawaii. After more prototyping and a Beta manufacturing trial for a research institute in Malaysia earlier this year she founded a new company, Livin Farms, dedicated only to growing edible insects. Long time friend and design partner Julia Kaisinger joined the team as a co-founder permanently and the redesign and development of the Hive followed. Now Livin Farms is exited to produce it and carry on with their mission to bring insects into everybodies homes!
We need your help to bring the dream of becoming independent in our production of food to life! We have a great team, a ton of support, and an outstanding product, but getting production up and running is very expensive.
By backing our campaign you will help us fund:
- Tooling and manufacturing costs
- Metal stamping tools for the enclosure
- Other production costs
- FCC, CE, CSA, UL, FDA certification
to everyone who believed in us and supported us (in no particular order)
Livin Farms team, Family Unger, Ka Tam, Family Kaisinger, the HAX team, specifically Duncan, Ben, Noel, Sally, Qiyu, Peter, Laura, Atommann, Steve, Ken, Suk, Liat Ackermann, Team Flair, Team Madada, Sterling Cooper, MD Terraristik, Doug, Jack, Sam and the CrossThePacificTeam, Harry Schmidt, ID2 Staff, Hartmut Esslinger, Fiona Raby, Autodesk Cleantech Partners, Krish Daswani, Conor Colwell, Will Freeman, Chris Hatherill, Pat Choi, Joel Kashuba, Arnold van Huis, Ana C Day, Christoph Thomann + Verein Speiseplan, Andreas Gugumuck, Andreas Pollner, Dominic Glover, Alexandra Sexton, Aruna Antonella + Future Food Salons, Hanni Rützler und Future Food Studio, Louis Sorkin, Jeff Tomberlin, Robert Nathan Allen + Little Herds, the Global Entomophagy Scene, Kreca NL, Kees Aarts, Robert Olivier, Karl Warkomski, Marlon Odhiambo, Matthieu Ducamp & Seeed IT, CropsForTheFuture Research Centre, Jona Repishti + IDIN network, Harriet Pea, Gwyn Jones, Bobo Eco Farm Uganda, Ana Caballero Potthast, Matthias Peischl, Thomas Geider, Felix Gieselmann, Lena Goldsteiner, Talia Radford, Alexandra Palla, Vienna Design Week, Gerald Reischl, Thomas Prenner, Andrea Frey, Vlad + Team TEDx Vienna, Emma Tucker, Marcus Fairs, Adele Peters, Daniel Grabner, Rainbow Mealworms and everyone else who helped us and we might have forgotten here
DISCLAIMER:
PEOPLE WITH SHELLFISH ALLERGY MIGHT BE SENSITIVE TO INSECTS TOO. LIVIN farms does not take any responsibility or liability for the consumed harvest.
*** DEUTSCH ***
WAS GENAU IST DER HIVE?
Mit dem Hive kannst du gesunde und nachhaltige Lebensmittel in der Form von Insekten zu Hause züchten! Mit unserem schönen und funktionalen Hive für essbare Insekten kannst du jede Woche zwischen 200 und 500 g proteinreicher Super Food Mehlwümer ernten.
Das ersetzt ungefähr die gleiche Menge an Protein die du ansonsten an Fleisch oder sonstigem Proteinhältigem zu dir nehmen würdest. Du kannst deine Mehlwürmer nachhaltig auf Gemüseabfällen aus deiner Küche züchten und weißt immer zu 100% was du isst.
WARUM INSEKTEN ESSEN UND ZÜCHTEN?
Nachhaltige Lebensmittel sind eine der größten Herausforderungen unserer Zeit.
Wir brauchen neue Methoden und Technologien um die Welt zu ernähren! 1/3 der Ackerflächen werden an Tiere verfüttert und 80% der Antibiotika gehen in die Fleisch, Eier- und Milchproduktion.
Unsere Leidenschaft ist es, dir zu ermöglichen, eigenständig nachhaltiges und gesundes Essen zu züchten und genau zu wissen was du isst.
Mehlwürmer sind gesund und gut für die Erde! Sie kombinieren das Beste an Fleisch und pflanzlichem Protein: ähnlicher Proteingehalt wie Rind, Aminosäurenprofil wie Tofu. Sie sind auch voller Vitamine und Enzyme die dich fit halten! Unser Designansatz und innovative Technologie ermöglicht es dir, dieses Superfood daheim effizient, sauber und mit Spaß zu züchten.
WIE SCHMECKT DAS?
Wir haben viele Kochexperimente gemacht! Der Geschmack ist recht neutral, etwas nussig. Daher lassen sich Mehlwürmer in alle möglichen Rezepten und Speisen einarbeiten. Man kann sie knusprig als Snack machen, süß oder herzhaft als Burger. Wenn diese Kampagne erfolgreich ist, werden wir eine Plattform und Blog bauen, der dir hilft, gemeinsam mit anderen diese Food Revolution zu starten!
WIE FUNKTIONIERT DAS?
WIE STARTE ICH?
Du erhältst ein Starter Kit mit dem Kauf des Hives. Diese Starter Mehlwürmer gibst du in die Puppenbox im oberen Teil des Hives. Dort werden sie nach einigen Tagen zu Käfern und beginnen Eier zu legen. Aus den Eiern schlüfen Baby Mehlwürmer, die mittels unseres Mechanismus in die jeweils nächste Lade fallen. Wenn die ersten Würmer in der sechsten Lade gelandet sind, kannst du den wöchentlichen Ernteprozess beginnen (bitte auf obige Erklärungsbilder schauen und bei Bedarf bei uns nachfragen). Bis zur wöchentlichen Ernte dauert es 8-9 Wochen.
WIE BEGANN DIESES PROJEKT?
Dieses Projekt begann als Gründerin Katharina, ursprünglich von einem Bauernhof in Österreich, in Hong Kong war und dort begonnen hat, über unser Nahrungsmittelsystem nachzudenken. Nach vielen Recherchen kam sie auf das Insekt als nachhaltige Alternative zu Fleisch. Ziel ihrer Magisterarbeit war es damals, ein Gerät zu entwickeln, dass Menschen befähigt, unabhängig vom System Proteine zu züchten. Das erste Projekt "Farm432" entstand. Mehrere Prototypen, eine Produktionsreihe in China und Testaufbau in Malaysien später, holte Katharina Julia hinzu, langjährige Freundin und Designpartnerin. So entstand Livin Farms und der neue Prototyp mit Mehlwürmern, der Hive.
WARUM CROWDFUNDING?
Wir brauchen deine Hilfe um dieses Projekt in die Realität umzusetzen! Wir haben ein großartiges Team und viel Unterstützung, allerdings kostet eine Produktentwicklung viel Geld. Indem du diese Kampagne unterstützt, hilfst du uns folgendes zu zahlen:
Werkzeugbau, diverse Herstellungskosten für Metallgehäuse und Plastikteile, Sicherheitszertifikate
--
Haftungsausschluss: LIVIN farms übernimmt keine Verantwortung oder Haftung für die konsumierte Ernte.
WARNUNG: Personen die allergisch auf Schalen- oder Krustentiere reagieren, reagieren möglicherweise ähnlich auf Insekten. In diesem Fall empfehlen wir auf den Kosum dieser zu verzichten.
Risiken und Herausforderungen
Wir haben Funktionsprototypen, einen guten Plan und ein hervorragendes Team. Allerdings verstehen wir, dass dies nichts bedeutet ohne die Unterstützung von dir und den anderen Unterstützern! Wir bemühen uns sehr, den Hive in der besten Qualität und einem guten Zeitrahmen herzustellen.
VARIATIONEN IN DER ERNTE
Insbesondere weil wir an einem Projekt mit lebendigen Tieren arbeiten, gibt es verschiedene Herausforderungen. Es ist nicht auszuschliessen, dass die Menge und Größe der geernteten Mehlwürmer variiert. Weiters ist es normal und unvermeidbar, dass ein gewisser Prozentsatz nicht überlebt. Diese werden im Ernteprozess von den Lebendigen separiert. Der Hive ist dafür designt gute Lebensbedingungen für die Tiere zu schaffen. Dennoch ist der Nutzer selbst für das Wohlergehen der Tiere verantwortlich und hat diese verantwortungsbewusst zu behandeln und zu füttern. LIVIN farms übernimmt keine Verantwortung oder Haftung für die konsumierte Ernte.
WARNUNG: Personen die allergisch auf Schalen- oder Krustentiere reagieren, reagieren möglicherweise ähnlich auf Insekten. In diesem Fall empfehlen wir auf den Kosum dieser zu verzichten.
PROBLEME IN DER FERTIGING UND PRODUKTION
Wir haben bereits Gespräche mit Herstellern eingeleitet und einen guten Überblick über Kosten und Zeitspannen. Wie bei jedem Hardware-Produkt können immer Verzögerungen auftreten. Um den Hive zu optimieren, kann es möglicherweise vor den Auslieferungen noch zu Änderungen im Design kommen.
Bei extremen Temperaturen können Probleme bei der Auslieferung des Starterkits mit den lebendigen Tieren entstehen. In diesem Fall werden wir unser Bestes tun um mit Hilfe von speziellen Verpackungen die Insekten zu schützen und auszuliefern, dennoch kann dies zu Verzögerungen führen. Wir werden jede Verzögerung und jedes Problem vollkommen transparent mitteilen und dich auf dem Laufenden halten. Unser oberstes Ziel ist den Hive gut in dein zu Hause zu bringen.
Wir freuen uns daruf die nächsten Herausforderungen mit der Passion und dem Engagement, die uns zu diesem Punkt gebracht haben zu meistern und freuen uns darauf von dir auf dieser Reise begleitet zu werden.
Vielen Dank für deine Unterstützung!
Risks and challenges
We have a beautiful prototype, a great plan, and an amazing team. However, we understand all of this means nothing without you, our backers. That's why we are committed to delivering the Hive with the highest possible quality, in a reasonable time frame.
These are the things that could happen:
MANUFACTURING & SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES
Traveling to China for four months, we mitigated as many manufacturing, production, and supply chain issues as possible, while actually designing the product. We have outlined a conservative time frame for delivery, and are supported be a huge network of very experienced hardware, manufacturing, and supply chain experts. Nevertheless, to optimize the Hive we still might have to make some changes of the design to improve function and manufacturing .
Like any hardware project, there will always be unforeseen challenges and potentially delays that arise.
VARIATION IN MEALWORM HARVEST
We additionally face the challenge of dealing with live animals. This means it can happen that your harvest varies in size and amount. It is also normal and unavoidable to have some percentage of dead mealworms in your trays. These will be separated from the live ones, once the harvest process starts.
The Hive is designed to provide good living conditions for the mealworms and beetles, but you as the user are still responsible to treat and feed them to make sure they are well. LIVIN farms does not take any responsibility or liability for the consumed harvest.
SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES OF STARTER KITS
If it is very cold or hot in your country, it could happen that there are issues with supplying you live mealworms for your starter kit. We will always make you aware should there be any problems and will try to mitigate with heat or cool packs for the starter kits.
We are dedicated to rising and meeting these issues head on, with the same dedication and passion that got us to this point. We look forward to the next stage of our journey with you as our partners.
Whatever happens along the journey, we’ll always remain completely transparent to make sure we get the Hive to your doorstep.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
-
Livin farms does not take any responsibility or liability for the consumed harvest.
-
This is a totally serious project and we’re real honest people bringing this to life! Yes, it is not the most normal project you will see on Kickstarter. We are working on the food of the future! This project took over 2 years of development now. We have absolved a manufacturing trial in China and sold Beta units to a research institute in Malaysia. This is a true, fascinating story and you now have the chance to be part of this upcoming food movement and bring it to life!
We are so excited! -
It all started when founder Katharina left her little home village on the border between Austria and Hungary to venture into the world as an industrial designer. She ended up in Hong Kong where she realized that most of the food there was imported and almost no one knew where it came from. That’s why she started to investigate the current food system and looked into alternatives. Insects were one of the future proteins that were very promising and seemed to be very exciting as an upcoming food. The goal was to empower people to become independent from the intransparent food system and grow their own food in their homes. Insects were ideal for this as they can be grown on small spaces with little resources. She developed Farm432, a device breeding the black soldier fly and its larvae, as part of her master thesis. This took her all around the world. After more prototyping and a Beta manufacturing trial for a research institute in Malaysia earlier this year she founded a new company together with Julia, Livin Farms, dedicated only to growing edible insects. The redesign and development of the Hive followed and now Livin Farms is ready to produce it and carry on with their mission to bring insects into everybodies homes!
-
Farm432 was specifically designed to grow the black soldier fly larvae. Black soldier fly larvae are excellent waste converters and they have a fast and very convenient lifecycle (self-harvesting on a ramp!). However, they are not as commonly eaten by humans and also they are not very easy to start with as a beginner in insect eating (not that easy to cook). It also requires a bigger breeding device, as the flies need enough airspace, which can be difficult in small flats.
We decided on the mealworm because it is already eaten all around the world, the taste is very neutral and it is, with our Hive design around it, relatively easy to grow and maintain in your home. The adult is a beetle, therefore does not fly and can be grown on little space! -
The mealworm is the larva stadium of the meal beetle (Tenebrio molitor). The meal beetle can live up to several months and feeds on vegetable scraps and grains. It mates and lays eggs, one female can lay about 500 of them in its lifetime. Out of these, little mealworm babies hatch. These grow through several “instars” (development steps) into a mealworm of the size you like to eat (ca. 3cm long). With every instar the mealworms peel off their old skin in order to grow. That´s what you can see in the trays. It will later be separated once you activate the harvest process.
It is also absolutely normal to have some percentage of dead mealworms in your trays. These will also be separated from the live ones, once the harvest process starts.
At a temperature around 28°C and around 60% air humidity your mealworms will pupate within 6-7 weeks. This means that when you activate the harvest, you will not only harvest the edible fresh mealworms but also the separated white pupae. These will become beetles again. That’s why you put them into the pupation chamber again to restart your lifecycle.
As soon as the beetles hatch out of the pupae in the beetle tower, they will slide down the walls of the tower in order to get to their feed while the pupae remain on top. This is so that the beetles do not start feeding on the pupae. -
Typical kitchen scraps that we would feed our mealworms are for example: onions, carrots, apples, potatoes, some cheese scraps, tomatoes, different fruits, roots, salads. They also love grain such as oats or bread. Basically, you can feed them anything. Just make sure that you don’t put in: moldy or rotten foods, soups or very greasy, oily or liquid substances, dishes that are very spicy or acidic. Also do not feed too much cellulose heavy foods (salads, grass). In general, just make sure that you feed a good proportion of moist and dry foods. We recommend against feeding meat scraps, mealworms can be considered vegetarian! Please also take care you don´t feed them things with pesticides on it. You have the power to control how healthy your food is!
-
This depends very much on the type of feed that you add as well as at which life stage your mealworms are. Rule of thumb is about half of a big apple and about two hands full of oats per drawer. You will soon find out how fast your mealworms eat. Just check in the first weeks of having it, as soon as the food is gone, you can feed again. Never let any food get moldy in there!
-
Insects are very simple organisms and the type of feed you add does influence their taste. Be creative! But make sure your mealworms are still healthy when experimenting with different feeds!
-
Every organism has to be treated with respect, no matter how large or small it is.
We are concerned with animal welfare at Livin Farms and want to act absolutely protective of all the species that we deal with.
We designed the Hive in a way that the worms can be happy in there. Insects in nature occur in large amounts on small spaces. Therefore, we can assume that they feel well when held like this, totally opposite from a cow or pig!
The harvest process was also designed so that the worms harvest without much stress. -
There will be a very mild humming from the ventilation and occasional vibration that is happening in the device. Apart from that, you will not notice your Hive. Of course, if you get really, really close you might be able to hear a tiny bit of mealworm wriggling ;)
-
There are really only two sources where smell could come from: the fine excrements of the mealworms and the food that you place in the trays. Ideally, you will never overfeed your worms which should prevent any unwanted smell from rotten foods. The excrements are usually very dry which makes them almost odorless. Make sure you never feed too moist substances, then smell should be contained. The Hive has carbon filtration pads in the back and front of each growing tray though which air is ventilated. Therefore, occasional smells should be very well contained.
-
We designed the Hive so that the worms will be very well contained in the device and can not escape. That being said, they are still living beings and in some very unlikely case, it could happen that one or the other one finds its way out somehow. But don’t worry, unless they are a huge hoard, they won’t start breeding somewhere unwanted in your house and they are also not that hard to catch. They are all in all very lovely beings, relax!
-
Mealworms can live for several weeks without feeding. However, mind that this is a stress situation for your mealworms and they won’t be growing in the same speed as they would with normal feeding. If you go on a holiday, treat your Hive like an aquarium- have your neighbor come by once a week at least to check if it’s all alright. Another option is to put your worms and beetles in the fridge at about 8°C. They will fall asleep (hibernate) and wake up even after several weeks. Eggs, Babies and Pupae can be more sensitive to this.
-
Harvesting happens once a week, after you activate the harvest switch and press the harvest button. If you do forget to harvest or decide not to for one week, there is no harvest. You will only have the already harvested mealworms in your harvest tray. They are cooled down there and just chill out until you are ready to take them out. Because they are cooled they will not turn into the next life stage but just stay worms. No worries!
-
The best way is to put them into your freezer. Insects are very dependent on their outside temperature. In freezing them, their body temperature comes down and they start hibernating and die without stress. There is no slaughtering here, they go take a winter nap, something that they are used to in nature. Please make sure they are deeply frozen for a reasonable amount of time (minimum one hour), so they are not in the hibernation mode anymore.
-
We very explicitly recommend to cook them before processing further. Please consider mealworms like any other type of meat. If raw or undercooked, people can react sensitively to it. If you cook them thoroughly (in boiling water for a few minutes), they are totally safe to eat and process further. You can then fry them, roast them, mix them into sauces or all kinds of recipes. Be creative and have fun with this new type of meat! Dried and ground we also use them as protein source in sweet dishes like granola or cookies.
-
We made lots of cooking experiments and will share some of them with you throughout the course of the campaign. We also will build a community platform so that you can share your recipes with other mealworm breeders all around the world!
-
You can make them crispy and light to have as a snack while watching TV but you can also make them into major sweet or savory dishes. Whether crispy or juicy, if you get full from 500g of meat, you will get full from 500g of worms too!
-
For now, we recommend you to simply get more than one Hive. We are thinking about modular solutions for scaling up production. If you have a commercial restaurant project, please get in touch with us and we can design a solution tailored to your needs!
-
This depends how meat-heavy you make your meals! We are typically getting out 4-5 mixed meat dishes out of one week´s harvest (e.g. risotto, lasagne or salads).
We have previously made 4 burger patties out of 100-200g of mealworms! -
In your harvest routine, you will have one harvest a week, after which you can take out the harvest area and put your pupae back into the pupation chamber in the beetle area in the top. This is when you can also clean out the fine excrements that will be collected during harvest in the dirt bucket.
Also, it is a chance then to clean the last tray before the harvest area, as it will be empty. Simply swipe it with a wet cloth. -
Disclaimer: People with shellfish allergies might react sensitively to eating insects too!
The only allergies that have been reported to come from mealworms were from people sieving mealworms from their frass, getting in touch with a lot of the dirt and fine excrements. This is not the case when harvesting with the Hive.
Anatomically, mealworms are very different from humans, it is very unlikely that there are any diseases transmitted - unlike with other livestock like pigs which are closer related to us and therefore can transmit their diseases easier.
You are in charge of growing your mealworms healthy and feeding them responsible.
Livin farms does not take any responsibility or liability for the consumed harvest. -
We have developed a system with sensors, fans, heating and cooling elements. The sensors measure temperature and humidity and control the airflow in the trays accordingly. Heating is switched on when needed and cooling keeps the harvest area in a cool climate so that the mealworms do not grow into the next life stage.
-
You can plug your Hive into your normal power supply in your house, just like any other device.
-
You switch the harvest handle. The louvres in the bottom of the last tray of the Hive open and all the mature mealworms with their frass, some dead ones and some pupae fall into the harvest area. There, they land on the first vibrating separation membrane. The pupae stay on top of this first membrane while all the rest goes through to the second membrane. The second membrane has a finer mesh that is also vibrating and an angled surface at the edges. The fresh, lively mealworms will start wriggling away from the center, crawl on the angled surface edge and fall into the harvest tray. The fine dirt will sieve through to the dirt collection bucket and the dead ones and frass will stay on the membrane. You can then clean the dirt and frass and harvest the pure, clean mealworms in the harvest area. Until the full last tray will be harvested, it will take approximately one week.
-
The mealworms turn into pupae while leaving their old skin behind and then turn into beetles. In order for the mealworms to stay clean and fresh, the harvest tray is cooled so that the mealworms won´t turn into the next life stage and they also won’t have any excrements anymore. This let´s you harvest the pure mealworms without any residue.
-
It is a valuable plant fertilizer! Put it into your plant bins and see your plants flourish and bloom. Almost nothing that comes from your Hive is waste.
-
A typical serving of traditional meats like lean beef, pork, chicken, and fish ranges from 60-100g. We recommend a similar serving size for mealworms, although it may be less when used in a mixed dish.
Fresh mealworms contain about 20% protein, which is the same as raw beef! Together with a healthy and diverse diet, mealworms can easily help you fulfill your dietary needs as a healthy meat substitute.
-
Some of the most notable nutrients in mealworms include:
Fiber- not usually found in meats, making mealworms special!
Vitamin B12- a nutrient mostly only found in meat.
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)- which is important for many bodily processes.
Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5)- A nutrient known for hair and skin health.
And of course Protein! See above.We will add a nutrition table soon, its difficult to format onto the FAQ section, thank you for your patience!
-
Mealworms are fascinating!
Some cool facts:
• • They are grown in space by Chinese astronauts as space food!
• • A reference to the composition of the mealworm can inhibit the BACE enzyme, which is a key enzyme to cause Alzheimer's disease.
• • The dried mealworm can be made into powder, which is called Hanxia powder in China and added to many foods to make it tasting fresh.
• • The essential oils of the mealworm are often extracted in order to be used as a skin oil for humans. It contains lots of Vitamin B5, vital for skin renewal. -
Mealworms are anatomically very distant from a human organism. Therefore, the diseases that might harm a mealworm are unlikely to harm us humans. We are unaware of any diseases that could result from eating mealworms.
However, if you suffer from a shellfish or known mealworm allergy we do not advise to consume mealworms.
Also, you should always cook mealworms well before consuming them.
Livin farms does not take any responsibility or liability for the consumed harvest. -
Please see question above!
-
In Europe, 1kg of organic red meat can range between 15-40 EUR. Say we calculate with 30 EUR. 500g would be 15 EUR- this is the amount you could potentially save every week in eating mealworms instead. This makes up to 60 EUR per month.
-
Almost! We cannot sell you something that we do not personally try right? And we are super healthy!
-
Everybody on our team actually eats meat. But we are all very conscious eaters. And no, we were not born with a natural affinity to (eating) insects (except one person from the team).
-
Why did you not make a device for the developing world to feed poor people instead of us Westerners?
We believe that insects have the unique opportunity to bridge cultures and the people. A lot of developing nations do have a rich insect eating culture already but some of it is stigmatized too. Trends have shown that eating more meat in the West has increased meat consumption in the developing world too. If we start eating insects, other people will maybe feel that there is a better perception of insects as a food again in other parts of the world too!
We would love to source some of the traditional knowledge and combine it with safe technologies to grow insects as a food. -
The maximum power consumption of the hive is 65W but this can be reduced by keeping the hive in a cool, dry place. Alternatively, with daily emptying of the harvest drawer, the cooling system can be entirely switched off – this can reduce the power consumption to as little as 5W. Taking an average energy price of 0.10USD/kWh in the USA – this results in a maximum running cost of $1.092USD per week down to $0.08USD per week. In Austria the cost is €0.08 to €1.06 per week, in the UK the cost is £0.07 to £0.84 per week.
Prices according to this site http://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/ -
The beetles can live up to a couple of months, in which they lay eggs for new babies! Yay! Every now and then you can clean the dead beetles out in this way: Take the beetles tower (with pupae in top) out of the beetle tray. Then empty the beetles tray into a bin like you would empty a food tray. Alive beetles will hang on to the mesh in the bottom while the dead ones will fall into the bin.
-
Mites typically get into a colony through food scraps. This can be prevented by only feeding the colony the amount of foods that they can eat within a few days. Apart from that, the microclimate can play a big role too. Humidity and temperature are controlled in our system and it is closed. Therefore the risk of infestations is much lower than if you are having an open system. Also, the trays can be easily emptied (by the switch at each tray and opening the bottoms) and they can be fully taken out in order to be cleaned.
-
In case you go on a holiday and are unable to check your colony, we recommend to do the following:
1) Activate harvest one week before you leave and empty your harvest tray right before you leave on your vacation. Put the harvested worms into your freezer. Put the pupae harvested in the harvest area into the pupation chamber in the top of the Hive. In this way you will have no worms in the harvest tray and you won´t anymore activate the harvest process, which will simply keep your worms contained.
Beetles will hatch in the pupation area of the beetle tray and will be safely contained.
Feed before you leave. Put more grain inside your Hive as this is a good source of energy that the worms can consume continuously over a longer period of time.We recommend to treat the Hive like an aquarium. It is best if your neighbor can come check on it and maybe feed, once a week.
In case you forget to harvest: The worms in the harvest tray are chilled and therefore they do not enter the next life stage but become dormant / they sleep. So you do not have to worry.
-
We are dispatching from China. The unfortunately high postage is currently due to the weight and size of the package. We are further investigating less expensive ways to ship and will keep you updated about any news. The price was calculated as a DHL shipment and the customs charges are included in that cost.
-
Currently we have only tested our system with the mealworm, Tenebrio Molitor. Therefore, we only recommend using this species in the Hive. Different kinds of insects have different requirements in their lifecycles. We will update you in case of future modifications that might allow other species too. Please let us know in case you get experimental and try something new. We are always happy to hear your stories and experiences!
-
We are continuously improving our system. It would be very helpful for us if you could tell us specific items and features that you would like to see so that we can collect feedback and improve according to the community´s wishes!
Thank you!
Support this project
Funding period
- (60 days)