Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Orchestra Farms Entoculture Inc. (Orchestra Farms) is a Nova Scotia (NS) company operating in the sector of breeding of insects for industrial purposes. The company specializes on two species of insects, crickets and superworms, with general use of product to feed mainly reptiles and to some extent birds and amphibians. The business specifically targets the US growing reptile feeder market and the increasing role that insects play in North American diets.Orchestra Farms' current major challenge is scalability with superworms. In increasing their superworms colony to meet the orders of distributors, each staff is spending hours in the separation process, from bins of thousands of peers. Indeed, superworms seek isolation from peers and potential predators while in their pupae. This is currently done by hand and is as simple, yet time consuming. The company now seeks the Nova Scotia Community College's support to design a solution that will be economical, easily maintainable, and can be quickly implemented using standard parts. This will allow employees to re-allocate time for other tasks, leading to increased productivity.The proposed project will help Orchestra Farms gain valuable insights into design and productivity as they grow their distributing capacity for their evolving business. The outcome of the project will also support overcoming the hurdles in time management, collection and separation processes to adequately supply market demands.