NEW CASTLE, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 7, 2025--
Hatching Time is excited to expand its offerings with a brand-new product line. Born from the creative mind of Thomas Constant and propelled forward by Clayton Payne, The Bug Factory is renowned for its eco-friendly mealworm-growing pods that transform household waste into nutritious pet food. These stackable mealworm kits are ideal for anyone looking to try DIY mealworm farming at home, making sustainable pet care more accessible, without the odor. “This acquisition perfectly aligns with our passion for sustainability and innovation, empowering pet lovers to grow their own food and treats at home,” says Ryan Flanagan, Co-CEO of Hatching Time.
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In today’s world, where every step toward sustainability counts, this acquisition marks a bold move toward achieving Hatching Time’s goals. “We want to offer sustainable solutions for backyard poultry and other farm animals along with household pets like lizards, snakes, fish and more. We have a lot of amazing products in the pipeline, so stay tuned,” said Yagiz Aksu, Co-CEO of Hatching Time. By acquiring The Bug Factory brand, Hatching Time is combining its poultry industry expertise with other markets to produce sustainable products. These new mealworm kits are a great example as they create an endless cycle of food for your pets by converting food waste into valuable pet food. Plus, you also get a great source of plant fertilizer as a by-product!
The Bug Factory’s carefully engineered mealworm growing pods allow users to stack additional mealworm trays for egg collection. And odor-managing filters allow you to do this anywhere inside your home, without a strong smell. These pods offer a cost-effective alternative to purchasing mealworms every time your pets need a treat. Plus, since they are manufactured from 100% recycled fridge plastic, you’re not only turning food scraps into pet treats but you’re also saving the planet.
“Our team here at Hatching Time is excited to grow the Bug Factory brand globally both online and in retailers. We believe in BeoBia’s mission, and we look forward to collaborating on new innovative products and projects with them in the future,” added Ryan Flanagan, Co-CEO of Hatching Time.
The enthusiasm from customers has been amazing from pet lovers and homesteaders to reptile owners - highlighting the many use cases and benefits of these mealworm growing pods. Their stories emphasize the ease of use, cost savings, and positive environmental impact of the system. “I am super excited to see Hatching Time take The Bug Factory brand forward. Selling our mealworm brand to them ensures its growth with a like-minded partner, while BeoBia LTD continues to innovate in black soldier fly production in the UK. Hatching Time not only shares our values but also has the infrastructure to scale The Bug Factory’s vision, and I look forward to seeing them expand sustainable mealworm farming." - Thomas Constant, CEO & Founder of BeoBia.
This acquisition is just the beginning of Hatching Time’s journey to become a one-stop poultry shop and to integrate sustainable practices into everyday pet care. By joining forces with The Bug Factory, Hatching Time is excited to drive forward solutions that not only simplify pet care but also benefit our planet.
Sustainable Mealworm Growing Pods Produce Live Worms and Beetles for Pets to Enjoy.
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair Thursday and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists in the latest U.S. aviation disaster, officials said.
The victims included Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, a global manager at an energy technology company, and three children, in addition to the pilot, a person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. The person could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Photos posted on the helicopter company’s website showed the couple and their children smiling as they boarded just before the flight took off.
The flight departed a downtown heliport around 3 p.m. and lasted less than 18 minutes. Radar data showed it flew north along the Manhattan skyline and then back south toward the Statue of Liberty.
Video of the crash showed parts of the aircraft tumbling through the air into the water near the shoreline of Jersey City, New Jersey.
A witness there, Bruce Wall, said he saw it “falling apart” in midair, with the tail and main rotor coming off. The main rotor was still spinning without the helicopter as it fell.
Dani Horbiak was at her Jersey City home when she heard what sounded like “several gunshots in a row, almost, in the air.” She looked out her window and saw the chopper "splash in several pieces into the river.”
The helicopter was spinning uncontrollably with “a bunch of smoke coming out” before it slammed into the water, said Lesly Camacho, a hostess at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, New Jersey.
On air traffic control radio, an NYPD helicopter pilot can be heard saying, “Be advised, you do have an aircraft down. Holland Tunnel. Please keep your eyes open for anybody in the water.”
About five minutes after that, someone asks, “Hey Finest,” a reference to the NYPD’s call sign, “what’s going on over there by the Holland Tunnel?”
“The ship went down,” someone else responds.
Rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel. Recovery crews hoisted the mangled helicopter out of the water just after 8 p.m. using a floating crane.
The bodies were also recovered from the river, Mayor Eric Adams said.
The flight was operated by New York Helicopters, officials said. No one answered the phones at the company’s offices in New York and New Jersey.
A person who answered the phone at the home of the company’s owner, Michael Roth, said he declined to comment. Roth told the New York Post he was devastated and had “no clue” why the crash happened.
“The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter,” the Post quoted him as saying. He added that he had not seen such a thing happen during his 30 years in the helicopter business, but noted: “These are machines, and they break.”
Emails seeking comment were sent to attorneys who have represented Roth in the past.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206, a model widely used in commercial and government aviation, including by sightseeing companies, TV news stations and police. It was initially developed for the U.S. Army before being adapted for other uses. Thousands have been manufactured over the years.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate.
Escobar worked for the tech company Siemens for more than 27 years, most recently as global CEO for rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, according to his LinkedIn account. In late 2022 he briefly became president and CEO of Siemens Spain. In a post about the position, he thanked his family: “my endless source of energy and happiness, for their unconditional support, love ... and patience.”
Escobar regularly posted about the importance of sustainability in the rail industry and often traveled internationally for work, including journeying to India and the UK in the past month. He also was vice president of the German Chamber of Commerce for Spain since 2023.
Camprubí Montal worked in Barcelona, Spain, for energy technology company Siemens Energy for about seven years as its global commercialization manager, according to her LinkedIn account.
Video of the crash suggested that a “catastrophic mechanical failure” left the pilot with no chance to save the helicopter, said Justin Green, an aviation lawyer who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.
It is possible the helicopter’s main rotors struck the tail boom, breaking it apart and causing the cabin to free fall, Green said.
“They were dead as soon as whatever happened happened,” Green said. “There’s no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It’s like a rock falling to the ground. It’s heartbreaking.”
The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads from which business executives and others are whisked to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.
At least 38 people have died in helicopter accidents in New York City since 1977. A collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson in 2009 killed nine people, and five died in 2018 when a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights went down into the East River.
New York Helicopters also owned a Bell 206 that lost power and made an emergency landing on the Hudson during a sightseeing tour in June 2013. The pilot managed to land safely, and he and the passengers — a family of four Swedes — were uninjured. The National Transportation Safety Board found that a maintenance flub and an engine lubrication anomaly led to the power cutoff.
Thursday’s crash was the first for a helicopter in the city since one hit the roof of a skyscraper in 2019, killing the pilot.
The accidents — and the noise caused by helicopters — have repeatedly led some community activists and officials to propose banning or restricting traffic at Manhattan heliports.
Other recent crashes and close calls have already left some people worried about the safety of flying in the U.S.
Seven people were killed when a medical transport plane plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation.
Associated Press reporters Mike Balsamo and Philip Marcelo in New York and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference at Pier 40, where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Divers investigate the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A crane vessel lifts the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
In this photo taken from video, a helicopter falls from the sky into the Hudson River , Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (Bruce Wall via AP)
A crane vessel arrives at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
First responders from New Jersey and New York look on as a crane vessel arrives at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
First responders stand on a pier at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A crane vessel sits docked at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
First responders stand on a pier at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Debris floats in the water at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Debris floats in the water at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Debris floats in the water at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
In this photo taken from video, a helicopter falls from the sky into the Hudson River , Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (Bruce Wall via AP)
First responders from New Jersey and New York respond to the scene where a helicopter crashed in the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
In this photo taken from video, a helicopter falls from the sky into the Hudson River , Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (Bruce Wall via AP)
A crane vessel arrives at the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene Thursday, April 10, 2025, where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene Thursday, April 10, 2025, where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
First responders from New Jersey and New York respond to the scene where a helicopter crashed in the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene Thursday, April 10, 2025, where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
First responders walk along Pier 40, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in New York, across from where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)
A New York Fire Department Marine 1 boat departs from Pier 40, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in New York, across from where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)
First responders walk along Pier 40, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in New York, across from where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)
