Can baby chicks eat bugs?

[Echoes]

I just switched my brooder bedding from hay to pine chips and my 1 week old chicks keep digging around and pecking at the chips, almost looks like they are trying to eat it. I was thinking they are just looking for bugs.

Is it too soon to start throwing bugs in there for them to find?

When should I start doing that?

What kind of bugs to start with?

Is there anywhere to buy them??

 

[amarook]

Mine will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. I've been giving them meal worms, crickets, and cut up earth worms for the past week and 1/2.

They LOVE them. They go crazy chasing each other around. It's fun to watch.

 

[kees]

When I've given my chickens creepy crawlies from the yard, they go beserk.

Think of people rushing around to grab hundred dollar bills dropped over their neighborhood by helicopter!

Suzy

 

[crazyhen]

Make sure if they have anything but chick food that they also have chick grit to help break them down in their gizzard. Then enjoy. Mine have had earth worms and fought over them. Jean

 

[azygous]

Any tips on raising your own meal worms?

The easiest way to get a meal worm farm started is to buy a carton of meal worms, feed a few to the chickens, then put the rest into a shallow plastic tray (drill small air holes in the lid) filled with wheat bran, add a carrot, then put it somewhere warm and dark, and let them morph. In no time you'll have beetles and they'll start laying eggs like crazy, and in a few months, you'll have a whole bunch of new worms.

 

[Wyanbrahma]

Mine fight over June bugs. And they are huge. Basically anything that enters the coop never leaves. I've started leaving a light on at night and the window open to draw the bugs in. Keeps them happy it seems.

 

[kees]

I just found tiny, tiny ones in the yard and gave it to them. Nothing with biting pincers though. I don't think that they liked ants.

Suzy

 

[b.hromada]

I went to PetSupermarket and bought 2 dozen pin head crickets, once they figured out what they were, they went crazy for them!!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Most pet stores sell small worms or small crickets that chicks can start
eating around 3 weeks.

Feed them some noodles. They think they are worms.

 

[nicodemuschickenfan]

You can buy meal worms and the like at most pet stores. Petsmart now has a rather good selection of canned bugs and live bugs for sale. Don't know though if chicks would like meal bugs though...