I have three 15 month old EEs. I've been raising mealworms for about 1 year and now have thousands. You'd think that would be enough. My chickens could easily eat through a batch of 500 mealworms in a few minutes (which would cost about $6.50 at the pet store). I actually had the idea to maybe raise enough to sell to other chicken/reptile owners, but even with the thousands and thousands of mealworms I have, it never seems to be enough. Of course you have to keep enough around to sustain/grow the population, but this winter, even if I only doled out 100 mealworms/day to my 3 girls--which would be gone in seconds--I wouldn't be able to keep up my supply! I don't really consider mealworms as "treats" per say, because it's a healthy source of protein. My mealworms are raised on chick starter (non-medicated) and apples/potatoes.
I'm already using a large clear storage box to house my beetles/meaworms, with a separate smaller box for pupas, though I may go back to the 3 container set up to separate worms/beetles. Does anyone have an even bigger set up? Am I being too generous in the amount of mealworms my chickens get?
I tried not to give them any this summer since they could find their own bugs in the yard where they free-range, but it's hard to resist their cute faces when you know how much they love mealworms!
I'm already using a large clear storage box to house my beetles/meaworms, with a separate smaller box for pupas, though I may go back to the 3 container set up to separate worms/beetles. Does anyone have an even bigger set up? Am I being too generous in the amount of mealworms my chickens get?
I tried not to give them any this summer since they could find their own bugs in the yard where they free-range, but it's hard to resist their cute faces when you know how much they love mealworms!
