Earthworm aversion?

[LTygress]

Anyone else have chickens that DON'T like earthworms?

We can find them all over the yard here, and we usually collect them for feeding various pets (garter snake, box turtle, chicks, chickens, etc.) but my grown chickens won't touch them. They'll move just like the other bugs out there, but the chickens just don't seem to want them. Crickets they will snap up in an instant, and chase all across the yard. Slugs they will collect until they can hardly breathe from the slime. And mealworms are such a treat to them, I have to breed my own to have enough for treats for everyone. But they just don't like earthworms. Everyone else I have talked to says their chickens LOVE earthworms. I don't understand it.

Recently we tilled up a garden area about 20-feet squared, and came across those huge earthworms that are typically a foot in length - or more. It's too big for the garter snake to eat one, and the box turtle can only eat one per day or so. I figured IF the chickens would eat it, they might be a substantial treat for them. But I guess I need to find some way to entice the chickens to eat them!


On a side note, I just discovered how much my chickens love egg noodles! They ate them happily before, so I went out and purchased two big bags, boiled them up, rinsed in cool water, and fed it while still warm. It's rainy and kinda chilly outside (and my chickens prefer their natural bath so they're usually pretty wet) and I figured the warm noodles might help them stay cozy.

But two entire bags just disappeared in SECONDS with only 18 birds attacking the pile! Wow!

 

[polarbearpilot]

All of my hens would fight for the earthworms. At first the younger hens didn't know what to do with the worms, but eventually seeing others eat them, they learned to do the same. And yes, they love noodles, anything that look like worms.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I wrote this for another post but you might get something useful out of it.

I like this following story to show how they can be afraid of new things. A few years back I gathered a yogurt cup full of corn ear worms while harvesting my sweet corn. I dumped that cup of caterpillars in front of about 20 ten week old chicks that had been free ranging for a couple of weeks.

Those chicks stayed well back and looked sideways at that pile of worms. A few started inching very cautiously forward. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away! In a bit a few started cautiously approaching that pile of worms. They crept a bit closer. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away!

This kept on for several minutes until one finally got close enough to grab one of those worms. That’s all it took. That whole pile of worms was gone in just a few seconds.

Just be patient. They’ll eventually figure it out, even with earthworms.

 

[spikennipper]

Some worms are distasteful to chickens I think compost worms are one of them they are dark red ones, some are just too big, my chickens are also indifferent to worms though they do eat small earth worms and one in particular found a nice delicacy today of dried earthworms on the paving slabs that she enjoyed! Make sure you regularly worm your birds with all that slug/worm eating they could carry some parasites!

 

[horsesnchkns]

while digging up a trench to run water out closer to my coop, I have come across a bunch of grub worms. It seems these have given my girls some "runny poop" - which I haven't gotten too excited about, I know a change in diet can affect digestion at first... we'll see how it goes after some time. mine haven't had a ton of "non-chicken food" stuff just yet... at 11 weeks old. we're slowly adding more goodies, and I'm letting them out for a few hours during the day on weekends, so they are finding bugs then.. but those big juicy grub worms - while they love them, seem to leave a bit of a mess later...

 

[GuppyTJ]

Does anyone know how common it is for earthworms to be gapeworm carriers? I read about gapeworms in several places, including The Chicken Health Handbook. My chicks are still in the brooder at 5 weeks old but they'll be freeranging in about a week or so. I know younger birds are more
susceptible to parasites like gapeworm than older birds that tend to build up immunity to them. I've read that some people who freerange just worm their chickens periodically and some simply don't.

Thoughts on this? How common is gapeworm? Do you all who freerange worm or no?

Thanks,
Guppy