We were shopping in PetSmart last week. After picking up a few things for the dogs. I noticed a fridge over by the reptiles. On the sign it said meal worms. Ahhh ha after my extensive reading here at BYC I knew that chickens loved meal worms. So my mind starts going Score!!! So we pick up a small tub of them. But hmmm do meal worms require grit for chicks to process. Well I better be safe so when we get back to town I am just forced to go to Tractor supply. I walk in with my brave face...don't look down in the tubs...ignore the peeps. Dang too late wheeeewww that tub is empty...oh no the one next to it is full...ohhhh how cute...yes turkeys I am safe. I work my way back to the chicken supplies and grab a bag of chick grit. Ohhh I didn't see that tub...oh my gosh bantams..they're so tiny..must resist. So I finally make it to the register after much thought of how mad my wife would be at one or ten more chicks. So I get home I grab my old smaller round chick feeder and pour some grit in it to see how the girls would react. Let me tell you I am so proud of my girls. They picked at the grit but didn't seem to over gorge themselves in it. They are so bright knowing just how much they need. So I sit and watch the girls for a little while make sure the grit isn't doing anything bad, that and its relaxing to just sit and watch. So I decided to break out the worms. I drop a few on the block of wood the water sits on. The poor things just sat there surrounded. Everyone was afraid to approach the worms. They just kept looking at each like no you go first. Till the clown got stuck in the feeder once again. I have 16 smart chicks and one not so smart, I think her momma laid that egg out back somewhere. She is funny, I have a trough style feeder with a lid with the holes in it. She insists on sticking her head through the hole and feeding on the other side. Which would be no big deal except when shes done feeding she tries to just stand up with out pulling her head back out of the feeder. She starts squawking that the feeder has trapped her again. Which distracted the other just enough for the runt to come in and take off with a worm. Well once she went running with a worm hanging out, it was on. The poor worms didn't stand a chance. So after the frenzy I let them settle down. I wait till the next day for the next treat feeding. But this time they will have to take it from my hand. Again I have extensive knowledge from reading here that this will be fun. So I open the top to the brooder and of course I have 3 that insist on flying up to sit on the edge, just to egg the dogs and cats on, a little neener neener you cant get me game. So I grab a worm place it in the palm of my hand the birds scatter, and I sit and wait, finally they start coming closer. I get one buff that gets brave enough to grab the worm and run. Gee this is fun, I do this a few more times. They are no longer scared of my hand. Well a few days go by, the worms are no more, they have been feeding from my hand with no problems. Today I reach in to change their water and food, and I kept getting pecked by little beaks. They were begging for treats and every time my hand enters their brooder they think I have treats. What have I done? The funny part is I just made you read a bunch of nonsense just to get to the point that my hand gets pecked every time I stick it in the brooder. Have chicktastick day.
But it was fun nonsense! I always appreciate a good written story. I was working in the yard today myself and had all the babies out of the various pens in the front. I was digging water wells around the trees and the worms are up due to it being so warm. Well after the first couple of chicks found out there was worms in them thar holes, they all came running! I couldn't put the shovel in the ground for fear of cutting off little chicken toes!
Too cute! I got mine to start eating out of my hand here recently, and now they think its the feeding machine....they peck me all the time!!!
I started feeding them oats out of my hand. Now they too peck at my hands looking for a treat. One of my girls (Baby)has taken to flying up and sitting on my shoulder. My Dh says,"nice parrot". Tonight Baby tried to sit on my 4 yr. olds shoulder and ended up scratching his face. I had to sit the kids down and tell them to protect thier faces when they go in the run until Baby learns to fly better.
Oh dear....Mine range in age now from about 3 weeks to day olds, so it looks like a battle zone in my house. There are 3 brooders in my living room and it smells like a barn. What can you say though? They are too freakin adorable to pass up!!
Not nonsense. It is "proud parent" talk. Mine are almost 7 weeks and they have a treat bowl. They come running and wait whenever I get their treat bowl or it my hand comes in palm up. And yes, they miss leading to an 'ooww'. Now they are so spoiled that if I walk to that side of the brooder they expect their treat, which is fed away from their food. hehehehe You got good babies learning. Yay
You know meal worms are really easy to breed - especially the smaller ones. The zophabas, which have harder casings and are harder to digest, take longer to grow and mature. I used to "make" them for my reptiles. Just put them in a bin full of corn meal with a slice or two of potato (for water) and wait for them to turn into little black beetles. The beetles lay their eggs in the meal and in a few weeks (can't remember exactly how long) you will see little worms wiggling. I used to have one of those rubbermaid plastic drawer systems to breed them in. I would put some mealies in each drawer about a week apart so I could rotate through. The beetles will die, but you have a constant supply of new ones if you hold some worms back. I might do that this winter... hmm...
Lots of people say chickens are stupid birds, but in my experience, they seem to learn things awfully fast when their are treats involved!! Creating monsters is just too too easy!!! Funny story!! And I read every word, it was very entertaining!