- Dec 10, 2012
- 86
- 34
- 119
After reading a few posts espousing the wonders of mealworms and how/why one should consider establishing a breeding population of one's own to feed to one's ravenous, diminutive, feathered, egg laying, modern-day velociraptors, I found myself at the local pet shop staring into a refrigerator full of margarine-sized containers with 100s listed on the sides and thinking... "Do I really want to buy mealworms for the ladies?"
Undaunted, I grabbed a hundy and headed for home.
Standing over the 260 gallon horse trough-turned-chick pen, I opening the bowl I stared at the wriggling mass therein. "What the heck am I doing?" I thought, and then poured about 1/3 of the 100 worm contents into my open palm.
(Note: not my pic)
Dropping my hand to chick-eye-level, my ladies raced to see what treats I proffered. Gazing into my open palm, they stopped cold; several looked at me askance as if to ask, "What in the world is that? Where's our scratch, dude? Come on... Really? What is that?"
One of my EE chicks was the first to react to the mass, hopping forward and hammering a wriggling worm. Quickly glancing up at me, it was as though she'd had a revelation. Her eyes went wide open.
She immediately jumped into my hand and began vacuuming up the worms with increasing speed.
The other chicks watched, only momentarily, before one of my Gold Sexlinks jumped forward and hammered a mealworm for herself. At that point, the chicks seeing this, it was 'Game on!' Chicks literally sprinted to my palm to try a tasty morsel for themselves. Quickly the worms were gone...
Not wanting to spoil the fun in one outing, I said goodbye to the ladies and headed inside.
Later this the evening I went back to say goodnight to the ladies. When they saw me looking into the pen, they came running and stood directly below me, staring up as though though to say "More please!"
"Ok" I thought, "More mealworms it is."
Dumping another 1/3 into my hand, I - literally - couldn't get my hand to chick-eye-level without them jumping into my hand and onto my arm and attacking the worms mercilessly. They were ravenous. They were so caught up in worm consumption that they knocked each other out of the way to get to the little squirmies first. An epic feeding frenzy had broken out.
Needless to say, I now have a small mealworm farm in the garage.
Thx to those who've posted info on mealworm care and feeding. My ladies very much appreciate your insights.
Hotspurious
Walnut Creek, CA
Undaunted, I grabbed a hundy and headed for home.
Standing over the 260 gallon horse trough-turned-chick pen, I opening the bowl I stared at the wriggling mass therein. "What the heck am I doing?" I thought, and then poured about 1/3 of the 100 worm contents into my open palm.
(Note: not my pic)
Dropping my hand to chick-eye-level, my ladies raced to see what treats I proffered. Gazing into my open palm, they stopped cold; several looked at me askance as if to ask, "What in the world is that? Where's our scratch, dude? Come on... Really? What is that?"
One of my EE chicks was the first to react to the mass, hopping forward and hammering a wriggling worm. Quickly glancing up at me, it was as though she'd had a revelation. Her eyes went wide open.
She immediately jumped into my hand and began vacuuming up the worms with increasing speed.
The other chicks watched, only momentarily, before one of my Gold Sexlinks jumped forward and hammered a mealworm for herself. At that point, the chicks seeing this, it was 'Game on!' Chicks literally sprinted to my palm to try a tasty morsel for themselves. Quickly the worms were gone...
Not wanting to spoil the fun in one outing, I said goodbye to the ladies and headed inside.
Later this the evening I went back to say goodnight to the ladies. When they saw me looking into the pen, they came running and stood directly below me, staring up as though though to say "More please!"
"Ok" I thought, "More mealworms it is."
Dumping another 1/3 into my hand, I - literally - couldn't get my hand to chick-eye-level without them jumping into my hand and onto my arm and attacking the worms mercilessly. They were ravenous. They were so caught up in worm consumption that they knocked each other out of the way to get to the little squirmies first. An epic feeding frenzy had broken out.
Needless to say, I now have a small mealworm farm in the garage.
Thx to those who've posted info on mealworm care and feeding. My ladies very much appreciate your insights.
Hotspurious
Walnut Creek, CA
