Meal worms - How often?

[redwa]

OK, so I just placed my first order of meal worms, I've usually bought them as a treat at the local pet store. But, if I want to give them regularly to my girls, how often do y'all recommend? Occasional, daily, full moon?

 

[dlhunicorn]

I give mine as a small supplement to their basic commercial mix... depends on the time of year...in the months when their are not so many insects in the yard I will give them a few more...in the summer months I give less.

 

[rrrsmom]

I swear meal worms are why my chickens are so tame. When they were 4 or 5 weeks I started giving each girl a couple out of my hand each day. They always associated me with good things. When I started buying several hundred at a time and if I didn't keep a close eye on the container the girls would steal it from me and eat all the bugs in a matter of seconds, I realized this was their favorite treat. I imagine they are a good source of protein and if you're only feeding a few by hand each day I'd think you could do it every day. If you're gonna let them have the container and they're going to eat all they want, I'd limit it a lot. Once a week or twice a month. I really enjoy the interaction with my girls when I take the worms out and hand each girl a worm, they just love me for it.

 

[earthnut]

Where's a cheap place to get them? It'd probably be good to have some to make my new hens fall in love with me.

 

[fishkiller]

Do a search for rainbow mealworms, out of Los angeles. Excellent company with good customer service, been ordering from them for over 12 years. Order a few thousand and then breed your own. It is very simple.

 

[earthnut]

Breed my own eh? I'm not sure hubby will like that, but too bad for him, it's a good idea!

ETA:

I just ordered 1000!

Little does hubby know that we are getting more than one kind of pet!

Do chickens also love the worms in worm bins?

 

[LindaN]

earthnut, my 3 pullets really like worms from my worm bin.

I started a worm bin in the late spring from a handful of worms I got from a friend. The bin is now incredibly full of worms, so I pulled some out yesterday to give to the girls.

I plan to regularly "harvest" from the worm bin over the winter since they won't be able to find any insects once it gets really cold.

 

[bayouchica]

Hi, mealworms are easy to raise. I got mine from here http://www.wormman.com/mealworm_breeding.cfm This link explains how to raise them. They will eat layer pellets or chic starter. Just toss in a cut up potato for moisture.

I might add that earthworms can give your chickens internal parasites, just to let yall know. Keep an eye out for skinny birds or worms in their poop.

 

[redwa]

Yes, I heard that about worms. Could they get parasites from meal worms, too? Seems like they could get parasites from most anything they find on the ground. I am about to get them some fresh pumpkin with seeds as a natural dewormer. Any thoughts?

 

[LindaN]

I don't understand how earthworms can give chickens intestinal parasites. Please explain.