Questions about feeding live worms
- Thread starter mikecnorthwest
- Start date
Hi, I've been learning a lot here. People seem to know quite a bit about chickens. Perhaps I can give back to this community here with a bit of knowledge about worms.
Earthworms:
Very high in protein, but other than that, not much nutritional value for most animals. If you keep a worm box or compost pile, earthworms are bad. They don't eat much of the compost waste, but will eat other worms eggs and can carry diseases (though it's not likely the birds will contract them, it can easily wipe out good worms). If a bird eats an earthworm, no harm done, they'll be fine. But I wouldn't recommend feeding them a pile of worms scavenged from a puddle in the driveway. They may have sat in an oil slick during the last rain, been blasted with pesticides or who knows what...
Red Worms (a.k.a Red Wrigglers):
Much better nutritionally, but also the most likely candidate for carrying diseases and parasites. Red worms live in manure and can carry pathogens and infectious waste from the manure of one animal to another. These are ideal worms for composting however, as they are the ones who breed rapidly and break down food scraps the quickest. They are often sold for this purpose.
Hermetia illucens (a.k.a. Solider Grub, Black Solider Fly, Phoenix Worms):
This is by far the best choice for feeding birds (as well as amphibians and reptiles if you have frogs and turtles on your property).
This is NOT a worm, but a fly larva. Nutritionally, these grubs are packed with extremely high levels of calcium and protein, which I suspect would be great for egg layers. They do not carry any diseases that would be contagious to birds or reptiles, in fact, they're often sold in pet shops as live food purely for this reason. They breed like crazy, so you can propagate your own. They are much better at breaking down compost, even better than red worms. The one draw-back is they can not be bred indoors like red worms in a worm box. They do grow into a harmless, non-swarming, non-biting fly... but you still don't want them in your house. They will go dominant in the winter in an outdoor compost pile. So for composting, mix them with red worms, but only feed your birds the grubs. The adult flies will not harm your garden, they don't even have mouths. They live solely on the nutrients they've stored up by eating during their larval state. They are also very good at controlling the populations of house flies. Other maggots have trouble surviving in manure or compost that solider grubs live in. Any other fly eggs laid in that area will become food for your solider flies.
Nutritional Info for Black Solider Grubs fed on poultry manure.
Some links with more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-51_black_soldier_fly.htm
http://www.wormman.com/cat_soldiergrubs.cfm
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/the_biopod/black-soldier-fly-seeding-kit/
Edit:
Found a nice video on YouTube showing the propagation of the solider fly larva for fish food. In the video, you see the chickens interrupt his harvest to snag a few of the grubs for themselves.
Second Edit: I notice 3 of my sources link back to BYC, so apparently you guys already know about this. Sorry if this is redundant to any other info posted here.
Earthworms:
Very high in protein, but other than that, not much nutritional value for most animals. If you keep a worm box or compost pile, earthworms are bad. They don't eat much of the compost waste, but will eat other worms eggs and can carry diseases (though it's not likely the birds will contract them, it can easily wipe out good worms). If a bird eats an earthworm, no harm done, they'll be fine. But I wouldn't recommend feeding them a pile of worms scavenged from a puddle in the driveway. They may have sat in an oil slick during the last rain, been blasted with pesticides or who knows what...
Red Worms (a.k.a Red Wrigglers):
Much better nutritionally, but also the most likely candidate for carrying diseases and parasites. Red worms live in manure and can carry pathogens and infectious waste from the manure of one animal to another. These are ideal worms for composting however, as they are the ones who breed rapidly and break down food scraps the quickest. They are often sold for this purpose.
Hermetia illucens (a.k.a. Solider Grub, Black Solider Fly, Phoenix Worms):
This is by far the best choice for feeding birds (as well as amphibians and reptiles if you have frogs and turtles on your property).
This is NOT a worm, but a fly larva. Nutritionally, these grubs are packed with extremely high levels of calcium and protein, which I suspect would be great for egg layers. They do not carry any diseases that would be contagious to birds or reptiles, in fact, they're often sold in pet shops as live food purely for this reason. They breed like crazy, so you can propagate your own. They are much better at breaking down compost, even better than red worms. The one draw-back is they can not be bred indoors like red worms in a worm box. They do grow into a harmless, non-swarming, non-biting fly... but you still don't want them in your house. They will go dominant in the winter in an outdoor compost pile. So for composting, mix them with red worms, but only feed your birds the grubs. The adult flies will not harm your garden, they don't even have mouths. They live solely on the nutrients they've stored up by eating during their larval state. They are also very good at controlling the populations of house flies. Other maggots have trouble surviving in manure or compost that solider grubs live in. Any other fly eggs laid in that area will become food for your solider flies.
Nutritional Info for Black Solider Grubs fed on poultry manure.
Some links with more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-51_black_soldier_fly.htm
http://www.wormman.com/cat_soldiergrubs.cfm
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/the_biopod/black-soldier-fly-seeding-kit/
Edit:
Found a nice video on YouTube showing the propagation of the solider fly larva for fish food. In the video, you see the chickens interrupt his harvest to snag a few of the grubs for themselves.
Second Edit: I notice 3 of my sources link back to BYC, so apparently you guys already know about this. Sorry if this is redundant to any other info posted here.
Last edited:
uh oh.... I should have read this thread BEFORE I gave my chicks a worm!!!
I just tossed a couple of earthworms I found in my garden to my 3-week-old chicks. Now I'm terrified that they are going to get internal parasites.
Should I worm them right away?? Or just keep an eye on them for now?
I just tossed a couple of earthworms I found in my garden to my 3-week-old chicks. Now I'm terrified that they are going to get internal parasites.
Should I worm them right away?? Or just keep an eye on them for now?
My yard is FULL of plain ole earthworms. There's been an explosion of babies (I dig up TONS of tiny ones) because of all this rain. Any time I dig or any time anything lays on the ground for a day or so, I find many many earthworms. If my chickens are gonna die from them, there's not much I can do to prevent it.
Dont worry to much, they need to be wormed anyway. Sure they will eat earthworm. Just a bad idea to feed them. They get enought by themself.
Quote:
Oh yes best thing you can do is worm your chickens 3 to 4 times a year.
With that kind of thinking, how many puppies do you think would die every year.
I know nobody worms the wolfs, or foxes.
Oh yes best thing you can do is worm your chickens 3 to 4 times a year.
With that kind of thinking, how many puppies do you think would die every year.
I know nobody worms the wolfs, or foxes.
I can't see the harm in chickens eating worms... they would do so in the wild and they do it in out yards. Aren't they adapted for those health risks?
Quote:
Think of them just like puppies you think it would be ok not to worm them?? In the wild they live with worms.
Same for birds, yes they can live with worms, but not all. Yes they will eat a few earthworms, but why feed them to your birds, knowing what they carry.
Think of them just like puppies you think it would be ok not to worm them?? In the wild they live with worms.
Same for birds, yes they can live with worms, but not all. Yes they will eat a few earthworms, but why feed them to your birds, knowing what they carry.
Chickens are not puppies. I believe it is more natural for them to eat worms (which they find in the wild) than unnecessary and possibly harmful medicine.
Double check this thread, and see the danger earthworms carry.
Do reason to keep posting same old info.
Do reason to keep posting same old info.
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest threads
-
Silver Duckwing Welsummer Hatching Eggs UK- Started by BlueTheBrahma
- Replies: 0
-
-
-
-
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
-
-
Open Contest BYC's 4th of July Star Spangled Hatch-Along—Stars, Stripes, & Feathers, a Text-to-Image Contest- Started by Debbie292d
- Replies: 109
-
-
