Quick question- Live or Freeze dried Mealworms?

[IroquoisEgg]

In your experience what is better> Live worms or Dried??

 

[chicks4kids]

I use live ones for the chickens. I've never used dried ones for the chickens, however, I do use dried worms for bluebird suet.

 

[gryeyes]

Well, live ones are MUCH less expensive, but they do have an expiration date (death). I've used both and far prefer the live ones, even if I can't bring myself to hand feed them to my chickens. I put them in a special dish for them....

I won't buy the freeze-dried ones any more - far too expensive. The chickens love 'em, but they REALLY love the live ones.

 

[Morgan7782]

I am always tempted to pick up a bag of dried mealworms from the feed store, but they are like 16 bucks for a SMALL bag!

I think I will just try the live ones as well lol. Besides, the hunt is half the fun right?

 

[churchx3]

I asked my daughter to run to the pet store and get some mealworms...she came back with a $27. bag of freeze dried mealworms that my chickens would have nothing to do with...I even tried giving them to the wild birds and they turned their beak up as well. I ended up crushing up the freeze dried worms and adding it a little at a time to their feed and got rid of them that way....lesson learned.

 

[featherz]

Mine like the freeze dried ones but they MUCH prefer the CANNED worms, which look alive but just canned and mushy. They go bad really quickly, so I don't think I'll buy them again. I may try some live ones if I can find em!

 

[operator16]

It's the live ones that have made my chickens love and want to be near me. At our Wild Bird Center in town, I pick up a container of 500 live ones for $7. I sit in their run and feed them one by one to the birds and THEY FINALLY LOVE ME...

I even have one that has wanted nothing to do with me since I got her at three days old. She will now come to me and do a cute little jump in the air for her worm.

They are a little squirmy, but if you don't mind regular worms these are not much different - just less girth and slime. I keep them in the fridge and they last for weeks. They kind of go into a dormant/sleepy stage in there.

 

[davekrista]

I'm new at this so I'm learning as I go. Are mealworms the same as if I were to go in my back yard and dig em up? Or are they something altogether different?

 

[Jeeper1540]

Live, the chickens have so much more fun when they are moving

ETA: My chickens prefer earthworms to mealworms

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

Quote:
Really??? My girls won't touch them! I felt such a tool the other day....evening before, I stood out in the rain collecting all the fat, juicy worms that had come up from the ground. All excited to give me girls a big treat of all these yummy worms in the morning, I went bounding out to their run and threw a bunch out on the ground and they all looked at the worms on the ground, looked back up at me, looked back at the worms, then just walked off! They were totally saying "Really, you want me to eat that slimy thing!?" Just when you think you've got them all figured out...