Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[Serrin]

Quote:
Where did you order these from in that high amounts?

And equally important: How much did that set ya back on paying down your Visa?!?!

Seriously though, how much did that order cost?

 

[HorizonSon]

Ordered through Grubco. The worms came out to $48ish; the shipping was another $26ish. This is from memory, but should be quite accurate.

Please keep in mind that shipping to and fro from where I live takes the longest and is the most expensive in the nation. Including Alaska! There are only a small handful remote locations in the U.S. that are on par with the NON-continental U.S.

 

[rancher hicks]

I never cared for meal worms, they get stuck in my teeth. YUK!

Seriously they sell containers of them at Country Max. Dead of course. Are they just as good as the live ones? Why are they important?

Rancher

 

[HorizonSon]

Live ones are much much more nutritious. Plus; after the initial purchases, the cost of upkeep is next to nothing to keep a farm going (so I've read). This is my first attempt...

Rancher: our birds free-range. Our adult birds have not had commercial feed since they were on grower as baby chicks (aside from a bit of scratch in the am and pm. Our eggs have strong shells (without any calcium supplement), our yolks are a large rich deep orange!... The mealworms are to supplement the lack of buglife during the Winter months. I'm starting now; because come next winter, we will have a rather large flock (if all goes according to plan).

 

[HorizonSon]

This Spring; I'm going to try an additional "free grubs" method, a-w-a-y from the house. It involves hanging a container from a tree limb, up high off the ground. The idea is you cut holes in the bottom and a few larger holes near the top. Then put some raw (chicken) guts in it and hang it up. Flies will lay eggs in the raw meat. As the maggots grow, and start to fill the container, they will start to fall out the holes in the bottom. Voila; it'll be raining chicken treats!

That's pretty much completely free food! Woo-hoo!

 

[ca]

Quote:
Sounds great - but probably won't work here

. The jummy guts will be jerky in about 5 minutes. Anybody experience with this in hot dry climates?

 

[HorizonSon]

Ca: how are your chickies diggin' their roost?

We need more "chick pics", (keep them PG, please).

 

[Serrin]

Quote:
You wouldn't happen to have a diagram you could post on the construction of such a device? Or perhaps a link to the website where you found this information? I'd like to give that a try this spring as well. Oh my! Wouldn't that be an awesome thing to hang in the covered runs? Chicken treats everywhere!

 

[ca]

Quote:
I made a roost a little over a foot tall and thought it was for sure to high for them (at 2+ weeks) but guess who jumped up first? The Dellies of course! The Anconas absolutely love being up "high" and get up there all the time. The Delawares are up often but then jump down and come running when I enter the coop. I'll take pics this weekend! They are growing so fast! I changed the chicks from the horse trough into the main coup (no other chickens there, just the babies) because they seemed to be wanting to fly and have more room. It is really fun to watch them now in the larger space.

So glad I found this forum with all the good advice and ideas!

 

[HorizonSon]

Amy: a search for "free maggots for chickens" should give you all the info you seek

CA: Glad to head it! We ALL anxiously await the pics