Topic of the Week - Feeding mealworms, bugs etc.

[GC-Raptor]

I don't feed my hens live or freeze dried insects or worms. I do let them free range 1 hour before sunset daily (weather permitting), on more than an acre. We average 3 to 4 inches of precipitation a month and have many hardwood and some softwood trees. They love to search the leaves for bugs, salamanders, worms, crickets and grasshoppers. Crickets used to find their way into my basement and keep me awake. Not anymore.
I feed a 18% layers pellet, and the only treats I give them are a mixed bird seed scattered on the straw in their pen or under the raised coop in wet or snowing weather, twice a day. I also smash a soft shell, thin shell or cracked egg when I find one, on top of seeds on the ground. GC

 

[sumi]

I used to leave a corrugated sink sheet lying flat on the ground just for the chickens. After about 2 or 3 summer weeks, there would be so many crickets under that sheet. I'd stand by the sheet, call the chickens and flip the sheet over, releasing the treats. They soon learned.

 

[Nardo]

Mine get the grub worms I did up as I garden. And they love snakes. I never thought I'd feel bad for a snake, but the hens play keep away and it ends traumatically for the snake.

 

[IamRainey]

I am out every morning and, on rainy days several times a day, collecting slugs from my veggie and flower beds. Dozens at a time in an effort to save the gerberas, strawberries, dahlias, artichokes, etc. for ME! And my chickie babies are as happy to eat them as I am to see them dispatched to their maker.

I figure any decade now they'll have eaten the last of them.

 

[cathloveydovey]

My hens a while back loved bugs, small animals ect they were raptors in a nutshell. I clearly remember one day while I was cleaning the coop moving around the woodchips to make the litter even, my hen Beta a BO mix and our tomboy in the flock was watching me with a curious eye. She came over to me and started to dig around the area where I was raking, and there in the corner of the coop was a mouse, she lunged at the poor rodent and picked it up, literally beating it to death and swallowing the thing whole. Oh right, she did this to another mouse in the coop, in the exact same place. I was stunned but in utter awe on how this girl just went savage on the poor mouse

After this session she went back outside while I kept raking, I saw another 6 mice as I raked and that was the end of her hunting session. I had no problem feeding them bugs and live things, to be honest I think they enjoyed killing and eating them a little too much xD

 

[centrarchid]

Another trick I employ to collect insect drift (insects that otherwise move through by flying or hopping) is to have strips of grass that are a lot taller that adjacent areas. The insects move readily over short grass and land in the tall grass. Then chickens can concentrate their foraging activities in the taller stuff. Without taller grass, the insects keep moving through. Setup replenishes itself at day or night depending on type of insects and weather.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

So far, we've been feeding the meal worms (dried or live) and crickets as treats occasionally. The ladies get to go out of their run occasionally, usually once a day, depending on the weather or the snow cover. Anyway, whatever they find free ranging, they gobble down.
I get a little horrified when I go to the grocery store and see 'Vegan fed chicken' in their packaging. Those poor things, never getting to chase and eat, which is fully in their nature. Anybody who thinks that chickens aren't meat eaters has to watch a flock free ranging!

 

[EggMan207]

I don't feed my hens live or freeze dried insects or worms. I do let them free range 1 hour before sunset daily (weather permitting), on more than an acre. We average 3 to 4 inches of precipitation a month and have many hardwood and some softwood trees. They love to search the leaves for bugs, salamanders, worms, crickets and grasshoppers.View attachment 1310059 Crickets used to find their way into my basement and keep me awake. Not anymore.
I feed a 18% layers pellet, and the only treats I give them are a mixed bird seed scattered on the straw in their pen View attachment 1310058 or under the raised coop in wet or snowing weather, twice a day. I also smash a soft shell, thin shell or cracked egg when I find one, on top of seeds on the ground. GC

I like your idea of letting them free range an hour before dark. I was contemplating something similar. I like to let them free range, but have had problems with predators and with my chickens visiting the neighbors (they destroyed their garden and pooped on their welcome mat).... I think an hour at the end of the night would help provide tick control and keep them form wandering too far.

 

[Red Mangrove]

I have a 5-gallon "meat bucket" with holes drilled in the bottom that hangs from a tree. Predators get tossed into the bucket and maggots fall out. All of my chickens love the bucket but it's mostly the territory of broody gamefowl hens

 

[EuroChook]

"Predators get tossed into the bucket and maggots fall out."

Hm. That's how I need to deal with all my enemies from now on.