Topic of the Week - Feeding mealworms, bugs etc.

[CynthiaN]

I LOVE this article. I'll be getting my chickens sometime next month and this has been very interesting reading!

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Blooie]

Watch a broody hen. Her chicks are running all over the place at just a couple of days old. If she finds a tidbit, she eats it and they join right in. Doesn't matter what it is - bugs, dirt, grass, weeds, worms, scratch tossed on the ground - if she's eating they'll be right there at the dining room table with her. If they find a mud or water puddle, they take a drink. Mama's not peeling, coring and chopping apples - my chickens and chicks were the best at keeping our orchard cleaned up. She's not checking things for germs, and measuring out how much grit to give them. They find what grit they need - and in sizes just for them - in the dirt they're playing in and exploring. But their main meal still comes from the feeder, where the supply is never ending and they never have to wonder if it's going to be there.

I guess I just think all the fussing is our imposition of our own food prejudices. In moderation, of course, with full access to the well balanced nutrition they get from a quality commercial or homemade feed, none of this hurts them one bit. <shrugs> But that's just me. It's worked better for me raising chicks this way than I managed with the flock that I over managed and over coddled.

 

[Foster's Freehold]

Right now, mine are in a fairly bare run. But I do have objects in there that I move around every so often so they can harvest what's under there.

In years past, I'd move the coop and run to a fresh spot, and boy would they feast on the mice. Or when I clean out the deep litter, nothing stands a chance. I try to turn the litter a bit every so often so the things at the bottom are accessible.

Their diet is varied, kitchen scraps, broken eggs, fruit and veg, meat scraps, milk leftovers. If it doesn't feed the chickens, it feeds the compost and the buggies.

About once a week I feed a can of mackerel, mixed into their feed. A couple of times a week if more than 1 or two are molting.

It really bugs me that you can no longer get animal protein feed for them.

 

[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.

 

[3riverschick]

Ok, I'll rain on this parade.
My birds were/are always cooped or yarded. I keep as close an eye as possible on everything they eat. They get commercial feed, grit, sometimes store bought yogurt, and Nutridrench water ( 1 1/2 tsp. To quart water) if their lives are stressful for some reason. I do not feed them any other supplements except sometimes BOSS, and carefully sprouted Plotspike Forage Oats between 4-7 days old.
IIdo not believe in all kinds of supplemental treats whose nutritional value I cannot control.
BTW, DEFRA has banned the feeding of dried mealworms from unregulated areas to poultry in their jurisdiction.
The reason is because the mealworms could come in contact with meat nutrients which could contain disease... which could be passed through the worms into the poultry to which the mealworms were fed.
So if you are feeding dried mealworms, best to get them from Stateside sources.
There is nothing wrong with commercial feed. The poultry feed industry spends millions of dollars of year evaluating and creating these feeds. I happen to like Nutrena. I think it's an excellent poultry feed.
There are others I won't touch with a ten-foot pole. it just depends on what you're looking for.
No I don't feed organic . I don't believe in it.
Our livestock should be able to exist in this world as it is without being protected from it.
I have learned, from extensive research over 20 years ,the best way to do this is to support the growth and development of GI tract during the first 14 days of life. Given the best GI tract development and function possible, our livestock is able to live in this world without special considerations to protect them from it. It's so much about these 1st 336 Golden Hours.
Best,
Karen

 

[RodNTN]

Just my personal preference, but I think some folks just worry too much about what their chickens are eating, aren't eating, etc.
Of course, I do NOT suggest feeding chickens things that will obviously harm them. And I am also not going to encourage folks to feed their chickens potato chips, noodles, ice cream, etc.

I do love to dig for all sorts of live bugs for my chickens to enjoy My chickens will also eat snakes, frogs, lizards, mice, etc.

My chickens free range dusk till dawn, and boy do they get their crops filled! They forage on grass, weeds, leaves, under fruit trees, so many types of insects, etc.
They also have access to feed and water 24/7. I prefer Purina

My flock is also occasionally fed bird seed and other treats. They get table scraps every evening. I always leave at least two waterers out (in the yard and in the coop). But some of my chickens just prefer puddles

Have a blessed day

 

[3riverschick]

Now when it comes to chicks during those first 14 days all bets are off. they get every single quality supplement science has devised to help them grow and thrive as best as possible.
However they all come from scientific sources. liquids and solids not from unregulated insects whose quality I cannot control.
Best,
Karen

 

[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