Topic of the Week - Feeding mealworms, bugs etc.

[Sally PB]

I also "harvest" Japanese Beetles. This year, I'm freezing some for winter treats. If I'm digging in the garden, I have a container nearby to collect any grubs I dig up. Free chicken food, pest management. Win-win.

The chickens all know what it means when I say, "Bug snack!"

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I raise mealworms as treats and use some of the wasted starter feed from the brooders (by the feeder it’s almost pure with no shavings). In summer most of that brooder waste goes into large plastic pots (like the kind used for plants). It has drainage and I water it well. Black Soldier Flies find it and fill the pots with larvae June until fall/early winter. I can harvest lots and lots larvae for the penned birds but most go to the free range birds that get into them.

 

[Oob Child]

I give dried mealworms to my jumbo quail as a treat.
I try to make sure all three of them get at least one, but George doesn't let anyone touch her mealworms.
She is a trained mealworm gobbler. Never drops a single one.
Whenever she hears me rustle the mealworm bag she runs to the front of the cage and sticks her cute little fluffy head out
Sometimes I think she is part velociraptor!

 

[1rooroo4u]

I let my chickens free range every evening for 2-3 hours, and they load up on grass seeds, clover and their favorite "snack" GRASSHOPPER'S!!!

It makes for some very happy birds!

 

[Predoggg]

We also feed dried mealworms and cackle berries. Any live food do they have to catch on their own and some of our chickens are good in catching fly by flies even.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

I go to the fish store and buy them crickets which they love.

I did have a mealworm farm that had to be taken down when we had to have some work done in the house.

I really need to set my mealworm farm back up.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I also "harvest" Japanese Beetles. This year, I'm freezing some for winter treats. If I'm digging in the garden, I have a container nearby to collect any grubs I dig up. Free chicken food, pest management. Win-win.

The chickens all know what it means when I say, "Bug snack!"

Sounds like me! I always announce 'oh, look, a buggy'! Someone comes runnin'! Free, clean food!

 

[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]

When feeding extra protein do be careful with the forms of live protein that you chose to feed your chickens. Meal worms are the larva stage of the DARKLING BEETLE and both meal worms and darkling beetles are a major pest and a serious disease vector in commercial chicken houses, besides the meal worms destroy the very chicken house that they live in by boring into the walls of the chicken house in order to pupate. This behavior is more pronounced when using the deep litter method of of chicken manure control.

Don't take my poor word for this, research it and find out for yourself. Also other things like Earth worms, slugs, crickets, snails, and grasshoppers all transmit disease bacteria and intestinal worms to your flock.

You know, anything called 'darkling beetle' has got to be bad. If it were named the 'white knight beetle' or the 'peace and light beetle' there might still be hope!

 

[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.