Whats the weirdest thing your chickens have eaten or tried to eat??

[tcstoehr]

I thought I had the only chickens in the county retarded enough to eat styrofoam. Glad to find out it's not just mine. Learn something new every day.

 

[cheeka]

roasted meal worms? normally, they're freeze dried... mine love them either way, live or dead... I have a small meal worm farm going as they are near $1 an ounce, which is outrageous IMHO. so I breed them for the price of 1 baby carrot a week.

and I can just imagine the speckled linoleum driving them to peck peck peck! pretty funny!

 

[Sylviaanne]

roasted meal worms? normally, they're freeze dried... mine love them either way, live or dead... I have a small meal worm farm going as they are near $1 an ounce, which is outrageous IMHO. so I breed them for the price of 1 baby carrot a week.

and I can just imagine the speckled linoleum driving them to peck peck peck! pretty funny!

Yes, I bought them at a feed store in a plastic container. Are they hard to breed/grow/raise?

 

[cheeka]

incredibly simple. I keep them in a plastic tub that holds approximately 3 gallons, you can use larger... - they can't climb out - mine live in a base of wheat bran, that I add a few inches to about twice a year. place one baby carrot on top once a week and they will get all the nutrition and liquid they need from that one carrot. someone sent me the beetles, to be truthful, I don't know where you would get them...a google search may turn up something... wheat bran is easy to find, not cereal - the soft bran used for bedding... after say... several weeks, you will find lots of pupa and larvae on the surface. don't take them all, let some grow into adult beetles to continue replenishing your stock.

tip; use a smooth surfaced container - like a plastic cat litter tub, rubbermaid tub or an aquarium. do not use a styrofoam cooler - the worms can climb it and bore through it.

 

[cheeka]

actually, I believe there is a meal worm farming thread here...

 

[Sylviaanne]

incredibly simple. I keep them in a plastic tub that holds approximately 3 gallons, you can use larger... - they can't climb out - mine live in a base of wheat bran, that I add a few inches to about twice a year. place one baby carrot on top once a week and they will get all the nutrition and liquid they need from that one carrot. someone sent me the beetles, to be truthful, I don't know where you would get them...a google search may turn up something... wheat bran is easy to find, not cereal - the soft bran used for bedding... after say... several weeks, you will find lots of pupa and larvae on the surface. don't take them all, let some grow into adult beetles to continue replenishing your stock.

tip; use a smooth surfaced container - like a plastic cat litter tub, rubbermaid tub or an aquarium. do not use a styrofoam cooler - the worms can climb it and bore through it.

I know someone who has mealworms. I can trade her something for some but where do you get the wheat bran? A feed store? Can't the beetles fly out? You don't need extra moisture on the wheat bran? Do you need to clean out the tote periodically?

 

[cheeka]

I get wheat bran at a farm co-op, surely a feed store would be able to get it if they don't carry it... the beetles cannot fly. no extra moisture, they need it dry to live in...no cleaning except removing some mealies for my babies... so easy it's ridiculous. just don't forget to feed them that weekly carrot.

 

[DuckRaiser]

I did try offering them in my hand first but when they acted like I was trying to poison them, I sprinkled them on the ground, then they ran! The other way. LOL They did eventually peck some off the ground but they didn't act like they were crazy about them. I have been feeding them to the chicks in the house. They don't act much better about the meal worms but they do eat them.

The first time my chicks saw them they acted like heaven was on earthXD Still love 'em. If I touch the mealworm bag they go CRAZY.

 

[DuckRaiser]

roasted meal worms? normally, they're freeze dried... mine love them either way, live or dead... I have a small meal worm farm going as they are near $1 an ounce, which is outrageous IMHO. so I breed them for the price of 1 baby carrot a week.

and I can just imagine the speckled linoleum driving them to peck peck peck! pretty funny!

I'll never have mealworms, beetles, or anything like that. Makes me gag, shiver with disgust. I just purchase mealworms.

 

[cheeka]

I got used to it, but it was odd at first. my granddaughter is such an animal lover, she even loves the bugs, calls them Roley Poley's and she would feed them the carrot when visiting, and say goodnight to them along with the chickens, cats and dogs...