Hello and what about live mealworms.

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Margaid

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Hello from Shropshire. I've had a very interesting and educational day reading stuff on the website and in the forum. I have four Welsummer hens bought at the Oswestry Rare Breed Auction 10 days ago and they have already given me a dozen and a half beautiful dark brown eggs. Unfortunately they aren't at my home - I'm living in a caravan in the middle of a building site, so they are staying with a friends eclectic mix of Houdans, Cream Legbar, Barnvelder, ex-bats and broody bantams. There are now 6 purebred Houdan chicks to add to the mix.

I'd like to reward my girls with a treat but I can't find much information about giving hens live mealworms. How much should I give them? I know they are a high protein food but I don't want my girls to get overweight. I'm thinking of breeding mealworms so that there are enough for the whole flock - I've kept them before for feeding wild birds but didn't keep them long enough to pupate and breed. Any information would be welcome. Thank you.
 
hi there, mealworms will be appreciated by your birds, and they will certainly eat as many as you choose to give them, but as you say moderation is best, so i would give three or four per Large hen once in a while as a treat. it's also a good way to Tame chickens.
To breed mealworms all you need is a couple of biscuit tins with a layer of Bran or porridge oats in the bottom, a slice or two of Apple or cucumber/lettuce leaf etc and then add your Mealworms. Nature does the rest!
I would set up two or more cultures, some weeks apart so you have a rotation of worms to feed your birds, leaving a few Worms/pupae/beetles in every tin to perpetuate the next generation. Just top up the bran/oats once in a while and replace the few slices of fruit/veg as needed and you should be self sufficient in Mealworms within a few months!
 
Fascinating stuff ! Bit like the old ginger beer plants we had as kids.
 
Thanks Lordcluck. I'd read up about how to breed them but had no idea how many to give the girls. Some people separate the pupae and/or beetles from the larvae so that the egss aren't accidentally thrown away. Apparently the easy way to remove some worms to feed the birds is to put a piece of potatoe cut side down on the worms for 10 minutes - when you remove it the worms will be attached to it. I can feed any surplus to the wild birds.
 
Top tip there Lord Cluck and we'll be using that in France.

Layers pellets are 15% protein Margaid. Wheat I think is 10% and mealworms pretty much 100%. If fed on an occasional basis I would say a handful for 6 hens. On a daily basis one or two worms each as I think too much protein might cause digestive problems. Sure someone will clarify that.
 
Thanks for that info Chrismahon. The protein figures I've seen vary from about 40 - 50% - I've read that mealworms can be "gut loaded" by feeding them protein such as a bit of catfood before feeding them to the hens. Not sure if I fancy that, my ex-sister-in-law had fishy tasting eggs until she realised her hens were eating the dried cat food!
 
Fish tasting eggs Margaid -that's gross!. So Mealworms are only 40-50% and I was under the misconception they were as protein rich as maggots -but they are fed on meat of course. Still a mealworm farm as Lord Cluck and yourself discussed sounds a great idea. I wonder if my wife will share my enthusiasm?
 
Fortunately Chrismahon I never got to eat any of those eggs. Keeping mealworms is clean and not smelly if you don't leave rotting veg or lots of dead worms in the container. The container needs to be straight sided and smooth so they can't climb out - that probably would upset your wife. Deep cat litter trays are good but I used a deep metal tray when I kept them for the wild birds. Buy either mini worms or standard - the large have been treated with a growth hormone and apparently they don't breed. I bought mine from www.birdfood.co.uk as they are near me and I was buying lots of other bird food at the same time.
 
Thanks Margaid. Sent them an email enquiry for their advice on breeding them. They do the food and bedding packs and quote 50.4% rough protein, whatever that means. Got to be cheaper than maggots and much more fun!
 
Well I'm glad I had dinner before reading this little lot ! Just to throw in that layers (and growers) does have varying protein levels depending on the manufacturer. I have access to three brands locally and they have 16%, 17% & 17.4%.
Mealworms and maggots then would be yield about the highesat level of protein. Soya and the legumes are well up there too around 30% & 20% respectively if I remember rightly.
 
Ah yes Chrismahon, I'vejust remembered why I didn't rush off and buy some mealworms - I'm waiting for a reply as to whether they have been treated to stop them breeding. The young lady I spoke to told me "they only last about 6 weeks" - I'm assuming they then pupate but I didn't think it was my place to give her a biology lesson. She sadi she would have to check as they come from Holland. I don't know whether you'll get much info from them about breeding worms as they have a vested interest in you buying regular supplies from them. There is another supplier, www.livefoodsdirect.co.uk who also sell Progrub (look under livefood accessories)- I have a discount voucher for the other crowd which makes them slightly cheaper for me but I need to be sure they will breed. There is no need to feed them exclusively on Progrub, you can mix it with bran to make it go further, particularly as we're only feeding meal worms as treats.

This is a link to the best info I found about breeding mealworms.

http://hedgecombers.com/2012/02/19/breeding-mealworms-for-your-chickens/

Have fun!
 
Oops, sorry! Just read the rules again and realised I'm not supposed to post links yet. Got carried away by my own enthusiasm.
 
Margaid said:
Oops, sorry! Just read the rules again and realised I'm not supposed to post links yet. Got carried away by my own enthusiasm.
Click to expand...

Not a problem Margaid, It is perfectly OK to post links to sites you think are helpful and especially if you have used then yourself and have received good service :D. If you are involved commercially i.e. you are linking to you own business, then this would be construed as advertising, it would be polite in those circumstances to contact admin with regard to posting permissions.
 
Well I've ordered my mealworms, Progrub and bran so we'll see what happens. CJ Wildlife bless them were very persistent in telling me to keep the worms cool so that they would last longer without - as she put it, "changing into something else" I hadn't the heart to keep trying to explain that was what I wanted them to do!

I think I'll split them into 3 - one lot really cool for current use, one lot a bit warmer so they grow but slowly and the last as warm as I need to get them to pupate as soon as possible. OH said he thought I was keeping chickens, not mealworms!
 
Waiting for a reply to my email from the first place Margaid. But this is on my list of 'to do's' before we go.

Got the reply from birdfood.co.uk. They said that their worms would make a good starter colony but the expert said it was a lot of effort and easier to buy them, but can certainly be done. http://www.reptileexpert.org/breeding-mealworms.php was the link they gave me.
 
Hi Chris,

Well they would say it's easier to buy them wouldn't they. I kept mealworms as wild bird food for several weeks just using Prorub mixed with bran - if you're doing that anyway to keep them alive you may as well carry on and let them breed. There seems to be a lot of confusion about how long they take to breed but it seems mostly dependent on temperature - the cooler they are the longer it takes. For wild bird food I kept them fairly cool - on a concrete floor in the unheated utility room, that's why I'm going to split them into 3 trays. The info on the link is more complicated than some I've seen; I think I might remove the pupae and pu tthem in a separate tray, that way when they emerge the beetles can find each other. If you leave them all in together you can't sift out the frass from the mealworms as you would lose the eggs as well. I'm not surprised he lost colonies; everything else I've read says you must not get the culture/bedding wet. Potatoe should be peel side down and anything else on a little plastic tray - I'll probably use the lids of large yoghourt pots. Buying them is quite expensive and I can't see that keeping them is much effort. How will you get them to France?
 
Smuggle them in amongst all the other stuff Margaid! Don't think there is a restriction on grubs, but if we just take the mealworms and the breeding stuff separately. If they ask they are chicken feed for the journey.
 
Well I now have a deep plastic tray with a wriggly surface. I picked out quite a few sloughed off skins and some dead worms then left them while I sorted out supper. There was not much movement when I went back - I think the room is too cold so they've been moved into OH's workshop. I'll split them into three lots tomorrow and put one tray back in the cooler room. Don't expect any pupae for a few weeks, and then several more before the beetles...
 
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