Feeding Your Flock Live Mealworms

There is a myth that chickens are vegetarians. Have you seen the egg cartons at the grocery store that say “Eggs produced by organic, anti-biotic free, vegetarian fed chickens??”

Why do we think chickens should only be fed grains? This is totally unnatural, and common sense should tell us that, chickens are not vegetarians, they are omnivores, meaning they will eat just about anything. This does not mean that they should eat everything though. There are plenty of foods that you should keep away from your flock, but many of your leftovers will supplement their diet very well. However, when you open the coop doors in the morning, and allow a chicken freedom, they will head straight to the place they think has bugs, and they start digging. You will even see them walking around and listening, like Adele is here. She can hear the bugs in the grass and dirt below her.

Don’t you remember watching cartoons and seeing the chickens chasing worms and bugs? This is the natural diet for chickens. Free-range chickens will feast on worms, crickets, and any type of bug that crosses its path, in addition to weeds, grass, herbs, plants, seeds, etc. They have even been known to chase down a mouse, a snake, lizards, basically anything smaller than they are is fair game.

If your chickens don’t have the ability to free range, you have a lack of delicious bugs on your property, they need to be trained, you want special treats, or they are molting and could use a boost of protein, we suggest supplementing with mealworms! Some people think that they can’t handle worms, but mealworms are different. They aren’t dirty, don’t smell, and will not get your hands nasty. Here I am holding a handful, straight from the bag, as you can see, not slimy or sticky.

Not only does protein help a chicken recover from a molt quicker, but it also helps fulfill a nutritional need that may decrease instances of pecking within your flock.

Another great reason to give mealworms as treats to your flock, is that you can train them with the mealworms. Our flock will actually return to the coop when they see me approaching with a container of mealworms. Yes, they know and recognize the container on sight. This is a great trick to have up your sleeve if you are allowing your hens to free-range and you need to get them back to safety quickly. Plus, if you notice, live mealworms contain a significant amount of water, which is another great reason to choose fresh over dried.

Many people raise their own mealworms to feed to their flock, and we have actually done this. However, it does require a lot of patience, and quite a bit of room to raise a sufficient amount of them to supplement your flock. If you are interested in raising your own mealworms. The average life cycle of a mealworm is a total of 5-6 months, if everything is perfect and they do not become food for another animal. A female will lay approximately 500 eggs during her lifetime.

So, if you want a great project or experiment and have the time, space, and patience, you can cultivate your very own mealworm farm! If not, thankfully, there is another option. You can purchase mealworms all ready grown and ready to feed your flock.

Our flocks favorite is a company called Rainbow Mealworms. Their worms are consistently healthy, packaged well, and arrive very quickly after placing an order. During the winter they arrive with heat packs, and during the summer in cooler bags with vent holes in the boxes. Here is a photo of a shipment we received recently. We store this bag in a refrigerator that we have in the garage, and I just grab the bag on the way to the coop. You can order as many as you could possible want from 500-40,000!

So, if you want to start spoiling your flock today, click here to see the options from Rainbow Mealworms! This way your chickens can always have some worms available, even if they aren’t early birds!