Why do we need another chicken blog or forum?


Many chicken forums are moderated to sell commercial feed, chemicals and ideology.
I prefer to find my own balance between nature, welfare and cost in raising happy chickens.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

layers doing well, time for mealworms?


The layer chicks are the same age as the meaties, i.e. 7 weeks. It's so lovely to pick them up and find that, despite a diet of only 50% commercial feed, they have as much feather and bodyweight as any layer could. I'm also happy with their behaviour and feel their nutrition has been close to just right.

If I could add something to their diet, it would be more fresh meat. However that's not going to happen with mince at $7 or $8 a kilo and pet mince fiddly to feed (because of the need to rinse/heat to remove preservatives). Never mind. As they go on, I'll find ways to keep up the amino acid supplement while they get a basic protein percentage from the mixed legumes and grains.

Meanwhile I've invested in a $10 container of mealworms. I've never kept mealworms before, but I'd bought a bag of bran from the feed store as a chick diet ingredient, and figured 'why not?' Vegetable peelings, old flour, skim milk and bran seem to be all the mealworms want in life... Hopefully I can let their numbers build up to a level where they're able to be fed to the chickens daily.

Worth a shot, anyhow... I'll keep you posted. Hopefully they won't do a 'worm farm' and vanish on me...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for such a great blog. I've learned a lot here tonight. How is your meal worm project going?

Erica Bandanna said...

Thanks so much for that kind comment!

The mealworms are just starting to pupate, so that's encouraging. In a few weeks I should know how well it's going to go. They're definitely not much trouble to keep (so far).

best wishes
Erica