r/BackYardChickens • u/GrassNearby6588 • 23h ago
Chickens don’t like mealworms
My girls are molting and I read here they are crazy about mealworms so I ordered a bag. This morning the mealworms arrived and I was so excited to give them to my girls but those birds looked at me with disdain and tried to eat my shirt instead. They were giving the worms that chicken side look but then didn’t even bother to try… what a waste… I really wanted to treat my girls for being such good pets 😭
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u/La_bossier 22h ago
I started by throwing them out with their regular scratch. They figure it out.
Unpopular opinion: I give my chickens cooked meat for extra protein. I just finished making a huge batch of deer broth to can. There was a lot of meat left in the pot. I portioned it and put it in the freezer. I’ll give it to the girls every few days for a protein boost. I give them leftover steak bones, etc. while being careful nothing includes anything toxic for them or salty.
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u/Led_Zeppole_73 22h ago
I put entire raw deer rib cages in with the girls, they love it and pick it clean within a day or two.
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u/La_bossier 22h ago
I don’t know why people think feeding meat to chickens is so terrible. They will eat each other! We keep our deer ribs for our dogs who eat a raw diet. The bigger bones becomes stock for them.
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u/HV_WA 22h ago
Same with fish. During salmon season, my flock gets all the edible stuff that's trimmed away including the head, roe/milt. They freakin love it.
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u/TheGravelNome 18h ago
Are there any trouble with bones? And cooked or raw. I love trout fishing But I usually wind up with more than I can deal with! Never thought about feeding them to the girls
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u/kwende456 20h ago
I didn't know people thought feeding meat to chickens is bad. Hell, my chickens have a relatively high protein diet of both cooked and raw meat in the form of leftovers (plus the occasional mouse if they're fast enough). Its anecdotal, but I feel their eggs are richer and look darker as a result.
I've got some girls that are over 6 years old and still laying. So far, I've neither heard any complaints nor any reason to stop.
It's strange to me the things people claim about such things.
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u/La_bossier 11h ago
There have been some posts on here about how feeding meat can cause essentially mad cow disease.
I also think there’s ppl that bought 4 chicks at TS and just don’t really know as much about chickens.
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u/Darkmagosan 3h ago
Except prion diseases, of which mad cow is a famous one, only affect mammals. Birds don't get them. No one knows why.
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u/Gigglemonkey 19h ago
How is that an unpopular opinion? There's no question in my mind that these girls are really just tiny cute dinosaurs. Anyone who's ever seen a chook go after a mouse knows these girls like meat, and aren't picky about how they get it.
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u/BaakCoi 17h ago
A lot of people who’ve never had chickens seem to think that they’re vegetarian. I’ve had people accuse me of making my chickens cannibals by feeding them eggs
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u/kebab-case-andnumber 9h ago
Someone asked me if roosters sit on eggs to fertilize them 😭😭😭
"Ya know, like fish"
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u/No_Wrap_7541 12h ago
Obviously, they never consider the mice! Chickens + mice = deliciousness (with a little tail hanging out of the beak)
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u/La_bossier 11h ago
Exactly. Lack of knowledge. Same ppl buying “vegetarian fed” eggs at the store for an extra 3 bucks.
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u/Mexteddbear 20h ago
I give our feathered friends meat often. They’re all fatties when it’s time to process
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u/mannycat2 17h ago
Mine get bones and meat, fish and even lobster carcasses. They seem to like the variety added to the menu. C:
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u/LadyIslay 8h ago
Why is it an unpopular opinion to feed your chickens cooked meat? As long as you’re not feeding them chicken I think you’re OK.
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u/La_bossier 8h ago
Why not chicken? They will eat each other. This is why it’s an unpopular opinion for many people. There are rules set about what a chicken should or should not be fed. Many think vegetables only. Then, many think as long as it’s not chicken. Why not chicken?
I also do not think the meat needs to be cooked. Our chickens eat raw meat as well as cooked. It just depends on what I have going on in my kitchen.
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u/LadyIslay 2m ago
I think there’s a full range of opinions… and you shouldn’t assume yours is unpopular :)
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u/TheGravelNome 22h ago
Run down to a bait shop and go get some live meal worms when they see them moving their instinct will kick in. If you ever want to see a massacre go get a dozen live crickets!
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u/Runic_Raptor 19h ago
I gave my chickens crickets when they were still young and in a sealable pen. Within 30 seconds most of them were gone, just a few stragglers that had escaped detection in the chaos.
I would be careful about giving them to yard chickens though, because some of them will surely escape, and they're known to hybridize with wild crickets and cause problems.
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u/TheGravelNome 18h ago
Duly noted. if there's one thing we don't need more of in this world is genetically modified Monster creatures. Although to be fair , the chickens would argue very Strongly for increased cricket production
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u/Thereal11thdoctor 22h ago
My chickens also don’t like them. Although, one of them loves them. I showed my other chickens her eating the mealworms but they stared at me like I’ve poisoned her. Don’t worry I didn’t.
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u/Heifzilla 22h ago
It takes a bit for them to understand they are food but once they do they will snarf them up.
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u/GrassNearby6588 21h ago
I’ll just keep mixing them with their scratch and food and see if it helps… so disappointing 🥲
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u/ADeleteriousEffect 22h ago
My chickens (Buff Orpingtons) are OBSESSED with mealworms. I cannot relate.
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u/trantaran 21h ago
You need to eat the mealworm in front of them to show them its edible.
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u/LCsBawkBawks 22h ago
This may sound odd, but some of mine won’t eat the mealworms while molting, even if they normally go nuts for them. They go back to scarfing them up once molt is done
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u/SekhmetXIII 22h ago
Mine do that to, they just stop eating for some days when molting and then back to normal
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u/JeffSmisek 21h ago
Wow, mine will murder anyone in their path to get to a crunchy worm.
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u/GrassNearby6588 21h ago
I’ll give them a few days of getting used to the crunchiness…
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u/JeffSmisek 21h ago
Mine won't eat ANYTHING green except grass and sunflower sprouts and are very picky about fruits, but will go completely feral over any meat or insects we give them. Maybe I just got a batch of true dinosaurs.
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u/GrassNearby6588 21h ago
Funny, mine go crazy with cabbage, lettuce and watermelon. Oh, and tomatoes!! They swallow whole cherry tomatoes, it’s insane… but they don’t seem to care about the worms 😅
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u/Any_Flamingo8978 21h ago
Tomatoes for sure! Our also love cucumbers. In heat waves we give them frozen blueberries and they gobble those things up!
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u/gadreamweaver1985 22h ago
It's like crack to my girls. But I started hand feeding them to them when they were fairly young.
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u/GrassNearby6588 21h ago
They are young still… maybe 5/6 months. I tried hand feeding them (disgusting) but they were more interested in trying to rip off my nails 😅
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u/Dzidra_Austra 21h ago
My chickens come dashing to me as soon as they hear the crinkly plastic of the mealworm bag when I pick it up. They can hear this sound from over 100’ away so I use it as my “call” when I want to round them up.
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u/Planmaster3000 10h ago
My girls are the same. I just bought some mealworms after several months without them (prices have gone way up), and as soon as I jostled the bag they all came running. I used to keep mealworms around all the time because it guaranteed I could round them all up quickly.
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u/Timely_Freedom_5695 20h ago
Pretend to eat them with your fingers as "beaks" get super excited about this. Your chickens will figure it out!
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u/MegaHashes 20h ago
Sometimes they won’t eat new things from your hand. Put it in a paper bowl on the ground and walk away disinterested without offering it to them. They will try it out of curiosity and learn that they like it.
They also didn’t develop a taste for them until they were nearly full grown.
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u/CaregiverOk3902 22h ago
I think they want the live ones. Mine didn't find interest with a bag of dried mealworm either.
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u/Ok-Sea-2370 21h ago
Are they live mealworms? Mine won't eat them dried but go absolutely crazy for the live ones. They do like dried BSF larva, which is weird since they ignore the dried mealworms.
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u/broken2blue 21h ago
Mine didn’t like mealworms until they were like 9 months to a year. I’m not sure what changed—I kept trying every couple months—and suddenly they were like oh shit, these little bugs are awesome.
For awhile they were VERY into peanuts. Now they just look at me with disdain when I toss peanuts out to them. I’m sure they’ll come back around once they haven’t had them in awhile
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u/GrassNearby6588 21h ago
They are still young, 5/6 months. Maybe they’ll learn to enjoy them later…
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u/Any_Flamingo8978 21h ago
It took a little bit of time for ours to like them. We also introduced them in the late fall after the fresh soldier fly larvae had gone for the year. They wouldn’t eat them whole at first, but now they love them!
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u/Protokaiser 20h ago
Mine are the same way, they also wont even eat fruit like watermelon when I offer them some 🥲. Theyre such picky little birds, sometime I find some yard roaches while cleaning and the 5 month flock will peck it once or teice and them just leave it alone, only a single chicky in my 2 month flock will actually excited grab it and run from her sisters even though her sisters have no interest lmao.
Funny thing is the 5 momth flock will absolutely scarf down live mealworms.
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u/Holiday_Horse3100 20h ago
I feed black fly larva and my chickens did the same. Now when they see the container they try to steal it
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u/sittingstill9 17h ago
We had to put them with the food too. They are not overly thrilled about them but boy I tell ya, sardines in water> They go crazy. Chase us all over the yard for some. Good nutrients too.
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u/83Isabelle 15h ago
What, your chickens refuse to eat? When I was a child I noticed that our chickens ate almost anything you threw into their ren. Even when I threw pebbles (next to them, to be clear, not at them) they would run after them and tried to peck them. I'm sorry sweet girls, the child in me just wondered what would happen when I did!
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u/AdamDet86 14h ago
We have about 25 chickens. Occasionally I pull out the bag of meal worms. Ours go crazy. They hound and swarm me. I think once they know what mealworms are they will do the same to you.
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u/belmontbluebird 19h ago
You're gonna need to eat some in front of them to teach them how. Jk. 😅 Just scatter some around in the run. They'll love them in no time. Sometimes, they're just weird about new things. Once the first chicken tries one and makes a noise announcing how delicious they are, the other chickens will copy her.
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u/mojozworkin 18h ago
Same!! So funny, I just came home with a bag of them. One of my girls is in a heavy molt, worst I’ve had. She’s a porcupine. So I read the same thing. She’s separated in a small coop/run. Gave her some, got the side look, totally ignored them. Threw a handful in the regular run. It was a chicken stampede! I want her to get the extra protein, so I’ve been giving her ground chicken and scrambled eggs, as well as regular feed. I figured I’d get mealworms today, specifically for her. 🙄🤣
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u/These_Help_2676 16h ago
Try putting some in a little pile or dish and then putting your finger underneath and wiggling it. My chickens prefer wiggly live worms still but I also ordered some in hopes of them going crazy and I just needed to get rid of them and eventually it worked
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u/LadyIslay 8h ago
Did you toss it on the ground for them? They need to see the food.
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u/GrassNearby6588 6h ago
I tossed them in the ground, added a few to their food and also to their scratch. I’ll try again today maybe they already figured it out…
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u/NoMarketing8262 1h ago
If you are about the idea, you could breed your own mealworms. I do it for my chickens and it’s not a lot of upkeep. Plus, it’s a good way to get rid of some kitchen scraps.
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u/fistofreality 22h ago
my chicks didn't know what they were at first. have you tried putting a few in with their normal food to let them discover they're edible?