Dried Mealworms are one of the chicken’s favorite foods. They absolutely love the thought of eating mealworms so much, that only with a simple shake of the bag your flock will come running from every corner of your yard.
Feeding your chicken with dried mealworms should depend only on the supplier. Higher quality dried mealworms are more expensive but generally better in terms of health. In this article, we are going to give you a few reasons as to why you should feed your flock mealworms.
Reason 1: It Helps You Train Your Birds
Much like dogs, chicken reacts positively when fed dried mealworms. You can use dried mealworms to your advantage in order to lure rebellious, teenage chicken back into the coop. There have been other instanced where farmers would teach hens how to run an obstacle course, and reward them with mealworms after they complete it. This can help you train your birds so that they respond positively to your commands knowing that they will be rewarded at the end. This means no more chasing around the yard.
Reason 2: It’s Good For Their Feathers
The time of the molt is the best time to feed your chicken dried mealworms because during that period they lose a lot of proteins. As might suspect, dried mealworms are rich in protein because, well, worms are full of them. Although they lose protein, it’s not that dangerous for a bird to go protein-free for a period of time. But a good amount of protein is good for the feathers. There are many places where you can find dried mealworms for sale, so make sure to get some for your hens.
Reason 3: They’re Good for Their Health
As we mentioned, dried mealworms are rich in protein and that’s exactly what they need if they are left damaged from a predator attack, or recovering from some sort of infection. Protein helps heal the damaged tissue and helps in the recovery of infections so a teaspoon a day should be sufficient enough. However, the only exception is in the case of damaged organs such as kidneys, in this case, you need to keep the protein at 16 to 18% layer feed.
Reason 4: A Simple Treat
Hens are no different to us in a way that we all like to be spoiled from time to time. After all, don’t they deserve some sort of reward for giving us beautifully healthy eggs?
But beware to not spoil them too much, as hens can get really iffy about stuff. A beakful a day should be more than enough to show your appreciation towards your hens.
Reason 5: It Keeps Them Active
Have you ever told your kids to clean their room before they can eat? Well, you can do the same thing with your hens. Throw them (not literally) back into the coop and make them work for the treat. They will then start to peck every corner of the coop in the case they missed some, effectively keep it clean and well organized. By doing this, you will keep them busy and occupied for a long time. Simply scatter two hands of dried mealworms around the chicken coop and watch as they peck everything off the ground.
