how many mealworms would a chicken need on daily basis and do u give them evryday

[saritak]

thank u for welcoming me.
a friend has 100 chickens and want to feed them mealworms - how many would u need for each chicken and would u feed them everyday.
how many worms would you need to start off.
please help.
thank u. god bless
saritak

 

[azygous]

Meal worms are 50% protein. But they aren't very big. The trouble is that it would take an awful lot of them to meet the nutritional needs of a chicken. If you buy them, at around $8 per 100, which is what I paid for my first worms a few years ago, you're talking about a huge expense. If you raise them yourself, it's going to take a large colony to feed your flock.

Most all chicken keepers provide meal worms strictly as a treat.

 

[Shalom Farm]

These are pretty much fed as a treat only.

Supplying all of then's protein through mealworms would probably equal about 100 small-medium worms each.
As a treat? Just a few will do. Probably about 3-5 worms per hen, so your friend would do good to raise his own.

Dried mealworms I just scatter about until each chicken has gobbled up a few. So if they are looking to buy it, not raise it, that is a pretty good method for treats.

If however, you friend wants to use them for a source of protein, then using cheap cuts of meats from the butcher/grocer would be cheaper in the long run. Even cheap canned meats will do. I'd say no more than 1oz. of meat per hen (with the fat, do not have it trimmed). Alternating between sources of animal and plant proteins is good. Duckweed and soy would be a good substitute. Duckweed can be grown in a kiddie pool.

 

[chickencoop789]

I think that feeding regular chicken feed would be easier (and probably less expensive) than trying to make up a chicken's daily diet with just mealworms. But they are great to feed as a treat!

 

[sueblack]

To provide enough mealworms for that many chickens I suggest starting out with as many worms as you can afford to buy. 5000 minimum. It will take about 3 months for them to complete a life cycle before you will have any to feed to your chickens. As long as you save enough worms each week to pupate and start the cycle over you should never run out of worms.

 

[Fisher-M]

can you feed baby chicks and mama mealworms every day

 

[paneubert]

can you feed baby chicks and mama mealworms every day

The mom yes. The babies yes, but only if you are providing them chick grit so they can process the worms. And you would not want to give them more than one worm......some people will even say "no" completely since the chicks should be eating chick starter/grower and not eating a ton of treats like worms.