The chickens are still molting, I wrote about that earlier this month. No eggs, but the girls are finally getting some of their feathers back. Oh, and the morning noises are getting louder. Hopefully the eggs will follow soon.
In the meantime, I ordered a box of 5,000 mealworms to crank up the protein in their diet. The kids, who are surprisingly cool about lots of my animal experiments, are totally grossed out by the box of mealworms in the house. To keep the chickens in mealworms, I was planning on growing my own, but without the enthusiasm of the kids, this project might be abandoned.
The chickens LOVE mealworms. It is hard to express the joy they demonstrate when I arrive with the plate of worms each morning. They jostle for position and dig right in to snatch the best specimens. The chickens make cute little eating sounds, but then they give me sad faces when the worms are gone and scratch the fence around the run, to indicate they would like more, please.
So, if I can figure out how to grow the mealworms without offending the rest of the family, I think it would make an excellent treat for the girls and we would save money by not having to purchase so much of the regular layer pellets.
On the other hand, mealworms are also ideal for human diets. Maybe we can start a new trend, grow-your-own protein. Anyone wanna join me for Mealworm Canapes or Mealworm Cookies? LMK!
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2 Comments
Twitter: houseofannie
I think you really should learn about growing your own mealworms. Then teach the rest of us how to do it!
Nate @ House of Anni´s last [type] ..Fetching Bride at Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Penang
Twitter: kitchengirl
Take one for the team, so to speak
So far, the worms are in a box and I feed them pieces of apple and oatmeal whenever I remember. None have started to cocoon, so I am not sure if I am doing everything right. Maybe the process is so quick, I just miss it!