ME: Oh girls! I have a surprise for you!
HENS: Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! What is it, Mom?
ME: Come closer. Let's take a look.
HENS: Wait for us!
NUTMEG: Hurry up already. The suspense is killing me!
ME: Well, what do you know? It's the dried mealworms I ordered just for you!
HENS: Mealworms? What the heck are mealworms?
GEORGE: Yeah, what the heck are mealworms? Can I eat them?
ME: No, George, not for you. These are special treats for the girls. C'mon girls.
HENS: Hey mom, these mealworms are DELICIOUS! Can we have some more?
ME: Sorry, girls. These are expensive treats, so you can't have them very often.
We will have to treat them as a delicacy.
NUTMEG: Yeah, right. Just for that, I think we'll have to declare our precious eggs a delicacy for you!
I bought the mealworms at www.mealwormsbythepound.com. And, I wasn't kidding about the price. They were $25 per pound! About mealworms, the website says,
"We highly recommend mealworms for chickens. Chickens go wild for both dried and live mealworms. Dried mealworms are recommended for people who enjoy watching chickens eat out of their hands and are much more affordable than live. Chickens really seem to be able to distinguish mealworms from regular feed and will come running when they see you coming with a familiar bag of dried mealworms."
Now, I ask you...who could deny themselves and their chickens such extreme pleasure?
I know it is possible to raise my own mealworms, but the thought of my hens eating live, squiggly worms gives me the willies. Until I get brave enough or broke enough, does anyone know of a less expensive source for dried mealworms?
7 comments:
OMG this is so awesome....you have actually inspired me because I keep talking to my husband about keeping our own chickens. I live in the Bronx and when you saw a chicken in the street (yes u do from time to time) it was assumed it escaped a cock-fighting ring or being a sacrifice of some sort but many people now keep chickens for FAR LESS nefarious reasons...and am becoming inspired by you to keep the chickens. Good luck in finding cheaper MealWorms : )
I grow my own mealworms, in fact on the 4th generation now. And you are right, the girls and the wild birds love them.
Easy to grow, just get some live worms (I searched on the internet, think I paid $20 for 1,000) Put them in a plastic box, no lid required, with some wheat bran, paper over the top and you have mealworms. Want more info email me at foxfiredmk@yahoo.com. Fun to grow, and you only have to pay for them once.
PawPurry....chickens are great and they are addictive! I love my chickens. Lots of folks have chickens in the city, so check your local ordinances. Usually you can have "x" number of hens and no roosters, for obvious reasons. I say you should go for it! Keep me posted.
Anonymous...welcome to my blog and thanks for the great tip. For some reason, it is less icky to me to feed my hens dried mealworms than it is to feed live, but I know how crazy they go over the live ones. Guess I will have to bite the bullet and try raising my own. Definitely more cost effective!
I don't have any alternate dried mealworm resources, but this is awesome!!!
Doesn't it do your heart good when you find things your children love? :D
Justina....yes, it does!
we just saw a show where they were making a rice dish out of meal worms as the main protein component - i couldn't help but think of that when i saw your bag of worms!
Daune...all I can say to that is EEEWWW!
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