Feeding advice for bantams (one broody, one moulting)

[Christian]

When my nephew comes round, the first thing he says is "can we feed the girls worms"?

 

Think I might look into breeding my own!

[The Dogmother]

When my nephew comes round, the first thing he says is "can we feed the girls worms"?

 

Think I might look into breeding my own!

 

Children or worms, Hon?

[Olly]

I was really keen on reading this thread ... till I realised you'd have to have beetles In my ignorance, I just thought mealworms ... umm, well I'm not quite sure where I thought the new mealworms came from actually, but beetles didn't feature in my ideas!

 

I will stick to buying the dried ones. I can imagine the cat would be delighted to find a pot of beetles to play with!

[The Dogmother]

I don't think the dried ones have much nutritional value Olly they're just dried shells. The lives ones are packed with protein though.. if you can bear to use the wrigglers, I'd got with them, or use something like chick crumbs to give them extra protein, although they don't seem to get as much enjoyment out of pecking up crumbs as they do with grabing the worms

[Olly]

I only use them as bribes, to be honest I didn't consider nutritional value! It's my surefire way of getting them back in the run without too much flapping and chasing around.

[The Dogmother]

Ahh, I see.

[little chickadee]

They seem to have reacted well to the warmth of the house and a lot have shed their skins (like snakes) which means they are growing. A couple have turned white, which may mean they are turning in the pupae. Have kept one in the process of shedding skin in a separate tub for 6 yr old to see when he gets home from school !

I'm absolutley fascinated ! Cheaper than getting those butterfly kids even if it's just for educational value! Husband is still grossed out but very obliging (it was his idea to get the chickens, but I'm far more interested than him now we've got them!)

[little chickadee]

Update - the ones which turned white were actually just how they look when they have just shed their skins. I seperated them off and they gradually changed brown again as their new exoskeleton hardened.

We have, however got two pupae today

 

 

(This isn't my picture, I couldn't get the camera to focus properly, but they look just like this!)

They should stay like this for about a week (although they can take up to 3 months if it's cold, but we're keeping them in a warm place to accelerate the life cycle)

 

We also "cleaned them out" today on the insistance of my 6 yr old. This was basically sieving the mealworms and food so that the poo dropped through. (dont' worry, we've set aside a seperate sieve which we're keeping with all our animal stuff!)

 

My son is very excited about them becoming beetles and is going to take in one of each stage of the life cycle to school when we have a beetle. They are looking at life cycles in his class at the moment, so it fits in really well.

[Goosey Lucy]

I'm fascinated by this, keep up the updates. I daren't tell my OH about this as he might be a little negative but the two boys would be very excited I'm sure.

[little chickadee]

will do goosey lucy. Try selling it to OH on the merit of an educational experiment with the benefit that the worms magically turn into eggs!

My son is so excited by the whole process

[Goosey Lucy]

He's only just coming to terms with how the eggs get out of the chicken! Educating about how wrigglers turn into eggs might just tip the balance! It might also send the MIL completely over the edge. They never had any pets as kids apart from one goldfish that died. Our cat and hens, beloved as they are as pets are also IMO a way of learning what life, and consequently death, is all about.

However he travels a lot and may come home one day to find a farm in the spare bedroom

[little chickadee]

The "farm" doesn't take up much room Goosey Lucy, just 3 ice cream type tubs (I might get some stackable tubs to save room actually!)

We've got 8 larvae today - my son (who always gets up ridiculously early) apparently wanted to bring them up to my bedroom to show me this morning he was so excited! "Bring on the beetles" he thinks (they aren't very big by the way and they can't fly, so shouldn't be too yucky - I think they die pretty quickly after they have done their job!!!

[little chickadee]

17 pupae this morning and I have managed to work out what they look like just before they do their final skin shed as a grub (worm) before they turn into a pupa. I separated some of these off last night and some of them were pupae this morning.

Here's a picture of the grubs (worms) just about to shed and become pupae. They go very still and curve slightly. These are on the left, the pupae in the middle and some shed skins on the right. I've included a 2p piece in the photo for a sense of scale. I thought the pupae would be bigger than this.

 

[little chickadee]

No beetles yet, but the older larvae seem to be a darker colour now. A few new ones this morning. It's really helping a reluctant 6yr old to count above 20! Highly recommended as an educational tool. His teacher has said that he can take in one of each stage of the life cycle for his class to see when we have a beetle, as long as we make sure they can't escape!!!

[little chickadee]

No beetles yet but am expected some of the pupae to turn into beetles over the next few days (I think it's been a week tomorrow since we got our first pupa and it takes 7 - 10 days to turn into a beetle if they are warrm)

 

We've cleaned out the mealworms again (by sieving them to get the poo out) and there doesn't seem to be any smell like has been reported by other forum members. I think you just need to keep them clean and separate them out at all the different stages of the life cycle.

 

Watch this space for the beetles !!!!!!

[Couperman]

Watch this space for the beetles !!!!!!

 

And Seargent Pepper!

 

Kev

[Helly Welly]

Mine are doing well too, i have about 20 pupae. No smells either and i've only sieved them the once so far. They are nowhere near as creepy as they were at first, you soon get used to it. Abi ( is looking forward to seeing the beetles and is fascinated by the idea that they'll "mate". She wants to see how they actually go about it

[The Dogmother]

You're lucky she's not a boy Helly - they'd just want to see them eat each other

[little chickadee]

My 8yr old is very interested int the facts of life at the moment actually, so she will probably be watching avidly too!!

[little chickadee]

Still no beetles, although some of the pupae have gone a dark brown colour. Hopefully this means that they are just about to turn into beetles, not that they have died and are starting to rot!!!

Chickens are still enjoying the batch we saved for them. I think it might be a while before we're self sufficient!

[Martin B]

Strange, but interesting.

[Helly Welly]

I'm the same Chickadee, although i must have about 70 pupae, about half of which are dark brown.

[Helly Welly]

123 pupae now and still no beetles!!

 

Some of the mealworms made the ultimate sacrifice today and were given to Korma to help get her appetite back.

[little chickadee]

I have a beetle!!!!! It was waiting for us when we got back from a family wedding. I'll post a picture tomorrow as the light is not good enough today. I thought it would never happen!!

Loads and loads of new pupae waiting for us too. The beetle is not tha t big and a kind of light brown orangey colour. My son is completely delighted!

[Goosey Lucy]

Fab news, I'm looking forward to seeing the photo tomorrow. I'm still thinking about doing this myself...