Eating dustbath materials

[ChaosMom]

If they're all active and healthy I wouldn't worry about it. Dust bath substrate always vanishes quickly even if they're not picking at it, as they'll get up with it caked in their feathers and then shake it off all over the place, effectively emptying the spot of whatever material was in it.

I hadn’t thought of the dust bath material leaving via their feathers, but that makes sense. It’s amazing how much dirt they load up in their feathers!

(The Buff Orp is Very Into dust/dirt baths

 

[redinator]

I have offered them the dried meal worms and larvae. They refuse to eat them. They love live insects. Perhaps I can find a store that sells live insects for them.

Mine were the same way until I hid them in the bedding and they had to work for them. Also mealworms are high in fat, or so I was told, so use them sparingly as treats or to get them to cooperate when you need them to go in a coop/run and they're being stubborn.

 

[ChaosMom]

Mine were the same way until I hid them in the bedding and they had to work for them. Also mealworms are high in fat, or so I was told, so use them sparingly as treats or to get them to cooperate when you need them to go in a coop/run and they're being stubborn.

If you do deep litter in your run, tossing them around helps promote the chickens digging and fluffing up the litter.

I’ve had some mealworms and maggots - excuse me, soldier fly larvae - that have smelled a bit over-baked to me, and they were ignored at first. But I did see the girls digging them up and eating them in subsequent days.

If you have the stomach for it, I’m sure they’d prefer live.

 

[redinator]

If you do deep litter in your run, tossing them around helps promote the chickens digging and fluffing up the litter.

I’ve had some mealworms and maggots - excuse me, soldier fly larvae - that have smelled a bit over-baked to me, and they were ignored at first. But I did see the girls digging them up and eating them in subsequent days.

If you have the stomach for it, I’m sure they’d prefer live.

I have enough trouble handling the dried ones, lol. Oddly enough I tossed a few worms in the run I dug up from gardening and they ran from them. I left them to figure it out for themselves. My poor brooder babies are wimps (like their mother ), lol.

Edited for typos