I am raising all sorts of breeds of laying hens. A few tend to be chattier than others but not overly so and not especially at night. I tend to hear them making a ruckus during egg laying time between 8 and 11 AM. So, I cannot answer your question about noisy chickens but I do have some experience raising meal worms. I ordered several thousand from a grower in North Carolina early this spring. I fed some to my ladies (who love them!) as soon as I received them and let others go through the pupa and then the beetle stage so that I could increase my family of meal worms. As many people have noted, raising meal worms is a project you do not want to undertake unless you have time for them and are not squeamish about touching bugs. My meal worms/beetles live in various sizes and shapes of plastic containers with holes poked in the lid. The beetles do not fly and the worms will not climb out of the container as the sides are too slick. I fill the bottom of the containers with wheat bran (super cheap at the local feed store), toss in the meal worms, a piece of cardboard to provide darkness, an organic carrot or two, and then leave the meal worms be. Every few days I check the carrot and if it looks moldy I remove it and put a fresh one in. Meal worms need the carrot - or some other fruit or veggie such as a celery stick or apple slices - for moisture. I remove dead beetles (they have a particular life span) and feed those to my chickens along with some of the worms. Since I want to grow the worms, I do not feed all of them to my ladies though I am sure they wish I would. About once a month, I sift the beetles and meal worms and pupa and place them in a fresh supply of wheat bran. I keep the 'old' wheat bran as this may contain microscopic eggs/worms. In four months, I have gone through a complete life cycle of the meal worm and now have a zillion meal worms. The great thing about meal worms is if you get tired of raising them, you can just dump the contents of the container in your chicken yard and the chickens will make your 'problem' disappear instantly.
I enjoy raising meal worms and I feel good about providing my laying hens a fresh (live)source of protein as bugs are hard to find in our dry soil here in Northern California. Meal worms do best in a warm environment so I have my plastic containers sitting on a gardening heat mat. If it is too cool, the meal worms will still grow but at a slower rate.
Google 'meal worms' and you will find a myriad of sites that describe the growing process with accompanying photographs. You will also find sellers. Do not buy the giant meal worms as these have been treated and will not become pupa/beetles.
Shirley
25 miles east of San Francisco in Northern California
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, "chamberslake" <lizwest@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone, I am enjoying reading your posts.I got 8 layers in June,
> nothing fancy, the Isa Brown types our local feed store brings in.Wc are
> on acreage in rural British Columbia with a bunch of Canadian horses, a
> couple of black labs, a polydactyl cat and the Henriettas. Anyway the
> pullets settled in and started laying regularly after two weeks. But I
> am curious.....WHY do they make such a racket when they are settling for
> the night??Also, are any of you raising mealworms or any other worm? I
> would like to supplement the layer ration that is available here and
> would certainly appreciate tips from someone who is growing worms. Liz
>
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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