As a new chicken keeper, there are so many questions you ask yourself that you’ve never thought of before. Can chickens eat worms? Can you feed chickens worms? Are there certain kinds of worms that they shouldn’t eat? We’ve been raising chickens for years and have the definitive answer for you.
Can chickens eat nightcrawlers and red wrigglers? Chickens will eat any worm. When chickens are out free-ranging, they will eat whatever worm comes across their path. Nightcrawlers tend to be deeper underground so they may eat them less often, but that won’t stop your chicken from eating one if they have the opportunity.
Worms aren’t just for fishing anymore! Your chickens will love to eat some worms whether they find them themselves when they’re free-ranging or whether they are given as treats by you. But too many worms can be a bad thing so keep reading to know everything you need when it comes to chickens and worms.
Chickens Love to Eat Any Kind of Worm
Worms are a natural source of protein in a chicken’s diet. Worms provide ample protein for a chicken, with protein representing about 50% of a worm’s dry weight. Whether that worm is a red wriggler or a nightcrawler, the approximate protein amount is the same and chickens will enjoy both delicacies. The kind of worms that you most see chickens eating actually depends more on the behaviors of the worms rather than any taste preference or nutritional difference.
Red wrigglers are composting worms that stay mostly at the surface of the ground. They move back and forth in the soil and up and down but stay at a relatively shallow depth overall. This makes it really easy for chickens to get to red wrigglers while they’re doing their normal day-to-day foraging and scratching. Red wrigglers are technically earthworms but they’re also called redworms and are probably what you think of most when you picture a worm. When you see a chicken eating worms in pictures, this is usually the worm you see.
But nightcrawlers are the most common earthworm and can also be eaten by chickens. They are common sources of fish bait and are larger than the red wrigglers. Chickens will devour these nightcrawlers with pleasure, but they don’t find them quite as often or as readily as red wrigglers. Nightcrawlers spend most of their lives deep in the soil. They move up to the surface and then back deep down but spend most of their time far below the soil surface. This means that chickens are less likely to come across these worms unless they happen to catch them right when they’re coming up for air and to deposit their feces. You can buy nightcrawlers for your compost here and feed excess worms to your chickens as they reproduce.
So chickens can eat both kinds of worms without a problem and when they’re left to forage on their own, they will eat as many as they can find but in the balance of nature, they will not be able to gorge themselves on them. That’s not the case when you are feeding them worms. If you are finding the occasional worm in the garden and throwing them to your chickens, you’re not going to overfeed worms.
Worms are high in protein and chickens need a balance of nutrients in their diets. Adult laying hens need only 16% protein in their diets and overfeeding proteins will result in excess ammonia in their droppings. Unless you’re building a ration for your chickens yourself and not using any commercial feed, there is no reason to think too hard about feeding your chickens “enough” worms. Giving them the occasional treat and letting them forage through compost will provide plenty of snacks for them to enjoy without overfeeding.
What are Common Worms that Chickens Can Eat?
Chickens can eat any kind of worm they come across. Usually, those are red wrigglers (composting worms) or nightcrawlers (also called earthworms or leaf worms). They can also enjoy larvae from any kind of insect and will enjoy mealworms if they are given as a treat.
The type of area you have the chickens in will determine what kinds of worms they find naturally. If you have them in a field, they will find more of the red wrigglers at the surface. If you have them in an area with a lot of compost, leaf cover, or manure, you will end up finding both main types of earthworms but significantly more nightcrawlers than you’d find in a field.
The Difference Between Red Wrigglers and Nightcrawlers
The two types of worms are actually completely different species! Red wrigglers are known by the scientific name Eisenia fetida and are smaller than any species of Nightcrawler. There are three main varieties of Nightcrawlers – Eisenia hortensis (European nightcrawlers), Eudrilus eugeniae (African nightcrawlers), and Lumbricus terrestris (Canadian nightcrawlers). European and African nightcrawlers are most commonly found in composting situations.
Red wrigglers are surface dwellers – they burrow no lower than 18 inches so they are always found on the surface level of the soil. They are not great at aerating because of this, but effectively break down material at the surface. This makes them great for worm bins because they can thrive in confined situations.
Nightcrawlers are deep composters, burrowing up to 7 feet. They come to the surface for air and food and then take it deep into the soil. This makes them great aerators as they bring nutrients deep into the soil and loosen any compaction that’s there.
Nutrition and Worms: Feeding a Balanced Ration to Chickens
You can feed your chickens too many worms! All creatures need a balanced ration of nutrients in order to thrive. Chickens are no exception. They need about 16% protein once they start laying eggs, regardless of whether they are molting or not.
Feeding excess protein to your chickens results in more ammonia secretion in their droppings. Chickens release most of their droppings at night while they are roosting in their coop – which means that all of this excess ammonia ends up in their bedding This extra ammonia can cause respiratory issues, create runoff problems, and if you use the bedding in your garden – result in ammonia burn on your plants, killing them instead of fertilizing them.
If you are throwing some worms randomly to your chickens or letting them pick through a worm-filled scoop of compost occasionally, you won’t throw the protein in their ration out of balance. When chickens forage on their own, they will only be able to get a small number of worms overall in comparison to what else they are finding and eating, so you don’t have to worry about protein intake then, either. The only time you can overfeed your chickens worms is if you are daily giving them lots of worms from a worm bin or dried mealworms. All treats or hand-fed worms should be given in moderation.
Are Mealworms Safe to Feed Chickens with Earthworms?
You can safely give your chickens mealworms as a treat even if they are free-ranging or getting earthworms in other ways. Mealworms are the larvae of a beetle that are often dried and sold as high-protein snacks for chickens. Chickens love mealworms as much as they love all other worms.
You can get mealworms online, at feed stores, or even locally in some areas. Whichever way you acquire them, your chickens will love them. They’ll love them so much, actually, that you may want to give them to them every day all day! Make sure you remember that mealworms and any hand-fed worms are just treats though and should only be given a couple of times per week, at most, in modest amounts.
Are Chickens Vegetarian?
Wait, I thought chickens were vegetarian? Nope! Far from it. Similar to people, chickens are omnivores. They will eat any kind of meat or insect in addition to plants. They love grubs, worms, larvae, their own eggs, and will even eat meat scraps if they find them. They also enjoy many kinds of plants, corn, seeds, and can even eat microscopic fungi and bacteria. If you see that chickens are fed a vegetarian diet on any packaging on meat or eggs at the store, this actually means that the chickens are not able to free-range or access the outdoors and are kept in housing where their only access to food is the grain they are provided.
