Best Chicken Treats 2026: Mealworms, Grubs & Flock Blocks Compared

Quick Answer: The best all-round chicken treat for 2026 is Grubbly Farms Grubblies — oven-dried black soldier fly grubs with about 50× more calcium than mealworms and roughly 34% protein, so they build strong eggshells and glossy feathers instead of just adding empty calories. For the classic protein boost during the fall molt, Happy Hen Mealworm Frenzy dried mealworms are the pick; for foraging and flavor variety, a grain medley like Manna Pro Harvest Delight works well. Whatever you offer, keep to the 90/10 rule — treats no more than about 10% of the daily diet, complete feed the other 90% — and always provide grit so birds can digest them.

Treats are how you turn skittish birds into a flock that comes running when you step outside — but the wrong ones, or too many, quietly wreck egg quality. We compared the best chicken treats of 2026 on protein, calcium, ingredient quality, and value, from high-calcium grubs and molt-season mealworms to a winter boredom-buster block, so you can spoil your hens without unbalancing their diet.

Our top picks at a glance

Chicken treats by the numbers

• The 90/10 rule caps treats at about 10% of the diet. Poultry-extension and long-standing keeper guidance is that complete feed should make up at least 90% of daily intake, with treats no more than 10% — otherwise you dilute the balanced nutrition that drives laying and shell strength.
• Black soldier fly grubs carry roughly 50× the calcium of mealworms. According to Grubbly Farms, their oven-dried grubs deliver about 34% protein and 50 times more calcium than dried mealworms — the reason grubs beat mealworms as an everyday laying-hen treat.
• Mealworms are the protein king at about 50%. Comparison data cited by Grubbly Farms puts dried mealworms near 50% protein versus roughly 40% for black soldier fly grubs, which is why mealworms shine during the molt.
• Feathers are about 85% protein, so molt demands more. Because feathers are largely keratin (~85% protein), keepers commonly raise protein during the fall molt with mealworm or grub treats to speed feather regrowth.

1. Grubbly Farms Grubblies — Best Overall Chicken Treat

If you buy one treat for your flock, make it grubs. Grubbly Farms Grubblies are oven-dried black soldier fly larvae, and their standout feature is calcium: about 50 times more than dried mealworms, which directly supports the strong eggshells layer hens need. They still deliver roughly 34% protein for glossy feathers and molt recovery, but unlike a plain protein snack they add the mineral your hens are constantly spending on eggs. The grubs are raised to strict standards in the US and Canada — a real advantage over the many mealworm products imported from countries with looser controls — and they’re free of sprays and additives. With thousands of five-star reviews, they’re the treat we’d hand-feed daily to tame a flock while doing their eggshells a favor.

2. Happy Hen Mealworm Frenzy — Best for Molt & Protein

When your hens hit the autumn molt and look half-plucked, mealworms are the classic fix, and Happy Hen’s Mealworm Frenzy is a reliable, well-loved option. At about 50% protein — the highest of any treat here — dried mealworms give molting birds the raw material to rebuild feathers, which are roughly 85% protein. They’re also the single most effective bonding treat we know: shake the bag and even skittish birds will eat from your hand within a week. The trade-off versus grubs is calcium — mealworms have very little — so treat these as a seasonal protein boost and a taming tool rather than the everyday choice for laying hens. Keep portions to a tablespoon or two per bird and you’ll get all the upside.

3. Manna Pro Harvest Delight — Best Treat Medley

Chickens are natural foragers, and a varied medley like Manna Pro’s Harvest Delight taps into that instinct better than any single ingredient. It blends grains, seeds, and dried fruit into a treat you scatter across the run so the whole flock scratches, pecks, and hunts — great enrichment for confined birds and a good way to ease pecking-order squabbles by spreading everyone out. It’s lower in protein than grubs or mealworms and isn’t a nutritional powerhouse, so think of it as entertainment and reward rather than a molt supplement. But for keeping a flock busy and content, especially in a covered run, a scatter-and-forage medley is one of the most useful treats you can keep on hand.

4. Purina Farm to Flock Hen Treats — Best Everyday Treat

If you want a treat you can reach for every day without fretting over the diet math, Purina’s Farm to Flock hen treats are the sensible middle ground. Purina built these baked nuggets specifically as a treat for laying hens, so at about 18% protein and with no artificial flavors or preservatives they’re gentler on the 90/10 balance than pure mealworms or sugary scratch. The pieces are uniform and low-mess, which makes them ideal for hand-feeding, clicker-style training, or luring birds into the coop at dusk. They won’t match grubs on calcium or mealworms on peak protein, but as the treat you use most often — the daily bonding snack — a purpose-made hen treat is the smart everyday pick.

5. Purina Flock Block — Best Boredom Buster

Winter confinement and cooped-up boredom are when flocks turn on each other — feather picking, bullying, and worse. A pecking block like Purina’s Flock Block is the standard remedy: a dense, 25-pound brick of grains and seeds that gives bored hens a job for hours a day and often lasts weeks. It even folds in oyster shell and grit, so birds pick up a little calcium and digestive support while they work at it. The protein is modest, around 9%, so this isn’t a nutrition play — it’s enrichment and behavior management for snowbound or predator-confined flocks. Set one out when bad weather keeps everyone inside the run and you’ll see a noticeably calmer, less destructive flock. Pair it with a covered chicken run and winter management gets a lot easier.

6. Scratch and Peck Cluckin’ Good Scratch — Best Scratch Grains

Scratch grains are the oldest chicken treat there is, and Scratch and Peck’s Cluckin’ Good line is a quality take on the classic. It’s a whole-grain blend — cracked corn, wheat, barley — that you toss on the ground to trigger the scratching-and-pecking behavior chickens are built for, with certified-organic and non-GMO options for keepers who care about ingredient sourcing. Nutritionally scratch is a carbohydrate treat, not a protein source, so it counts squarely against your 10% treat allowance and shouldn’t replace feed. But it’s cheap, birds love it, and a light scatter is the easiest way to keep a flock busy or herd them back into the run. In cold weather a small evening handful also gives birds something to burn overnight.

How to choose (and use) chicken treats

Treats are simple to get right if you follow a few rules:

• Stick to the 90/10 rule. Complete feed should be at least 90% of the diet; treats no more than about 10%. In practice that’s a tablespoon or two of grubs or mealworms per hen, or a light scatter of scratch — not a full scoop.
• Match the treat to the season. Grubs make the best everyday, calcium-rich choice for layers; mealworms are the molt-season protein boost; scratch and blocks earn their keep in winter for warmth and boredom.
• Choose calcium for layers. Because hens spend calcium on every egg, a high-calcium grub treat does more good day to day than a low-calcium mealworm.
• Always offer grit. Any treat that isn’t a complete crumble needs grit so birds can grind it in the gizzard. Keep grit — and, separately, oyster shell — out free-choice.
• Mind the sourcing. Many dried mealworms are imported under loose standards; US- and Canada-raised grubs and clean-label scratch are worth the small premium.
• Know the no-go list. Skip raw/dried beans, avocado, chocolate, caffeine, anything moldy, green potato, and salty or sugary human food.

Treats work best alongside the right basics. Build the diet on a good layer feed, keep chicks on treats only with grit once they leave the brooder, support molting birds with extra protein and a chicken saddle for bare-backed hens, and dispense everyday feed cleanly from an automatic feeder so treats stay the special part of the day.

The bottom line

For most backyard flocks, Grubbly Farms Grubblies are the best chicken treat to buy — black soldier fly grubs with roughly 50× the calcium of mealworms and about 34% protein, so they build strong shells and feathers instead of empty calories. Keep Happy Hen Mealworm Frenzy on hand for the fall molt and for taming skittish birds, use a Manna Pro Harvest Delight medley or Scratch and Peck scratch to trigger foraging, reach for a Purina Flock Block when winter keeps the flock cooped up, and make Purina Farm to Flock your gentle everyday bonding treat. Whatever you offer, hold to the 90/10 rule, keep grit out free-choice, and let complete feed do the heavy lifting.

Check the Grubbly Farms Grubblies price on Amazon →