Anyone tried DRIED darkling beetle treats for hens?

[urbanutah]

I would leary of paying top dollar for the beetles as nutrient density is likely a lot less than with the larvae and even pupae.

They weren’t expensive thankfully and they are only being added to a breakfast blend that contains quite a bit of high density nutritional ingredients. I just wanted to make sure they were OK to feed as an additional ingredient to add a little more variety. Their breakfast blend contains organic shelled hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, lightly ground flax seed, oats, soldier fly larvae, kelp, grower crumble, herbs, and a host of other ingredients.

 

[centrarchid]

They weren’t expensive thankfully and they are only being added to a breakfast blend that contains quite a bit of high density nutritional ingredients. I just wanted to make sure they were OK to feed as an additional ingredient to add a little more variety. Their breakfast blend contains organic shelled hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, lightly ground flax seed, oats, soldier fly larvae, kelp, grower crumble, herbs, and a host of other ingredients.

They are likely comparable to the Japanese Beetles I have been using. So likely very good. Your mix looks really good based on options so long as ratios OK. What are you using to guide your formulation?

 

[urbanutah]

SURPRISE: Darkling beetles whether wet, dried, alive , or deceased are the adult form of Meal Worms.

I doubt that it matters whether the beetles are alive or dead they still will be infected with whatever internal parasite eggs or other disease organisms that these beetles possessed in life. Feeding dried Darkling Beetles is just another way that the producers of meal worms are able to pawn off their spent female darkling beetles once they have ceased to be productive layers of darkling beetle eggs. Sorry.

The amount of darkling beetles that can live beneath the manure cap in a chicken house filled with meat chickens and their spilled chicken feed is enormous. Darkling Beetles a.k.a. Meal Worms can be grown and harvested from commercial chicken houses in enormous amounts.

Darkling beetles are the NUMBER ONE insect pest in broiler houses in this country. An USDA inspector may get around to visiting any given overseas human organic food producer once in about every 5 to 7 years and even less if the host country will not allow them free access to the places that they wish to visit or see.

Anyone want to give me odds on how often an USDA or FDA inspector visits the Factories that produce Meal Wormies/Darkling Beetles?

Regardless of what some on this web sight may think I am not the crazy one on
BYCdotCOM

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I would completely agree with you. There is frankly very little oversight even here in the United States when it comes to pet products (and next to nothing when it comes to chickens I’m guessing), and pretty much nonexistent overseas. It is cause for some concern, but I do think the high heat used in the processing coupled with long heated dry time likely makes them a lot safer than live beetles. I will definitely report back if I witness anything concerning in my flock after adding these to their breakfast blend.

 

[urbanutah]

They are likely comparable to the Japanese Beetles I have been using. So likely very good. Your mix looks really good based on options so long as ratios OK. What are you using to guide your formulation?

I actually use Lisa Steel’s breakfast of champions layers recipe as the base and add additional items here and there to mix things up a little between batches. The base of the blend is grower crumble, 4-5 pounds of sunflower seeds, a bag of shelled hempseeds and a bucket-full of soldier fly larvae and a full Costco size bag of Quaker Oats. Once the base is in, all the other ingredients are added and I add a few other ingredients to give it a little more variety, hence this thread. They only get a 1 measuring cup scoop to share every morning since I only have six hens. Just seems like a nice way to start their day.

 

[centrarchid]

Have you played around to estimate the crude protein level of mixture based on what the book values are for the respective ingredients?

I use Microsoft Excel to make a crude estimate like programs such as MIXIT do. I also have MIXIT on a computer in lab but have not used it on chicken diets, yet.

 

[urbanutah]

Have you played around to estimate the crude protein level of mixture based on what the book values are for the respective ingredients?

I use Microsoft Excel to make a crude estimate like programs such as MIXIT do. I also have MIXIT on a computer in lab but have not used it on chicken diets, yet.

I haven’t done that. I’d be curious to know. Since they only get one cup of the breakfast blend a day in the morning and their primary diet is a high-quality layer feed I’m not as concerned. If I were trying to mix my own chicken feed that would be a different story and knowing the nutritional analysis would be critical. I don’t give my girls “scratch” so their breakfast blend is their “treat“ for the day.