BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[mikeldb]

No love bugs are all over the south, but agreed no cicadas this year, but they don't hatch every year either and I've only seem a hand full of June bugs so far

 

[ronott1]

I've only seen love bugs in Florida, they completely covered our vehicle in seconds, could barely see.
We have black gnats and no-see-ums, they're smaller and god awful, could drive a person to insanity. Usually only bother you in the woods. Turkey hunting in May and both will eat you alive.

No cicadas here, I was tossing them some fat June bugs I was uncovering working in the garden though.

Here in Woodland we have clay soil that they love. They are here from Spring until the temperature goes over 100.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

We have all of them, but the worst by far are the deerflies. Foruntately we don't have the clouds of blackflies where we live like they do in Northern Ontario, and even the mosquitoes are tolerable, but the deerflies make life hell for horses, cattle and black dogs, and people. If you aren't moving, they aren't bad but as soon as you go for a walk, they attack. The only solution is to stay deep in the woods. Repellants aren't very effective, the only thing I've tried that seems to work (for a short time, it doesn't stop them from flying around your head but they don't land) is a mixture of essential oils that I've put together. Those stickers that you put on the back of your hat will catch some of them .
Some areas of the country are intolerable because of the biting flies- blackflies, mosquitoes, deerflies, horseflies- depending on where you live. There's even a folk song that's been written about blackflies in Ontario:

They don't seem to bother the chickens, the blackflies and mosquitoes will bite the chicken's combs though. I have put mosquito screening in my coop, I'm sure being harassed by biting flies will lower egg production.
Blasted deerflies ruin every summer, they come out at the end of May, peak in July and are thankfully mostly gone by the end of August. Fall is the most productive time of year for me, last year was fabulous, we had a very long warm fall and a short winter.

 

[Beer can]

I was just reading in National Geographic, grizzly bears in Yellowstone get half their calories for the yr in one month eating around 40,000 high fat army cutworm miller moths every day. 20,000 fat calories a day from moths in the month of August. Pretty funny, giant grizzly's in Yellowstone's most major calorie food source for the year is moths Lol.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I'm looking into raising black soldier fly larvae for my chickens. I've found a supplier, I just have to figure out how and where I'll do it. Apparently mealworms, even cultivated ones, can be a source of botulism for chickens so I've stopped feeding them.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I'm looking into raising black soldier fly larvae for my chickens. I've found a supplier, I just have to figure out how and where I'll do it. Apparently mealworms, even cultivated ones, can be a source of botulism for chickens so I've stopped feeding them.

I keep wanting to try this. As I'm still relatively early in my chicken-keeping journey, I hesitate to take on a new complexity. But I'd like to take a look at this once other aspects of the chicken math experience settle down (i.e., when I am not constantly in a rush to build more housing). So please post as you explore - I'll be reading along...

- Ant Farm

 

[mikeldb]

I keep wanting to try this. As I'm still relatively early in my chicken-keeping journey, I hesitate to take on a new complexity. But I'd like to take a look at this once other aspects of the chicken math experience settle down (i.e., when I am not constantly in a rush to build more housing).  So please post as you explore - I'll be reading along...



- Ant Farm 

you can always try raising crickets too they are easy just throw in old egg cartons

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I keep wanting to try this. As I'm still relatively early in my chicken-keeping journey, I hesitate to take on a new complexity. But I'd like to take a look at this once other aspects of the chicken math experience settle down (i.e., when I am not constantly in a rush to build more housing). So please post as you explore - I'll be reading along...

- Ant Farm

Will do! I plan to order some for delivery for the week after next, and if the chickens like them I'll take it from there.

 

[Beer can]

I hear crickets are noisy and stink, some like raising dubia for their chickens.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:

I hear crickets are noisy and stink, some like raising dubia for their chickens.

Yeah, I read about crickets, ruled them out, then read about dubia, then ruled them out (as too much work). The black soldier flies seemed to be a bit easier if you can manage to set they system up right at the start...

Honestly, my chickens are already getting lots of bugs just in their roaming around on the ground, so it is probably overkill for me (as it doesn't freeze in my climate, so there's no winter to tide them through, etc.). But it's interesting to think of using BSL as taking materials that you might not otherwise want to put straight into the compost pile or feed directly to chickens and converting that stuff to a chicken consumable protein source. I think I am more interested in the waste stream diversion aspects of it... (And the sustainability in general)

- Ant Farm