Crickets and worms

[Perry17]

Hey guys! This post is mostly just out of curiosity. Would love to know yalls thoughts.

I feed my flock regular layer pellets, every now and then maybe some food scraps or worms off my garden plants. I'm not planning on changing anytime soon, just curious.

But I have always wondered why people don't grow their own crickets, worms, or meal worms to supplement their chickens? I know reptile owners or fisherman raise them for bait of feed. And with the right setup, they reproduce like crazy. I'm assuming on a larger scale, you would have plenty. And they are easy to raise.

I love the alternative feed types (can't back them up, since I haven't tried them or know much about them) like fodder, fermented, vegetable/food scraps, etc. Even watched a video of a farm that feeds chickens totally off huge compost piles.

I know there are all the nutrition plans to work out to make it realistic. But I like the thought of being able to feed from things produced at home. Crickets, worms, meal worms, garden bugs, vegetables and fruit grown. I know it's probably more work then what you actually get out of it, but it is something to think about.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

I raise mealworms. I have a 3 drawer cabinet that sits in my dining room under our Berkey. No one knows what's in it!! muah haa haaaaaa

 

[theuglychick]

Hey guys! This post is mostly just out of curiosity. Would love to know yalls thoughts.

I feed my flock regular layer pellets, every now and then maybe some food scraps or worms off my garden plants. I'm not planning on changing anytime soon, just curious.

But I have always wondered why people don't grow their own crickets, worms, or meal worms to supplement their chickens? I know reptile owners or fisherman raise them for bait of feed. And with the right setup, they reproduce like crazy. I'm assuming on a larger scale, you would have plenty. And they are easy to raise.

I love the alternative feed types (can't back them up, since I haven't tried them or know much about them) like fodder, fermented, vegetable/food scraps, etc. Even watched a video of a farm that feeds chickens totally off huge compost piles.

I know there are all the nutrition plans to work out to make it realistic. But I like the thought of being able to feed from things produced at home. Crickets, worms, meal worms, garden bugs, vegetables and fruit grown. I know it's probably more work then what you actually get out of it, but it is something to think about.

A few of us actually do this. There are several of us who grow things such as mealworms to supplement our chickens diets.

I've started mealworm farming this year and next year I will add crickets. My birds love them!

I have 30ish birds on the ground right now and they're such excellent foragers that an 80# bag of feed last me FOREVER! almost a month, sometimes longer.

The biddies are a different story and one of the main reasons I've decided to get into mealworms and eventually crickets. I'd like to supplement and save $ on the feed bill which goes mostly to grower food.

 

[RonP]

Yes, there are many threads discussing exactly what you ask.