Crickets - What limits?

[lmterp]

My girls are turning 1 and I'm thinking of a special treat. So far they have never had crickets, but my sense is they will LOVE them! The package I'm thinking of getting is about 500 of them. My husband is suggesting we feed them a portion, and use the others to breed our own crickets. I know they would potentially have an unlimited supply if they're free ranging. But in the run, how many could I safely feed them/day?

 

[tigger19687]

I would go with meal worms.
They love them ! but not too much.

 

[NatJ]

My girls are turning 1 and I'm thinking of a special treat. So far they have never had crickets, but my sense is they will LOVE them! The package I'm thinking of getting is about 500 of them. My husband is suggesting we feed them a portion, and use the others to breed our own crickets. I know they would potentially have an unlimited supply if they're free ranging. But in the run, how many could I safely feed them/day?

A common suggestion is to limit treats to 10% of the chickens' food intake for the day.

So if you measure how much feed they eat each day (just count scoops as you refill the feeder, and count how many days it lasts), then you could measure one tenth of a day's worth of crickets. Of course the crickets won't be as dense as the food, so you might be able to feed the chickens a little more than that, but at least it's a starting place for figuring how many.

Or you could decide that one day a year it won't matter, and just keep offering crickets until the chickens quit eating them or you run out of crickets. (Some risk of digestive upset, if they aren't used to eating crickets, but probably not too bad.)

 

[tigger19687]

Oh also, if you go with the mealworms, toss a big handful in a hay pile or shavings pile. They will have a ball digging for them

 

[cmobley]

Theyll love crickets I get them all the time at the bait shop I get about 500 or so and do 2 separate feedings its a blast to watch em chase em around the yard. Another thing they love is perch and bass shiners id dump them in my pool for the ducks and whatever the ducks knocked out the chickens were there to snatch them up. You can't go wrong with crickets you'll love it.

 

[Cecisflock]

ohh that's sooo fun!!