dehydrating japanese beetles and feeding them to my girls

[cfreidma]

Hello friends. I have LOTS of Japanese beetles. I started trapping them.
The first batch I roasted on the outside grill in a baking sheet and have been feeding these to my chicks. They like them. Now I'm freezing them for the interim. I thought of starting to dehydrate them. I was wondering if any of you homesteaders know how long to dehydrate them or if you are doing anything similar with beetles. I plan on using them instead of mealy worms to save money. Thanks

 

[paneubert]

From my experience dehydrating foods, you will want to make sure you pierce or somehow otherwise cut them so the moisture can escape. Otherwise you are just going to slowly cook them and never actually dry them out. I don't know about your dehydrator, but mine only goes up to about 160 degrees.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would not want to use my food dehydrator to dry bugs. I would simply enjoy the bounty while it lasts.

 

[centrarchid]

I would not want to use my food dehydrator to dry bugs. I would simply enjoy the bounty while it lasts.

Feed as collected or freeze. The fats they contain do not dry well for storage.