DH had an idea re: Protein

[afj6710]

Right now, all of our chickens are staying in the coop full time until they get a little bigger, then they'll go out in the run during the day. Chicken feed is $$$$ so we're trying to supplement them as much as possible from our kitchen and garden. But, I know they need more protein so I've been scavenging for bugs.

DH had an idea that we should hang a small bowl from the top of the coop with a small amount of old fruit/veggies in it. The flies will lay their eggs in the cup, then the maggots will come raining down for the chickens to eat.

Aside from being really gross, does that sound workable/ok to do?

 

[Oregon Blues]

Some people do that with road kill. All I can say is Yuck.

 

[tommboy1973]

I would like to try that myself. I bet rotting fruits and veggies will smell a whole lot better than roadkill!!

 

[AccentOnHakes]

How about raising your own mealworms?

 

[hcppam]

get some meal worms started, buy a hundered and let them breed

 

[ChickenAl]

I've heard that fly maggots are nasty for chickens because of the carrion and poop they eat. Black Soldier Fly larvae are good and do not carry disease. Mealworms are great too. I would not feel real comfortable with the run of the mill fly maggots.

 

[AlbionWood]

Probably not dangerous with fruit, but with meat there is a real risk of botulism poisoning ("limberneck"). I read a fellow's account where he tried it and lost a few birds... there goes your savings. Chicken feed seems expensive until you compare it to the cost of sick or dying chickens.

 

[rancher hicks]

I've seen this before and read about it. One person who advocated this in a magazine later changed his mind after learning they can carry disease.

Please folks understand that our chickens are "domesticated" . This means that what their ancestors ate in the wild are no longer good for them. Sure they'll eat it but that doesn't mean it's healthy for them or you.

The hardiness of the breed may not be what you hope it is and you could end up with sick birds. In which case you haven't saved anything.

Now if you need the eggs consider keeping one of the "hybrid" breeds. They lay lots of eggs in a short time and you just have to replace them every two years like the commercial keepers do.

Stay healthy folks,

Rancher

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I know who you are talking about, he writes for several different poultry magazines and was quite the advocate of his road-kill maggot generator until he started losing birds to botulism.