Does anyone here feed your chickens Dubia Roaches?

[moniquem]

Question:

Does anyone feed their chickens Dubia Roaches? Do they like them? Do you grow your own? I hear its pretty easy and they don't smell??

 

[Pyxis]

I do I breed them for my reptiles, and the chickens get the extra males. They love them. They are really easy to breed and they don't really smell.

 

[moniquem]

I do I breed them for my reptiles, and the chickens get the extra males. They love them. They are really easy to breed and they don't really smell.

This is what I thought. Thanks a lot!

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Kassaundra used to breed them for her chickens. Maybe she'll chime in.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I have no idea what a Dubia Roach is, but the normal brown German roaches I use a small dustbuster to remove from the house near daily. The chicken love those, yes it is one of the joys of living so far south. It is also fun to watch the chicken run them down and eat them.

 

[Kassaundra]

I used to grow them, they are easy. They do require heat in the winter, much under 60 degrees is damaging to deadly. They do stink in the numbers you need to feed your chickens even as a supplement.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Kassaundra
Why did you quit raising them?

 

[Kassaundra]

@Kassaundra
Why did you quit raising them?

One winter we lost electricity for nearly a week, they got to cold. My "colony" was huge by that point, and was pretty stinky. I had it in a freezer in the garage, but still it had just gotten to be too much for me. If you have a set up for reliable heat and either keep your colony small (like for lizard food) or can keep it outside of your home it is a cheap to raise treat for chickens that they love. Small colonies are very very easy, the expense of time, energy, and money (mostly time and energy) increases exponentially w/ the size of the colony.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I've found the same with raising most bug protein sources. For the effort it only provides a "drop in the bucket" of what they could easily consume.... for way to much messing around for the benefit.

I've reverted to purchasing good animal protein sources.

 

[mosse71]

i have thousands of them in my 2 totes and they never stank but i feed grains and dry dog food. they reproduce a lot faster than mealworms and if you forget to feed them they will eat the cardboard egg flats that i put in there for them to hang on. every 3-4 months i move the colony to a fresh tote and dump the frass in the bottom, in the garden. very fertile like worm castings . there are other types of roaches that reproduce even faster than the dubia but i haven't tried those yet. i have 2 heat mats under them to keep the temp. higher so they breed faster. my chickens go nuts when i throw them in. they're quick so the birds have to chase them down. i feed them 20- 30 day and it barely puts a dent in my population. much quicker protein source than mealworms.