Feeding with mealworms as the only protein source

[Perris]

On this subject we will, with respect, disagree.

yes, we will.

 

[BDutch]

thank you so much!

There is snother feed producer who uses recycled food.
https://www.grevers-winkel.nl/product/712/circulaire-legkorrel-20kg/
Google translated text;
Circular laying pellet 20KG
complete feed for laying poultry
These laying pellets are composed of residual and return flows of human food without making concessions to the nutritional needs of a laying hen. Circular laying pellets are short-cut pellets with a 3mm diameter that are well absorbed by both large breeds and bantam chickens so that the hens receive all important nutrients in the right proportion.
Pellets have the advantage over flour or mixed feed that chickens cannot selectively eat from them. Chickens that are always used to flour will not immediately accept laying pellets. Laying pellets are a complete food for adult chickens
19.95 euro

 

[Shadrach]

So, if you live on a subsistence level, is 90# of feed worth 126 eggs per year to you, and fewer still next year, and the year following? Or are you better off investing the feed into raising a replacement bird to maturity which is likely to produce 180+ eggs in its first year, perhaps 150+ its second, 130+ its third - and thus net a bonus of at least 90+ eggs over the coming years for the same feed investment?

Even 126 eggs a year is near the average of that 1919 competition of top layers - and those were NOT old birds.

I've got to step in here because there seems to be a lack of understanding as to how the "old", free range system worked.
It's not just about how many eggs a hen could lay for a given quantity of feed over a couple of years. Sure, the modern high production hen lays a lot of eggs, for a couple of years and then that's it for most.
There are only so many eggs to be got from a hen. You can have them in a rush, or you can have them over a longer period of time. The amount of eggs system to system works out about the same you'll find.
Next, it isn't just about the eggs. The free range system allows the hen to sit and hatch a proportion of her eggs. Thsi produces chicks, male and female. The pullets will lay over the winter in many instances and the cockerels will be ready for slaughter as winter arrives if they've hatched in early spring
So now you have meat and eggs and the system will self sustain year after year. You can manage the population by restricting the eggs a hen can hatch.
Nothing stopping you from having fifty semi feral chiickens wandering around in times of plenty and a survival flock in hard times.

 

[BDutch]

I beg to differ.

Providing the world with the least expensive, most abundant source of high quality protein ever known in human history is a very, very good thing.

Not meat, but beans are the best solution! High on proteïne, low in costs.
Anyone interested in a few tasty recipes with kidney beans , black eyed peas, lentils… ?

 

[3KillerBs]

Not meat, but beans are the best solution! High on proteïne, low in costs.
Anyone interested in a few tasty recipes with kidney beans , black eyed peas, lentils… ?

Beans are low-quality, incomplete protein that has to be combined appropriately with other foods to make a complete protein.

They have other benefits, but they don't compare to abundant, inexpensive meat.

 

[BDutch]

Without factory farms we cannot feed the worlds population.

I oppose artificial famine.

Not true. Veggies snd beans are a better solution to feed the world.

Inexpensive, abundant food is a blessing, not a curse.

Sorry, can’t agree on this one. Inexpensive food pollutes the soil and abundant eating habits (prefab food) are part of the global warming problem.

P.S : fat and cheap meat is very unhealthy.

 

[Shadrach]

There's more.
The high production breeds are not in general suitable for free ranging. That might be something that could be addressed in time. So, you have to feed them whatever they need to make an egg and live. The amount of feed varies from breed to breed but roughly you need to feed a hen between two thirds and a half for herself and the rest for the egg. The bigger the egg the more feed required.
The same applies to the free range hen but with her you have the advantage of the hen being able to forage a significant proportion of what she needs. Of course, the free rangers will tell you that the eggs taste better and thhe hen will be healthier.
The big difference between the two though is the free range flock needs acreage, a lot, while the contained production hen doesn't.
This has been the so called food revolution regarding egg production; it's the space required to output a particullar volume of eggs and the ease of collecting them.
The math is straightforward. A hen that layes 100 eggs a year and lives for say eight years, may produce say 600 eggs in her life.
The production hen that lays 250 eggs for her two productive years and 100 after, still lays the same 600 eggs because by the end of year three she is as the industry describes so sweetly, spent.
But, you've had to feed the production hen proportionally more not just because the amount of eggs she produces is larger, but also because she can't forage for feed so all she eats you pay for.

 

[3KillerBs]

Sorry, can’t agree on this one. Inexpensive food pollutes the soil and abundant eating habits (prefab food) are part of the global warming problem.

As noted before, this is strictly a first world wealthy elite preoccupation.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I've got to step in here because there seems to be a lack of understanding as to how the "old", free range system worked.
It's not just about how many eggs a hen could lay for a given quantity of feed over a couple of years. Sure, the modern high production hen lays a lot of eggs, for a couple of years and then that's it for most.
There are only so many eggs to be got from a hen. You can have them in a rush, or you can have them over a longer period of time. The amount of eggs system to system works out about the same you'll find.
Next, it isn't just about the eggs. The free range system allows the hen to sit and hatch a proportion of her eggs. Thsi produces chicks, male and female. The pullets will lay over the winter in many instances and the cockerels will be ready for slaughter as winter arrives if they've hatched in early spring
So now you have meat and eggs and the system will self sustain year after year. You can manage the population by restricting the eggs a hen can hatch.
Nothing stopping you from having fifty semi feral chiickens wandering around in times of plenty and a survival flock in hard times.

With respect, perhaps you are unaware.

My Free Range Culling Project

My Acres of Weeds (in some of the better US climate for such things)

I am doing what you suggest - and without power tools or the benefits of modern machinery beyond a chainsaw, a generator, and electrically powered hand tools like drills and screwdrivers.

I am doing so on roughly 5 of my 30 acres. There's just two of us. I can do the math, it doesn't work for the US population. Too much of the ground isn't suitable. and the very good feed I offer my birds from the local mill is only possible because of grains shipped halfway across the nation - regularly, cheaply.

I also have five goats (two get wethered next week, on is going to freezer camp soon), a cat, two dogs, and am adding meat rabbits to my near 70 poultry. My neighbors have cows. We do a little barter, here and there - and if I can hit anything, maybe I take a deer or two each year in season. I *know* how the system works, and I'm getting better at demonstrating understanding via successful practice.

 

[BDutch]

No, they will starve.

The land needed to sustain a population like London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Rome, Istanbul, Barcelona, etc is massive absent factory farming. Displacing those populations destroys the industries made possible by the concentration of those skills and KnowledgeBase, while decentralization massively increases the carbon footprint of almost everything.

Fortunately for the rest of us, not your choice to make for the world.

I don’t understand you’re explanation.

Did you know we have huge problems here in the Netherlands with pollution by factory farming? The soil is unhealthy (too much nitrates) caused by factory farming and chemical industries.
We have way too much huge chicken, cow, goat, pig and other animal farms. Feed is imported from countries like Brazil, who burn rainforests to grow gmo soy and corn.

We also have invented so-called vertical farming with greenhouses to address the food problem. Meat (growing animals like pigs and chickens ) costs a lot more nutritious feed than eating veggies with proteins. So there is hope for the future if we downscale the factory farms and give the organic farms and healthy veggie farms/greenhouses a chance to grow.