Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[skitzkle]

You folks that grow meal worms for your birds, can you point me to some real short and to the point instructions on how to do it? I have read about the three drawer system (that sounds good to e) and I have read about doing it all in one container. Which do you think is best? Thank you!

I do it in a single container. an under the bed storage unit with holes drilled in the top. Put in oatmeal or wheat germ some carrots or celery put in mealworms and wait. Change vegetables out as often as your climate requires to keep them from molding. I waited to long and will spend some time this evening geting moldy oatmeal out!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Precicely. My birds live on deep litter, and earthworms LOVE that stuff. They're always all up in the wood chips and decomposing plant matter, doin' their job. And the chickens dig 'em out and eat 'em anyhow.

I feed my earthworms used rabbit bedding (hay and poop).

 

[Triple Willow]

Possible if you live where gape worms are a problem. However, if your birds are out ranging they are eating earthworms and lots of other bugs anyway.

I'm not sure about gape worms but what I read sounded pretty serious. I suppose that is one of those things I need to spend a little time learning about. I'm a little bit paranoid about my birds getting sick. lol I wonder if captive worms even get or carry gape worms...hmm?

 

[Triple Willow]

Precicely. My birds live on deep litter, and earthworms LOVE that stuff. They're always all up in the wood chips and decomposing plant matter, doin' their job. And the chickens dig 'em out and eat 'em anyhow.

I feed my earthworms used rabbit bedding (hay and poop).

Mine are on deep litter too and I need to take a rake and straighten it up! They have scratched and dug the bedding mostly to one side. It's so dang hot I don't want to stay out there any longer than necessary. lol Ahhh...I need to spend some time outside tomorrow doing that and doing some mosquito fighting. Those dang thangs are awful!

 

[Triple Willow]

I do it in a single container. an under the bed storage unit with holes drilled in the top. Put in oatmeal or wheat germ some carrots or celery put in mealworms and wait. Change vegetables out as often as your climate requires to keep them from molding. I waited to long and will spend some time this evening geting moldy oatmeal out!

Thanks for the info. I bought a little container of meal worms at a local bait shop a month or so ago. They were about $4.50 for a dozen or two worms! Good golly! I think if I was going to sell them at a bait shop I would just grow my own, worms and crickets too. Hmmm... maybe I could sell him some. lol

 

[Triple Willow]

Precicely. My birds live on deep litter, and earthworms LOVE that stuff. They're always all up in the wood chips and decomposing plant matter, doin' their job. And the chickens dig 'em out and eat 'em anyhow.

I feed my earthworms used rabbit bedding (hay and poop).

I've still got rabbits on my mind!

 

[Mon27]

Thank you, Mon27 ! I'm going to finish feeding out the grower and then switch them to layer

You are welcome!! I hope the transition is smooth.

 

[Beekissed]

A little light reading on gape worms. I have no experience with this type of thing but since I've been keeping chickens out on range all my life, as my did my mother and grandmother, if it were real common in birds that forage and eat earthworms, you'd think we would have run across it every now and again. Never have yet....I'd venture to say our flocks have had their fair share of earthworms.

Maybe the bit in this article about it being more prevalent in birds being raised on infected soils, and dessication of the worm eggs from sunlight, have some bearing on it all.


Gapeworms
GGapes is a condition caused by the pathogenic nematode roundworm Syngamus trachea and is most likely to be seen in free-range systems where chickens may be kept together with infected pheasants, or on infected pasture. The condition, which is common in both wild and domestic birds, results in paralysis and physical blockage of the respiratory tract, leading to difficulty in breathing. Infected birds respond with outstretched necks and open mouths. The disease is called 'gapes' from the characteristic gaping mouth of an afflicted bird. The disease can occur sporadically and can result in severe loss of condition and high rates of mortality.
The life cycle of the nematode most frequently involves the earthworm, although it can be more direct. In the earthworm, infections can persist for long periods and soils can become heavily infected for many years. Infective larvae may live as long as several years in infected intermediate hosts. There is evidence that the passage of the larvae through earthworms renders them more highly infective to chickens. Game and wild birds provide a reservoir for the parasite.
The worms are bright red, with the male measuring 2 to 6mm and the female 5 to 20mm. The male becomes firmly attached to the tracheal wall and is in almost permanent copulation with the females, forming an easily distinguishable Y-shape. Eggs produced by the female worm are carried by the mucus of the trachea to the pharynx where they are swallowed and eventually passed out of the bird in faeces. Under optimal temperature and humidity levels, the egg undergoes a third stage, moulting to produce an infective larva. Eggs containing larvae have been reported to survive on pasture and up to 9 months in soil.

Syngamus trachea (gapeworm)
male and female in permanent copulation.

Syngamus trachea (gapeworm)
in the trachea of a pheasant

Syngamus trachea (gapeworm)
Adult worms in the trachea of a turkey.​

Eggs on pasture may undergo three different courses of development. The infective larvae may remain in the eggs and become ingested by birds in this form. Alternatively, the larvae may hatch from the eggs on about the ninth day of incubation. In this form the larvae are easily killed by desiccation from sunlight, or they may survive for many weeks in shaded areas. A third course of development may be ingestion by a facultative intermediate hosts, such as earthworms, slugs, snails or house flies. The larvae can penetrate the intestinal walls of the invertebrate hosts and remain there for long periods. The larvae may remain viable in slugs and snails for more than a year, and up to 4 years in earthworms. Since an invertebrate host may accumulate many larvae, ingestion of a single intermediate host by a single bird may result in a severe infection.
After ingestion of the worm larva, either in the form of an intermediate host or as a free egg, the larva migrates in the bird from the bowel to the lungs via the blood stream. Larvae undergo a fourth stage moult at about the third day after ingestion, and undergo a fifth larval stage in the bronchi of the lungs on the fifth day of infection. Copulation starts at this time. By the seventh day of infection the parasite is found in the trachea. They reach sexual maturity twelve days after this and eggs can be found in poultry faeces 18 to 20 days after infection.
Although gapeworms are only rarely found in mature layers, the parasites can survive in poultry birds for long periods. They are more often found in adult turkeys.
Gape worms are not commonly seen in poultry reared on impervious floors. Only chicks up to 8 weeks of age are susceptible. Since most commercial systems now involve rearing of chicks in systems where they are not in constant contact with their droppings and not ingesting earthworms, the incidence of gapes is not widespread. The disease can be found in turkeys kept on dirt floors.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Willow; Do eet! Rabbits were the best choice I ever made on the homestead! They're sooo tasty and they can live "up" in cages unlike chickens which makes them great for filling spaces... Plus chickens LOVE the extra rabbit feed that spills, and the hay/used bedding is great for chicken composting.

As for gapeworm, I'm really not too worried. Chickens have been eating earthworms for hundreds of years... I'm not gonna stop 'em now! And none of my chickens are unhealthy per-say. (I have one perpetual broody and one of my meaties got nipped by my dog. Neither of those are really indicative of health.)

 

[Beekissed]

I agree! If earthworms were a big killer of birds, not a robin would be alive, let alone any chickens. I think it comes down to acceptable loads of parasites being carried by naturally hardy birds...if you don't have hardy animals, get rid of them and replace them with hardy ones. Simple as that.