Inexpensive ways to raise protein level in feed?

[Mid Wales chicken keeper]

The local feed and farm stores nearby are lousy. And I noticed feed price at the stores are going up. There's a place that has feed with good quality ingredients with 16.5% protein but I need something with around 20%. A 50lb bags cost $20 any idea what I could add to boost it and how to calculate that? It would have to be something I could order online or something because I doubt a local store would have it.

I guess it depends on how many chickens you have regarding if you find this expensive or not. But my girls will not eat layer pellets or crumbles, so I give them a combination of cat food (that my cat has left) mealworm or calciworms, if you can get them as they are much cheaper, or cooked mince beef, tinned sardines.( They have a daily supply of agricultural mixed feed as their main food source).You can any of the above as a protein supplement. I only have 3 chickens so the cost is very low. But if you have a large flock......

 

[Sally PB]

Just to clarify, I am battling japanese beetles every way I can. With some success in my yard. They are still available by the hundreds per foot of plants on friends' and neighbors' properties. And roadside plants although that has too much risk of unknown contaminants for my comfort.

Ditto! JBs killed my hazelnut trees, so I have a personal vendettal against them. I hunt them on my property, and (with permission) on my neighbor's property. I also take any grubs I find in my garden to the chickens too.

I am certainly NOT trying to grow them. I don't know if I'll ever "run out" of JBs, but if I do, that would be fine by me.

The grubs could be of other beetle species:
"White grubs could be of several scarab beetle species, including Japanese beetles, European chafer beetles, masked chafer beetles, green June beetles, May/June beetles, Asiatic garden beetles, and Oriental beetles."

It's the JBs that I see the most of, chomping on my asparagus, bean plants, grape vines, and marigolds. I found gobs of them on the weed Velvet Leaf along the road where I live; I've thought of growing that as a trap crop.

 

[RoyalChick]

Ditto! JBs killed my hazelnut trees, so I have a personal vendettal against them. I hunt them on my property, and (with permission) on my neighbor's property. I also take any grubs I find in my garden to the chickens too.

I am certainly NOT trying to grow them. I don't know if I'll ever "run out" of JBs, but if I do, that would be fine by me.

The grubs could be of other beetle species:
"White grubs could be of several scarab beetle species, including Japanese beetles, European chafer beetles, masked chafer beetles, green June beetles, May/June beetles, Asiatic garden beetles, and Oriental beetles."

It's the JBs that I see the most of, chomping on my asparagus, bean plants, grape vines, and marigolds. I found gobs of them on the weed Velvet Leaf along the road where I live; I've thought of growing that as a trap crop.
View attachment 3748026

Your picture gave me the shudders. That was my yard a few years ago. I went on an all out war against them. I would get up at dawn every day to drown them in a bucket.
Amazingly now, a few years later I don't have any - or maybe only the odd one that I gleefully give to the chickens.
Same with the grubs - it used to be you couldn't dig a hole without coming across a couple of their grubs. Haven't seen one in over two years.
I am sometimes a bit sad because the chickens really, really love them, but not sad enough to try and grow them!
Your picture was a handy reminder of how awful it was when they ruled my kingdom.

 

[Sally PB]

Amazingly now, a few years later I don't have any - or maybe only the odd one that I gleefully give to the chickens.

You mean there's hope????

 

[RoyalChick]

You mean there's hope????

Yes! That’s why I posted.
But I cannot over state how crazy I was. I was out there with my bucket pre dawn for months!

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Oh yuck! I thought my Trail of Tears beans had it bad, but I never saw that many JB at once! Maybe my plot to lure in insectivorous bird species worked better than I thought; I’ll have to keep supplying the wild birds with BSFL…

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Ditto! JBs killed my hazelnut trees, so I have a personal vendettal against them. I hunt them on my property, and (with permission) on my neighbor's property. I also take any grubs I find in my garden to the chickens too.

I am certainly NOT trying to grow them. I don't know if I'll ever "run out" of JBs, but if I do, that would be fine by me.

The grubs could be of other beetle species:
"White grubs could be of several scarab beetle species, including Japanese beetles, European chafer beetles, masked chafer beetles, green June beetles, May/June beetles, Asiatic garden beetles, and Oriental beetles."

It's the JBs that I see the most of, chomping on my asparagus, bean plants, grape vines, and marigolds. I found gobs of them on the weed Velvet Leaf along the road where I live; I've thought of growing that as a trap crop.
View attachment 3748026

I'd be out with the permethrin spray. and the garden dust.

 

[Sally PB]

I'd be out with the permethrin spray. and the garden dust.

That particular plant is not on my property. It's along the road, bordering the farmer's field. I'm *pretty* sure he doesn't mind my trespassing at the edge of his corn to take some JBs.

I've never seen JBs on his corn... (going down the rabbit hole; back later...)

From https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/japanese-beetle-corn-and-soybean

"Part of the success of Japanese beetle can be attributed to its wide host range. Japanese beetles can feed on more than 300 plant species, including important horticultural and agricultural plants such as turfgrass species, fruit trees, corn, and soybeans....

"Injury to corn: Although Japanese beetle adults can feed on the leaves of corn plants, the main concern is silk clipping (Photo 5). Silk clipping may interfere with pollination and lead to reduced seed set. Additionally, adults may feed on exposed kernels, but this injury is less concerning than silk clipping. Drought stress can exacerbate the effect of silk clipping by Japanese beetles. Silk clipping usually only causes reduced pollination when a majority of corn plants have silks clipped back to less than ½ inches."

This farmer rotates soybeans through his crop fields.

"It is unlikely that Japanese beetle adults will cause economic injury to corn or soybean in Iowa. However, sometimes silk clipping or defoliation could warrant treatment."

From True Leaf Market, some information for fighting JBs: https://www.trueleafmarket.com/pages/japanese-beetle-pest-guide

"...it is recommended to begin with a two-step process by first spraying infested hosts with an organic pyrethrin. Follow up with an application of either neem oil or a homemade dish soap-based solution.

"To help prevent eggs and grubs, add milky spore powder to your lawn available at just about any nursery. Milky spore is specifically made to kill Japanese beetle grubs and only needs to be applied to the lawn no more than once a year."

I used Milky Spore on my garden and around my hazelnut trees, but it was too late for the trees. I won't be using Permethrin (except for mites and lice on the chickens) because we have honeybees. The farmer uses... whatever he uses, including glyphosate.

 

[RoyalChick]

From memory the Milky Spore works on the grubs. I drowned the adults and used milky spore on the ground. I still have a big tub of milky spore left over as I don’t need to use it any more.