Making Feed from Japanese Beetles

[glib]

alfalfa would be for the usual veggie minerals, K and Mg. Very impressed about the carotenoids content. At the backyard level, BOSS would fill the fat requirement. Even for them seed oils are not that great.

 

[centrarchid]

update

 

[centrarchid]

Getting ready to run this again.

 

[centrarchid]

In a couple months we will start a feeding trial with fish. Immediately after that, if all goes well, we will be making a supplement for free-range Cornish X broilers that will be used in part to stimulate moving about their pasture. I am personally interested in a behavioral issue where we disperse feces better during the day. The beetle mixture will be applied away from base feed to see if the birds will go after that without running risk of not getting free-choice access to the complete diet. I like the behavior part. May even have a professional photographer help with documenting and loading up images. No more centrarchid using a cell phone.

 

[glib]

so basically you put the (presumably gourmet) bug feed away from their trailer to see if they walk more and fertilize more evenly.

 

[centrarchid]

so basically you put the (presumably gourmet) bug feed away from their trailer to see if they walk more and fertilize more evenly.

Yes. With Cornish X, that can be a big deal. My interests are more behavioral in nature to avoid hotspots on pasture from poor nutrient dispersion. Co-worker is more interested in production rate and carcass quality.

 

[David DC]

I have just started experimenting with this myself. I put some in a non-convection oven at 260 degrees for an hour or so last night but haven't had a chance to see how they did yet. I did this with an oven in my shop, and I am glad I did as my wife would have killed me if I would have stunk her kitchen up like that!
My question for you is what temperature and amount of time seems to work best for you?
Thanks!

 

[Sally PB]

@David DC, this is an old (but VERY interesting) thread, so you may not get an answer.

Maybe do some experimenting on your own? If you do, PLEASE make a new thread and post your results! I collect JBs around my garden to feed my birds, but nowhere near on this scale.

By the way,

 

[tgsnod]

These little buddies of many in the midwestern US do not need much of an introduction other than not much good can be said about them if you are interested in horticulture.

I am gearing up for an experiment that might be of interest to some. We spend a lot of effort trying to keep Japanese Beetles off blueberry and elderberry crops resulting in the capture of many hundreds of pounds of beetles. Catching them in mass is easy once you figure out how to trap them. We froze them in mass. Now we are experimenting in ways to make feed from them. First round involved simply feeding them out. Fish and chickens really like them but they are too bulky for storage and rot quickly. Second round involved running frozen beetles through a meat grinder. Fish and birds hammered them even better and the ground beetles could be stored in a much tighter space. The moisture is the problem preventing more economical long-term storage. We playing around now with drying the beetles out in a convection oven which is going to greatly improve shelf life. We preparing about 20 lbs of dried beetles for feeding out to fish and some will be sidelined to chickens. That going chickens will be mixed into a scratch to seriously increase protein levels. Should make the mix look pretty. Most the dried product will be subjected to milling to see how it compares to wet frozen product.

View attachment 1275704 View attachment 1275707

Care must be taken to control smells. We have already been run out of one building. After drying I think smells will be OK for most.

Has anyone on this thread tried freeze drying them? Just curious. I am all about natural food and saving money on feed!! I have a freeze dryer and could put them in freezer bags until I get around to freeze drying them. Just wondered if anyone had tried this and if so what your results were.

 

[Molpet]

Has anyone on this thread tried freeze drying them? Just curious. I am all about natural food and saving money on feed!! I have a freeze dryer and could put them in freezer bags until I get around to freeze drying them. Just wondered if anyone had tried this and if so what your results were.

I put a bunch JB in the freezer....after the bag quit catching them I took the bag out to feed them to the chickens. The JB were still alive, just moving slowly until they warmed up.