We raise three different types of larvae. Red wigglers and earth worms in our big worm bin to eat the scrapes we don't feed our chiciens. Like moldy stuff or meat stuff. But within there, we also have Black Soldier Fly Larvae. And the chickens love them. And the larvae come out in huge amounts to eat any kind of meat or poop. They love the cow poop from across the street and our chicken poop from their nest/roost room. So these are actually kind of free. I scoop them up by the thousands, rinse them off a bit and put them in the freezer. For winter protein for the chickie chicks. And then we raise the meal worms in the drying room of the farm house. They are in two separate plastic bins. When the beetles hatch out we transfer them to the Beetles bin and then leave all the meal worms in the second bin. We use oatmeal as their bedding, and leave a little piece of damp sponge on a lid top to add humidity, and banana peels, or pretty much any kind of veggie that wont mold fast for their food.
I just separated out loads of mealworms and put them in the freezer. Then I can defrost them and give them to chicks in the winter as well. I am trying to be able to produce myself, the most of the natural feed that I can. I will experiment with dry roasting the frozen mealworms. I read we could freeze the mealworms then in a week or so, put them in a baking pan on the grill on a very low setting for 5 or 5 hours. I will try it just to see the frozen defrosted meal worms versus frozen defrosted mealworms. Letting the chickens make the decision. They love taste tests. haha
Last fall after Halloween, we had access to a truck load of heirloom pumpkins. so we grabbed them and put them in the canning shed and once or twice a week we would pull one out, and with an axe chop it into pieces and walk away. Man the chickens love every piece of it but the rind. Seeds are very healthy for them as it paralizes any parasites and allows the chickens to pass them. These pumpkins lasted us all winter and into the spring, where the last 5 went moldy before we could use them. So we simply put them on the hill side, smashed them just for fun and covered them with wood chips, and guess what.....we have a bunch of heirloom pumpkins coming out now. yahooo.
We also feed our chickens poo poo platters, which are simply 2 or 3 big trays (we have 46 hens one rooster) with soaked wheat berries/ cooked rice/barley, and then we have lots of fun adding tasty healthy toppings. Like unflavored yogurt, flax seeds, bananas, tomatoe and other veggie left overs, even sardines or egg yolks from cracked eggs we don't eat.
We are going to cut a bunch of grains that the hunters left on a couple acres and try letting them dry and beating the grains out and willowing them. For feed for the chickens. I hate to let healthy good, free food got to waste. haha
