Mealyworms to raise for feed?

[gsim]

Quote:
Am sure that they are both easier and quicker. Am equally sure am never ever breeding them in my home or workshop.

If breeding them, would be done in chicken pen, in the center of it and daytime escapees would be tasty treats for my girls. Wouldn't work that way tho because they would never come out in daylight due to ground being bare, no cover for them. They would leave only after dark. A man could pour corn syrup on a piece of sheet metal and let the chooks eat whatever is stuck to it every AM. Just put it all around breeding area and let the escapees populate it every night.

If I lived in Florida or other southeastern states, I would just do that in the run somewhere and no doubt it would be full of treats each morning. I advised a Florida member of BYC to do that very thing recently.

 

[kannm]

How 'bout Japanese Beetles? We have millions out here.

 

[gsim]

Quote:
Trouble with them is that they fly away. I would not raise such a pest that eats native plants to the extant those things do. They are decimating pine forests in the south. Lady bugs eat them and I think govt sometimes releases via air drops, millions of those every year to try to stop the beetles.

 

[kannm]

Quote:
Trouble with them is that they fly away. I would not raise such a pest that eats native plants to the extant those things do. They are decimating pine forests in the south. Lady bugs eat them and I think govt sometimes releases via air drops, millions of those every year to try to stop the beetles.

Right, not to grow but to kill. We thought we could trap them, stomp them, and then feed them to the chickens.

 

[Safado]

I just started doing this yesterday as treats for my chickens.

I had a few questions though. Does it make sense financially?

Example: I paid $12.00 for the 50# bag of bran (somewhere around 12% protien) Do the meal worms converth some of the remaining 89% of the bran into protien? In other words, I bought 6# of protien, and a bunch of other stuff carbs etc, added a negligible weight of meal worms from the pet store and a slice of potato. when the complete course has run, a long time from now, I will expect to have fed the majority of the bran to the chickens in the form of meal worms. (minus waste and uncannibalized dead beetles).

Would I have been financially/nutritionally better off paying for the layer pellets also around $12 for 50# but at 16% protien? yeah I am getting a lot of enjoyment in the process, and the future feedings. The "end of times feeding" thread just got me thinking if this was a good option.


Rambling post summation:
How effective are mealworms at turning carbs into protien?

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Oh I hate to go here, I really do. I am sooooo tired of this issue, but here goes:

We must eat strictly and permanently gluten free. If the beetles raise their mealyworms in glutinous grain, will our chickens process that into an egg that could cause a gluten reaction in us?

Dumb, dumb dumb, I am so tired of worrying about this, I really am. But the #@! results of accidentally eating gluten have devastated us financially and developmentally. Growing mealyworms on oats confirmed gluten free is an option. Maybe expensive. Maybe need to start that before we really have gone broke......

BTW, I love the Purina layer pellets, my chickens have beautiful poop and they're fat happy little chickens. I saw their ad, "pets make better people, we make better pets" and I have to smile when I think of life with my happy healthy little chickens.......

 

[gsim]

Quote:
Trouble with them is that they fly away. I would not raise such a pest that eats native plants to the extant those things do. They are decimating pine forests in the south. Lady bugs eat them and I think govt sometimes releases via air drops, millions of those every year to try to stop the beetles.

Right, not to grow but to kill. We thought we could trap them, stomp them, and then feed them to the chickens.

If you do, video it and set it to music!

 

[kcsunshine]