Here's a post with the recipe.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sallys-gf3-thread.1579174/page-35#post-27065630
new research debunks trad views on nutrition
- Thread starter Perris
- Start date
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sallys-gf3-thread.1579174/page-35#post-27065630
Creative. Don’t think it is for me, but I am glad you found something that works. I am lucky I have no issues with gluten (or anything really). Believe it or not I have never made brownies but I might try. I don’t really understand the difference between cake batter and brownie batter so will need to research.
But for now, I have enough eggs to have poached eggs on toast and if ever I had a craving it is for that right now!
The difference is the fat to flour ratio. Higher on the fat side for fudgy brownies, higher on the flour side for cakey brownies.
I accidentally made my brownies too cakey the time before last so I looked it up then.
Got it. Thank you - now I really should try brownies!
- Thread starter
- #1,485
Bringing this thread back to the subject of food for chickens, The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Ornithology (CUP 1991) opens its chapter on Food with this:
"The ability to fly has been the dominant influence on avian adaptation, and the energy needed for flight has meant that birds tend to ingest and digest quantities of food of high nutritive value. Thus, although birds now exploit almost everything that lives upon, over or just beneath the earth's surface or in the shallow layers of its waters, they are, and have always been, predominantly animal-eating.
Most bird species eat arthropods, especially insects. Many of these insects are caught on the vegetation that they themselves consume, and this close association between plants and birds over millions of years has presumably given rise to the eating of seeds and berries, and to the sucking of nectar from blossom...
Arthropods, notably insects, provide sustenance for a greater number and variety of birds than any other plant or animal food...
Most birds are catholic in their tastes, taking a mixture or items, and stable populations are composed of omnivorous individuals that can adjust their habits when one type of seed, berry or insect, for instance, becomes scarce or another common. Many of the most successful species have been those living in close proximity to man...
Many birds also change their diet with age, and protein-rich foods such as insects are a common food for rapidly growing youngsters which are vegetarian as adults."
In view of this, I am no longer going to restrict the number of mealworms I give to youngsters; I will in future let them take as many as they want, like with every other food I offer them.
"The ability to fly has been the dominant influence on avian adaptation, and the energy needed for flight has meant that birds tend to ingest and digest quantities of food of high nutritive value. Thus, although birds now exploit almost everything that lives upon, over or just beneath the earth's surface or in the shallow layers of its waters, they are, and have always been, predominantly animal-eating.
Most bird species eat arthropods, especially insects. Many of these insects are caught on the vegetation that they themselves consume, and this close association between plants and birds over millions of years has presumably given rise to the eating of seeds and berries, and to the sucking of nectar from blossom...
Arthropods, notably insects, provide sustenance for a greater number and variety of birds than any other plant or animal food...
Most birds are catholic in their tastes, taking a mixture or items, and stable populations are composed of omnivorous individuals that can adjust their habits when one type of seed, berry or insect, for instance, becomes scarce or another common. Many of the most successful species have been those living in close proximity to man...
Many birds also change their diet with age, and protein-rich foods such as insects are a common food for rapidly growing youngsters which are vegetarian as adults."
In view of this, I am no longer going to restrict the number of mealworms I give to youngsters; I will in future let them take as many as they want, like with every other food I offer them.
I thought the issue with mealworms was the fat
rotein ratio. I don't know if they have more fat than any other beetle grub or if all grubs are high in fat (which would make sense from the insects' point of view).The water in live worms probably causes chickens to pace themselves because the crop extends with the volume. I didn't know you gave your chickens mealworms but I would think live are better than dried.
One other consideration which is consistent with the Cambridge Encyclopaedia you quote, is that I imagine mealworms naturally would be a seasonal food. At other times there would be the beetles to eat which will have a different fat
rotein ratio.I know next to nothing about mealworms but I do wonder if dried mealworm treats are the chicken equivalent of potato chips!
Thank you so much. I lack both the quinoa and raisins so I'll wait to get some before giving it a try and let you know.
(But...I'm inclined to swap quinoa for buckwheat as I get it locally while quinoa travels the world. Buckwheat has a mild bitter taste that puts off some people but not me!)
Apologies for derailing the thread Perris. I was convinced the difference between brownie and chocolate cake was the absence of a leavening/ rising agent in Brownies ? Do you mean that if you put less fat in a brownie recipe it will turn out like a cake even though it doesn't rise ?
I was gifted a three kg bag of dry mealworms by the website I buy my cats kibble on.I thought the issue with mealworms was the fat
The water in live worms probably causes chickens to pace themselves because the crop extends with the volume. I didn't know you gave your chickens mealworms but I would think live are better than dried.
One other consideration which is consistent with the Cambridge Encyclopaedia you quote, is that I imagine mealworms naturally would be a seasonal food. At other times there would be the beetles to eat which will have a different fat
I know next to nothing about mealworms but I do wonder if dried mealworm treats are the chicken equivalent of potato chips!
These are french grown and organically fed, so kind of top of the market of commercial dry meal worms.
I should mention that this is the first time my chickens see dry worms of any kind.
Only half of the chickens seem to like the mealworms. Some will have just one reluctantly. My rooster is actually terrified of them and runs away if I try to feed him one !
Now I have this huge bag of dry mealworms that I don't know how to use.
So unless potato chips really are an acquired taste, I would say that no, dry meal worms are not their chicken equivalent.
And I'm also slightly reluctant now to start my own meal farm in case the chickens react to the live worms in the same manner.
Whoever said that brownies don't rise, never met the cookbook I use. The brownie recipe contains baking powder, rises just fine, and I've never heard a complaint about them.
Once or twice I've put the brownie batter in a different size pan, so it was deeper than usual, and it came out more like cake (fluffier and sort of drier.) So maybe the depth in the pan has something to do with it? But that can't be the only difference, because I've got some cake recipes that are always like cake even if they are spread thin in a big pan.
Since at least some of the chickens do like the mealworms, you could just keep feeding a little each day until the worms are gone.
You won't know for sure unless you try it, but I would expect them to be treated a bit differently by the chickens. It might be like grapes and raisins for people: raisins are dried grapes, but some people like both, some like just one or just the other, some don't like either of them.
which fat you use, and at what temperature, also has effect (as does pan size and shape - see for instance the Bundt pan). Baking is chemistry. Lots of ratios and critical temperatures. Also, method matters. Traditionally, many cakes use the "creamery" method of beating sugar into fat to aerate things and lighten the batter before incorporating dry. There are plenty of brownie methods that do the same, but fudgier brownies usually incorporate the chocolate into the butter too, rather than adding it as part of the "dry". Force fat into dry before adding liquid and you end up with biscuits.
and buckwheat as a quinoa sub will pair well w/ chocolate. Just saying.
and buckwheat as a quinoa sub will pair well w/ chocolate. Just saying.
terriergal
Chirping
- Feb 17, 2025
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As far as birds self selecting balance - I’m new to poultry but I have had caged birds (hookbills and softbills) for a long time and they can be pretty bad for doing just the opposite especially depending on species, refusing all attempts to get them to try a more varied diet. I would wonder if at least individuals or different species of or breeds of poultry would have similar tendencies.
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