Raising feeder insects

[Kassaundra]

Fortunately you only have to handle them when feeding the chickens, other then that they are pretty hands off.

 

[hannakat]

My husband saw a reptile setup at a yard sale today and offered to take me to look at it. He said they were asking $35 so I said no since I'm still not sure I can 'do' these beasties! I hope I don't regret not going and at least looking at it. There was even a heater with it.... he said it was brand new in the box.

Since reading that they are better than the worms, I just can't stop thinking about trying!!! geesh.....

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
What I like most is how hands off they are to raise. It is about as carefree as you can get. Set up their home w/ the egg crates, and the feeder / water dishes and heater or light, put them in every few days put a piece of fruit, every week or so more cat food and water crystals. No need to do anything else for about 6-8 months while you grow your colony. What I read is you need to clean out the frass every 6 months, but that hasn't been needed in my colony. Once your colony is to harvesting size then you have to handle them to feed, but I do that w/ a gloved hand and a glass container, if you really hate it and didn't care if you harvested young (but to do that your colony would need to be very good size) you could just shake and egg carton full over another container and shake them out a few at a time for the chickens.

 

[hannakat]

Ok.... now I'm starting to regret not getting that reptile stuff.

 

[Kassaundra]

These pics aren't the best, but hopefully you will get the idea

This is the cabinet my aquarium sits in. It was the perfect size and keeps everything contained. The mylar you see at the front should be facing in but my Husband helped me when we did the spring clean and put it back backwards.

this is the inside w/ the upper doors open. You can see the window screening used to keep enough ventilation w/o any residence getting out or other insects getting in. The rest you can see is duct tape securing everything.

Here you can see the stacked egg cartons they live in, they are stacked on one side of the aquarium farthest from the light so they can adjust there own temp as needed. You can see a few of the roaches in between.

Here you can see the side w/ the light and food/water set up. The high tech food/water dispensers are just margerine containers w/ holes cut out of the bottom. I keep the water crystal one covered so the crystals don't dry out as fast, just a metal lid for the piece of fruit, which they love. I keep a thermometer in all the time, just b/c when we did the set up w/ the heating pad we were having issues keeping it warm enough, not a problem w/ the red light, best thing we ever did was switch to the red light. The dirt stuff you see on the floor is the frass that is several months worth and it doesn't even cover the bottom of the container.

 

[hannakat]

Awesome!! Thank you for the pictures!

 

[kaymart]

I am going to get compost worms for my composter and also feed them to the chickens. Double duty!!!

 

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

I'm an entomologist of sorts--I've been collecting bugs with my dad since I was 8 and have a very large collection... and I still cringe at the thought of roaches in large quantities anywhere near me. I gues I have a double standartd for insects... But, I will tell you what I've been doing for protien supplements for my ducks... I raise moth and butterfly larva. right now I have luna moths, you can pick up a few eggs relatively cheap from someone on line and raise about 10 to adulthood, they will hatch, mate and lay a million eggs. I also have tiger moth larva-I found the moth laying eggs on the weeds in my backyard...I've got about 250 of them. Basically if you have the foodplant for a species (minor research involved, but you would be suprized by how many plants you already have can be used) you can just put some stems of that in a hole in a clean sourcream container filled with water that has been put into a old aquarium with a screen/see through mesh top rubber banded around it and the larva will go to town. Just replace when it looks depleated and replentish the water in the container periodically. At 3 weeks old luna moths are an impressive size, about 2" long and as thick as a finger... they get to about 3 1/2 inches to 4 inches long before they pupate...and they are really cool looking.

you can really just raise any medium sized moth larva that eats something convenient... like sphinx moths (who eat tomato leaves and grow to epic sizes) or tiger moths (many eat rasberry, dandelion weeds, thistle weeds, and most other weeds in your back yard), or silk worms (they eat mulberry leaves and are a cinch to raise and aquire) and you can have a less ugly option for protien in your bird's diet... and if any escape, its not going to kreep people out.
With just a little entomological research into your area's moths or butterflies (never use monarch butterfly larva because they are poisonous) and you can find a simple larva/feed bug to raise--often without buying anything... the only setback is that winter generally does away with most foodplant in cooler areas. Although my passion vine in my backyard never dies and the gulfrittilary butterfly caterpillars that eat it get to a decent size. If I moved them inside and kept the cycle going in the winter, I could probably pull off a good protien source that way too (the life cycle is very fast with these butterflys--(only a week to 2 weeks as a cacoon) .
Basically, supplementing protien can be free to you and not as gross/creepy as roaches or even mealworms.

 

[drgnflyz]

Quote:
I throw out a few at a time, and trust me NONE escape, they LOVE them. I have read on other threads that earthworms can give chickens a parasite called gapeworm. (a parasite that attatches to their trachea) Don't know if raising them yourself would lessen the chances of them carrying the parasite or not, but I'd check that out before deciding.

So went to p/u my silkie today and stopped by pet store to get a tub of 500 med. mealworms. Can I just start that way- buy an extra container of 500 or so? I saw where some of ya'll ordered from a breeder- is there a difference or are you getting more bang for your buck with the breeder? I will only ever have 6 hens maximum, so how many meal worms should I start with?

On a different- but similar topic- found another way to get cheap (free) high quality food for livestock. Get spent grains (dry and wet) from your local brewery. Very healthy for chickens and free!

 

[Bulgarianlily]

Can I ask what are the economics here? You supply the roaches with catfood, heat and occasional fruit? Is buying the catfood for the roaches more economical than using the money for chicken feed? Which is cheaper to produce, roaches or meal worms?