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OMG we're thinking seriously of a BSF bin too! OK we have to have tea! LOL!
Also, I just cooked up some beef liver for my girls. First taste of that treat they've ever had. Popular? Oh Ya!
It's good, locally raised organic stuff. Came with the cow we put in our freezer last year. I'm the only one who actually likes beef liver, and even I can't eat an entire cow liver in a year's time. I remembered we had a few packages still in the freezer a couple days ago, set one to thaw, and boy oh boy what an awesome treat.
Heh. You found out! We like bugs!
Liver, kidney, whatever, they sure like it. I don't bother to cook it though, just cut in pieces I think they can handle (partially frozen is easier). I like kidney, not so fond of liver. Whenever I smell it, all I can taste is the shoeleather my mom would make us eat, and the gallon of ketchup making me queasy!
Aleta: you raise a question for me... re: your statement about wanting to include animal protein, and using fish. What will a chicken do with a fish that is thrown into the run? do you cook it first? Debone it? At certain times of the year, there are a lot of "junk fish" that can be caught from the lake where my Dad has a camp. I'm wondering how much fish can be fed without worrying about giving the eggs a fishy flavor, or tainting the chickens with mercury and other toxins from a heavy fish diet. Also, can you please explain your statement on keeping the tuna in the freezer for 20 more days. I wish I was in a more temperate zone to be able to raise BSF. I'm also running the idea around in my head about importing some and trying to winter them over in my green house. It's an unheated hoop coop, and I'm in zone 4 or 5A. If I wasn't so squeamish, I'd consider giving some frogs to the girls, but, honestly, I hate it when they catch a frog, b/c I think frogs process a lot of insects!
Well, we haven't actually done it yet. They've eaten fresh crab guts and whatnot and been just fine. That's cooked, though. I'm approaching it sort of like for my dog. We feed him raw, and trout and salmonids in the NW carry liver flukes, so to feed raw you need to freeze for 2 months at -20F. Tuna is *probably* fine, but since it came from someone else, I'm just treating it like salmon, so, 20 more days to first Tuna feed.
I figured since there are chicken feeds that use fish meal, I'm not anticipating fishiness. Didn't notice any taste difference when we were glutted with crab meat, anyway. Will let the thread know, when I find out!
Not sure about mercury... Since random fish will only be one of several protein sources, I'm not going to worry about it much. If you had caged hens, and fed them nothing but barley and catfish/tuna every single day? I wouldn't be happy doing that. But, if a pregnant lady can have tuna once a week, I figure chickens should be fine with some once in a while. Eventually we're going to try farming our own trout/tilapia... got all the plans, some of the equipment, but the garage is still a disaster from moving in in Feb.
Anyway, dinner time... people hungry.
