Why are they scared of these bugs?

[h2ofowllovngrl]

Because they stink (and, according to the info on the site I linked to - some stink more than others). However, our chickens and turkeys ignore dried meal worms. A lot of feed preference is `learned' early in life usually transmitted by food choice by chicks' hen. Ours got moths, grubs, earthworms, watermelon and grapes (fed by surrogate human `hens'). Our neighbor's turkeys and chickens destroy their tomatoes - ours just growl at tomatoes tossed in the run (didn't encounter them until they were nearly a year old). Could be the other chickens that eat these well armed beetles were `taught' to eat them - `kinda nasty.. but protein, kids!'.

You might consider setting up a meal worm `farm' and `grow your own', this is much cheaper and there are numerous threads on BYC about every aspect of meal worm `replication' and management. Also, IIRC, growing up in San Berdoo, myself, there were lots of moths around the lights, most of the year. You can place a white sheet in front of strong incandescent light and go out and harvest all the flying, fluttering snacks that land on the sheet, bottle them up and start tearing off the wings and tossing them into the run the next morning.

gross!

 

[lazy gardener]

How about growing black soldier fly larvae? (Some folks grow cockroaches. That's not something I'd care to do.) How about vermicomposting. If you get a good bin going, you can harvest worms from it. If you do as ivan3 said, You could put a pool of water under the light, the critters will fall in and drown. Or if you harvest them dry, you could put them in the fridge to chill, then the chickens can eat them before they warm up enough to start flying.

 

[newbie32]

Okay ew on the cockroaches! I might be able to do my own meal worms if hubby didn't hate moths so much. I constantly have to scrub dead moth carcasses off my walls because he hunts them and smashes them. I don't want moths-I want the worms. Or a bug that crawls without flying

 

[rainslick]

Have you heard of a chicken log? You get a log and let it sit in the same spot for a week - a few weeks and then roll it to a new spot. The chickens get to eat all of the bugs that have gathered underneath. If you locate it on grass and move it weekly it won't hurt the grass so much.

 

[centrarchid]

Insect in question is not a stink bug, rather it is a beetle of some sort. It looks like some of our blister beetles that my chickens do not consume. If correct it produces a very hot spray that also smells and tastes bad.

As Ivan3 suggested, a mealworm culture is likely to be your most cost effective way to raise insects.


If your avatar location is an indicator your location is a low desert, then natural productivity of natural insect forages is going to be constrained by limited moisture. You might be able to enhance somewhat by watering but that may not be economical either. Another option would be to allow strips of vegetation to come up that would effectively bioconcentrate night flying insects growing up elsewhere. Water may help with this as well.


Have you considered using a bug zapper? Chickens will consume the zapped with gusto.


Overall, it is difficult to produce enough insects to spare feed requirements unless you have several acres and the birds can forage is thoroughly, I can do it only seasonally and water is the limiting factor where I have a lot more water than you,

 

[newbie32]

Insect in question is not a stink bug, rather it is a beetle of some sort. It looks like some of our blister beetles that my chickens do not consume. If correct it produces a very hot spray that also smells and tastes bad.

As Ivan3 suggested, a mealworm culture is likely to be your most cost effective way to raise insects.


If your avatar location is an indicator your location is a low desert, then natural productivity of natural insect forages is going to be constrained by limited moisture. You might be able to enhance somewhat by watering but that may not be economical either. Another option would be to allow strips of vegetation to come up that would effectively bioconcentrate night flying insects growing up elsewhere. Water may help with this as well.


Have you considered using a bug zapper? Chickens will consume the zapped with gusto.


Overall, it is difficult to produce enough insects to spare feed requirements unless you have several acres and the birds can forage is thoroughly, I can do it only seasonally and water is the limiting factor where I have a lot more water than you,

Thank you for paying attention to location. Yes bugs are limited from the lack of grass and water. I am planning on building raised beds for a vegetable garden so hopefully that will produce some bugs. But I don't want them eating my garden so I will have to manually pick them out which I don't mind.

Anyone know how to raise crickets? The chickens never get to catch them because they come out at night but I caught one once and when I threw it in the next morning the lucky chicken that got it ate it in seconds.

 

[centrarchid]

Once your garden gets up, consider composting residues and water that during winter. Also lay out some boards that will provide cover for the night roaming insects and scorpions, then flip them over when chickens are closeby so birds can catch the critters hiding beneath. Chickens, like spotted bass around here, learn quickly you can expose quality eats by doing such. My pet flocks always know to follow me about yard because I make otherwise hard to catch or find eats easy to acquire.

 

[newbie32]

Once your garden gets up, consider composting residues and water that during winter. Also lay out some boards that will provide cover for the night roaming insects and scorpions, then flip them over when chickens are closeby so birds can catch the critters hiding beneath. Chickens, like spotted bass around here, learn quickly you can expose quality eats by doing such. My pet flocks always know to follow me about yard because I make otherwise hard to catch or find eats easy to acquire.

I tried that today. I was out playing with my flock and I went up to a 2x4 that had been sitting there for a few weeks and flipped t over. One bug jumped out and unfortunately it was too quick for my ladies to see

. Maybe I should do a few more and hope I can collect more.

 

[centrarchid]

Try placing some dried plant material under the board. Maybe even consider training birds with mealworms to follow more closely. Once they get idea they will shoot under board quicker than you can see. The bass example I gave, the fish learned to actually point at rocks they new a crayfish was hiding under so they could zip under as rock was just starting to roll. It is a learned behavior that even though does not always provide eats, still provides mental stimulation.

 

[newbie32]

Try placing some dried plant material under the board. Maybe even consider training birds with mealworms to follow more closely. Once they get idea they will shoot under board quicker than you can see. The bass example I gave, the fish learned to actually point at rocks they new a crayfish was hiding under so they could zip under as rock was just starting to roll. It is a learned behavior that even though does not always provide eats, still provides mental stimulation.

Okay I will set something up tomorrow and try again in a few days. Thank you!