I'm no stranger to raising insects. I admit I've always had a certain draw to the more large exotic species. So while pouring over data on protein for chickens it wasn't surprising or nauseating to fin thread after thread of breeding bugs.
I found everything from redwigglers, crickets, meal worms, and my favorite -Giant cockroaches.
I tried worms and I killed them ( I'll try again some time). I actually hate crickets and they smell and are challenging to Contain ( years of scooping and bagging the little buffers for minimum wage didn't help my opinion of them). The mealworms looked promising but it seemed they required a bunch of store bought substances as a food source, which defeats the purpose, right?
Which brings me to dubia cockroaches. They are glorious. Being cockroaches, they'll happily Consume.kitchen and garden waste. This particular species doesn't fly and can't climb up the smooth sides of the growing been. They are HUMONGOUS. just a handfull a day would provide enough protein for my growing flock. They don't bite or sting or hiss ( the last time I bred bugs they were hissing cockroaches from Madagascar ).
They breed in temps above 80 so during the warmer months i wont have to provide a heat source.
I have to say I have insect love at the moment. My only concern was of several were to escape the confines of the bathroom in the RV ( where I plan on breeding them) would they be able breed in my environment when the temps were appreciate?
I was told probably not because its too dry and they are tropical. And as they die in temps under 70° as soon as late fall got here, they'd all be dead in no time.flat.
I have to say I'm very excited! Last year I asked for worms for Christmas. Next year I'm asking for cockroaches For my birthday ( no Tiffany boxes here!). Boy, I am an odd duck.
YUCK! Of all the things, I would rather have worms or crickets!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. I've looked at some of these ideas too. One I wasn't sure about was breeding fly larvae for the chickens. We have tons of crickets and the chickens seem to love them, but they don't stay contained! We're getting ready to start a compost worm bed next spring. Hopefully it will thrive and I'll have a good protein source from that. Another thing you can do (if you don't do it already) is feed your chickens goat milk. And whey. There's not only protein for them but calcium as well. I'm planning to keep one goat in milk eventually (when I have enough goats) just for the chickens. Ditto for some pigs.
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