Edible Insects

Chickens are omnivores meaning they eat meat and plants. Insects, and small animals are included in the meat list. And all of us know that insects are the prey of the chicken.

Edible Insects are a quality source of protein. These insects that they eat has lots of amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. And these insects because of the amino acids in them will help the game fowls develop, repair their tissue and grow.

These insects are free only if they are available in the area. and after sometime our gamefowls will almost consume them all. why culture them so they will be available.

Culture of Insects

Now comes the farming of the insects. First you should know that insects are so easy to culture. It requires so little area and they multiply fast. Even some people on World Health Organization thinks it is a good answer to the growing food supply problem. You just need to know what would be their environment to reproduce quickly.

Termites

We take the termites first. In the range, the chicks range and the breeding materials’, we could put some pile ofcogon straws or rice straw or anything that could be the material for the termites and let them migrate and reproduce there. Let’s say we put 10 large piles in different spot of the range. And after some time we uncover or flip this pile and here , at first, we throw some handful of feed so the chickens will rush to this area. then the chicken will eat this termites. And the next 5 days we could flip again the other piles. The only limiting factor here is the number of piles we make and the amount of reproduction of the termite versus the population of the chickens. So we must know how many piles of straws needed for some amount of chicken population.

Then what if in the range we make like a natural environment for various kinds of insects to thrive on. Such as sets of plants and some pile of materials that insects like to thrive on. And we make some three to five areas with these in the range. Then for the scheduled day that you think they need this insects we just uncover this materials then voila a free quality protein feed is available.

Vermins

African Nightcrawler are also a great protein source. Click me to read the vermiculture article.

Black Soldier Fly Larvae

Other Insects and Small Animals

Small animals such as frogs provide lean and quality meat for the gamefowls. On rainy season in the tropics, these great protein supplement goes out from hiding at night and could be caught easily by literally grabbing them. Veteran catchers can get a sack of frogs for half an hour. It is also fun to experience catching them. Make sure you are catching the edible ones. Just don’t overcollect them so the frog population goes down significantly. Remember these friends also gives many different benefits besides as a meat source.

These protein sources will make a natural protein supplement available for free and can cut off some money expenses as they come with just an expense of little effort. These insects will save the day if your feed supply is delayed.

Even most insects supposed to be toxic can’t effect the chicken, including small animals like spiders (technically spiders are not an insect, they are arachnid), the acidic crop of the chicken will somehow eliminate the efficacy of the toxin, or  maybe degrade into low amount that can not affect the chicken anymore.

About The Total Gamefowl

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