Live minnows or crickets for my chickens?

[RebeccaBoyd]

My flock free ranges and the creek behind the house is full of minnows and crawdads and other tasty snacks. I did not teach them either. About 5 summers ago the creek ran almost completely dry and left untold amounts of dead and dying minnows for a few days. My old game hen was raising her first group of many chicks and she found them. From then on she has taught her chicks and the rest of the flock to fish. Before you try to have them fish them out themselves, toss a few smaller live ones in their direction. One brave one will snag it and then the chase is on and you may want to not watch the tug of war that could and probably will ensue. After that, shallow pan and live minnows and sit back and enjoy.

 

[Chikyboy]

I give mine minnows and goldfish. I don't give them crickets (though I may start too), but they love mealworms.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

I’ve given my chickens minnows, they like the treat!

 

[mossyoakpro]

I've been giving mine live crickets since they were able to go out on excursions in the backyard. Now I'm like the pied piper when I get the cricket box outta my shed....they follow me anywhere. It's hard to find live ones this time of year but it won't be long before fishing season starts back up.

 

[nao57]

Well I saw this thread and I had to post! I had ideas... and this was a good chance. I also like to try stuff and experiment.

So... minnows or crickets? hm... Well its easier and more economical to do mealworms actually. So if its a question of money I'd say do live mealworms. Also its easier to do your own worm bin farms at your backyard also in bins using garbage or whatever. This would be easy to set up. but that would be hard maybe with crickets.

Well correction; the hard part with crickets is catching them and when they are moving around. But with minnows, it depeds on if you can get them in a nearby lake or stream or not. That might be harder. And you can't always depend on the stores for things. Right now also people say people are poisoning the water. So you might not have a chance to do minnows. This means incentive to do some kind of worm bins.

Although; I lack information on how people keep their worm bin farms alive in winter? What do people do for that?

///

Now here's another interesting issue and some information for you. The present research and interest for big agriculture is that they are trying to get people to do cricket and roach farms for meat. Or bug farms in general. The temptation for this comes from the idea that they can raise 1 pound of bug meat off 1.5-1.7 pounds of feed. They can also feed them garbage and turn that into meat also with more allowances in the garbage than for real animals, where real animals can get sick from it.

But with chickens you are getting 1 pound of meat from 2.5-3 pounds of feed. And you can feed them scraps but not outright garbage.

This is why they are so tempted by the bug meat. Also they want to do roach milk also by harvesting the milk crystals that grow on the bottom of the roach moms. (Have you puked yet? Its real...)

///

Well there is an interesting question here. One of the big ideas against the ideas of bug meat for humans is the fact that humans can't process bug chitin proteins. It gets stuck in our bodies and causes cancer. We can't digest it or process it. So it gets stuck.

But its possible they could use poultry to eat bugs without this problem. I would think they are made for it even. So it will be interesting if they end up setting this up?

///

For chicken fun I guess either can work. But it would be a good idea to do whatever helps you stay self sufficient if you can't buy what you need at the store.

///

Also you could probably do tilapia farms in your backyard and link them with grow beds. If you have extra baby fish sometimes then you could use those for your minnows. This might be a way to work that also, so you don't have to buy minnows.

 

[FlockVillemaire]

omg scorpions !!!! ??

Certain bird species are famous for their poisonous snake prey, why wouldn't chickens share some of those skills on scorpions?

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

Well I saw this thread and I had to post! I had ideas... and this was a good chance. I also like to try stuff and experiment.

So... minnows or crickets? hm... Well its easier and more economical to do mealworms actually. So if its a question of money I'd say do live mealworms. Also its easier to do your own worm bin farms at your backyard also in bins using garbage or whatever. This would be easy to set up. but that would be hard maybe with crickets.

Well correction; the hard part with crickets is catching them and when they are moving around. But with minnows, it depeds on if you can get them in a nearby lake or stream or not. That might be harder. And you can't always depend on the stores for things. Right now also people say people are poisoning the water. So you might not have a chance to do minnows. This means incentive to do some kind of worm bins.

Although; I lack information on how people keep their worm bin farms alive in winter? What do people do for that?

///

Now here's another interesting issue and some information for you. The present research and interest for big agriculture is that they are trying to get people to do cricket and roach farms for meat. Or bug farms in general. The temptation for this comes from the idea that they can raise 1 pound of bug meat off 1.5-1.7 pounds of feed. They can also feed them garbage and turn that into meat also with more allowances in the garbage than for real animals, where real animals can get sick from it.

But with chickens you are getting 1 pound of meat from 2.5-3 pounds of feed. And you can feed them scraps but not outright garbage.

This is why they are so tempted by the bug meat. Also they want to do roach milk also by harvesting the milk crystals that grow on the bottom of the roach moms. (Have you puked yet? Its real...)

///

Well there is an interesting question here. One of the big ideas against the ideas of bug meat for humans is the fact that humans can't process bug chitin proteins. It gets stuck in our bodies and causes cancer. We can't digest it or process it. So it gets stuck.

But its possible they could use poultry to eat bugs without this problem. I would think they are made for it even. So it will be interesting if they end up setting this up?

///

For chicken fun I guess either can work. But it would be a good idea to do whatever helps you stay self sufficient if you can't buy what you need at the store.

///

Also you could probably do tilapia farms in your backyard and link them with grow beds. If you have extra baby fish sometimes then you could use those for your minnows. This might be a way to work that also, so you don't have to buy minnows.

Helpful advice for those farming. I do not worry about farming them, I have a creek fully stocked spring though fall that they help themselves to whenever they want. When it is running high I will occasionally toss the minnow trap in for a little bit and empty it out in the yard for them.

 

[Cynthen]

omg scorpions !!!! ??

I'm glad to hear scorpions are good for something!