Micro farming?

[rittert3]

Has anyone tried raising aquarium fish, feeder rodents, insects or invertebrates, as part of your operation? Cant I see what you do with them. It just dawned on me that alot of those culls can be used as super nutritious poultry feed, unless you are growing something like meal worm specifically for chicken feed.

 

[Mini Horses]

I have not but a neighbor had a large mouse raising enterprise set up. Shipped to various pet food suppliers. They were special types, not just on the farm kind. White and thousands of them. Some were taken at a day old ( pinkies, he said) frozen. Some were shipped live. Big enterprise for him. He got sick and sold out but, interesting project while going. Money to be made but ONLY if you have the contacts to sell.

 

[rittert3]

I have not but a neighbor had a large mouse raising enterprise set up. Shipped to various pet food suppliers. They were special types, not just on the farm kind. White and thousands of them. Some were taken at a day old ( pinkies, he said) frozen. Some were shipped live. Big enterprise for him. He got sick and sold out but, interesting project while going. Money to be made but ONLY if you have the contacts to sell.

Yeah I've bred mice and rats for the pet and pet food industries before. I prefer rats but they take some intensive labor. Recently I found that people are trading species and color morphs of isopods (pillbugs/rolly pollys) for insane amounts of money. They reproduce at different rates and are sold as colony's in deli cups. Some are more or less hearty and have different temp and humidity requirements, but really about like house plants as far as care.

 

[secuono]

Yeah I've bred mice and rats for the pet and pet food industries before. I prefer rats but they take some intensive labor. Recently I found that people are trading species and color morphs of isopods (pillbugs/rolly pollys) for insane amounts of money. They reproduce at different rates and are sold as colony's in deli cups. Some are more or less hearty and have different temp and humidity requirements, but really about like house plants as far as care.

I've been watching those groups.
Rollies are so cute! Duckies and pandas are my fav. But the grey, blue, orange wild ones outside work for my cuteness fix.
Kinda wish they got an inch big, but them they're too cockroach-like, and that's gross. The giant cousins in the ocean are too big, reaching creep level. Yet, horseshoe crabs are still cute. 🤔


People raise different bettles, flies, grubs, crickets and such.

My grandparents used to raise Nutria for meat & fur in Poland. Now it's snails, but that's an accident and a joke. They're so prolific there! Can't walk without stepping on one! It was wild to see so many 1" snails everywhere, wild animals, and over here, I get giddy at finding 1cm snails! Because they're so elusive! Not over there, they're big & they're bold.
Guess you could raise snails, too.

 

[rittert3]

I've been watching those groups.
Rollies are so cute! Duckies and pandas are my fav. But the grey, blue, orange wild ones outside work for my cuteness fix.
Kinda wish they got an inch big, but them they're too cockroach-like, and that's gross. The giant cousins in the ocean are too big, reaching creep level. Yet, horseshoe crabs are still cute. 🤔


People raise different bettles, flies, grubs, crickets and such.

My grandparents used to raise Nutria for meat & fur in Poland. Now it's snails, but that's an accident and a joke. They're so prolific there! Can't walk without stepping on one! It was wild to see so many 1" snails everywhere, wild animals, and over here, I get giddy at finding 1cm snails! Because they're so elusive! Not over there, they're big & they're bold.
Guess you could raise snails, too.

I've been looking at neocaridina shrimp, mystery snails, and fancy guppies because they're all prolific with deacent trade and wholesale options. Having raised show rabbits, I know cull rates are high when you're trying to breed quality. It just dawned on me that ducks and chickens would love them. Duckweed is also said to be the best protein booster for game birds. I'm guessing this is due to all the little invertibrates living in it.

 

[wolf]

Have a rat-colony, but I also have a ball python that needs to eat - and living rural, it saves on gas running to a city-store to buy expensive frozen rats. So it’s easier for me to farm her food here along with everything else. They fit in the Cycle here - you know that Cycle: food in, meat out, manure on plants to grow more. Rat manure doesn’t go on my food-crops, but my ornamental shrubs and grasses love it, and saves the sheep & bird litter for compost for food-crops. They get the cheap corn-based dog-food - that I would never feed my dog… they need more carbs than dogs anyway. And they get every extra stuff from the kitchen, produce-scraps, tails of leftovers, etc. a hog would usually get. My trashcan usually has only paper wrappers in it - cause all the stuff suburban houses throw out gets recycled through one critter or another. I’ve done mealworms before, but they’re more trouble than the rats.

 

[MTKitty]

I had a colony of dubia roaches when I had lizards. They were easy — water gel, kitchen scraps (rarely because of rot or mold issues if not fully consumed), and dry cat food. Once the lizards were gone, I fed off the remaining roaches to my chickens. They went nuts over them.

 

[ChickenRob]

I had a colony of dubia roaches when I had lizards. They were easy — water gel, kitchen scraps (rarely because of rot or mold issues if not fully consumed), and dry cat food. Once the lizards were gone, I fed off the remaining roaches to my chickens. They went nuts over them.

I feed dubia roaches to my chickens as well. I can't produce enough for all my chickens so I buy them from DubiDeli.com as treats! They love them and actually pester me for them. The know the bowl. LOL

 

[rittert3]

That's totally great for supplementation and probably brings down their bagged feed consumption. Another booster is duckweed, especially if you can dry it full of the various aquatic larva!