Monday, December 22, 2008

Want not waste not

Bought 3 packets of insect food that doesn't look too fresh. Still usable but seems to deteriorate quite fast. Left a balance of 2 packets which I was thinking of feeding to the chicken. Then I thought why not start making bird food again. Since I am applying a theory of not letting the birds' system get too used to a single type of dry food, cooking my own food should accord this flexibility for me.

Didn't want to try something too complex, so a basic chicken feed base should suffice and it will sort of give a holiday from all those peanut feeds I have been relying on.

500g of chicken feed (Cargill Brand)
100g of dried insects
3 eggs

Method:
Sieved the chicken feed of the powdery feed to get a consistent larger pellets. Weigh the feed to get an exact 500g. Add 3 eggs and stir evenly. Then left to dry in oven at approximately 110 Celsius for 30 minutes. Fry in low fire in wok and work at getting the lumps to break down. Add 100g of dried insects (the not so fresh insect food), stir evenly and further roast at 125 Celsius in the oven for 15 minutes. The end result appears dried and palatable enough.

Not trusting my own food processing skills, I kept it in a fridge for storage until feeding time. So far so good......

Next batch, I may consider adding beef and probably egg shells.

Ready for the oven (minus the insects):


The dried insects:

No comments: