Chicken Fodder From Mulberry Trees: India's Sericulture Trick for Free Protein

A healthy white mulberry (Morus alba) can produce a couple of kilograms of fresh leaf in a backyard setting each year, with intensive plantations yielding far more per acre. Silkworms eat nothing but mulberry leaves and grow roughly 10,000 times their hatching weight in about 25-30 days, concentrating the tree's carbohydrates and protein into insect fat and muscle. Because they're clean feeders on fresh leaf only, they avoid the pathogens or heavy metals sometimes found in insects raised on compost or waste, which makes them a genuinely safe protein source for the flock.

Dried silkworm pupae typically run 55-75% crude protein against soyabean meal's 44-48%, and 20-30% crude fat against soya's 1-2%. Lysine sits at 4.5-6.0% versus roughly 2.8%, and methionine at 1.5-2.5% versus about 0.6% — both amino acids are frequently the limiting factor in poultry growth and egg production. The fats in silkworms are also rich in linoleic and alpha-linolenic acids, often lacking in low-quality commercial grain. Keepers commonly see glossier feathers, harder eggshells, and deeper, richer yolk colour once this supplement enters the diet.

To get the most biomass, mulberry needs to be managed specifically for leaf, not fruit — using pollarding or coppicing, cutting the tree back hard in its dormant season to force a flush of tender, high-protein growth in spring. Coppicing cuts the tree near ground level so the roots send up multiple straight shoots at working height, good for a mulberry hedge cut with shears. Pollarding cuts branches back to a trunk at shoulder height instead, keeping new growth out of reach of browsing animals. Regular harvesting during the growing season actually encourages more growth, since stripping a branch signals the tree to push new buds — but stop cutting at least six weeks before the first frost or cold snap so the tree can store energy.

Start with a reliable source of fresh leaves — white mulberry in well-drained soil with a pH around 6.2-6.8 is the standard choice for leaf production. Silkworm eggs are typically bought and kept refrigerated until the trees leaf out, then hatch in 7-10 days once brought to a steady 24-29°C. For the first few days, finely chop the youngest, most tender leaves for the hatchlings; as they grow through their later instars, whole leaves and small twigs work, fed 2-4 times a day with trays kept clean.

You can feed the large caterpillars directly at their final instar, or let them spin cocoons and harvest the pupae after about three days of spinning — fed fresh, or dried and ground into a meal mixed into the regular grain ration.

The core benefit is cost: with feed typically 60-80% of the total cost of raising poultry, replacing part of a commercial soya-based ration with home-grown silkworms can meaningfully cut monthly overhead. It's also close to zero-waste — pruning branches you'd otherwise discard become worm feed, and the leftover frass (silkworm droppings) is a nitrogen-rich fertiliser you can return straight to the base of the same trees, closing the nutrient loop. Chickens also get to express natural insect-hunting behaviour, which tends to reduce stress in the flock.

Silkworms have very little disease resistance, so the most common mistake is letting old leaves and frass build up in the rearing trays — the resulting damp, mouldy environment can wipe out a colony within days, which is why mesh-bottomed trays that let frass fall through matter. Silkworms are also extremely sensitive to pesticide drift, even from a neighbouring plot, so always test a new tree by feeding a few leaves to a small group and waiting 24 hours before scaling up. Aim for a steady temperature around 25-26°C and roughly 70% humidity — too cold slows their metabolism and stops feeding, too dry disrupts moulting.

This is a seasonal, warm-weather system — silkworms need fresh green leaf, so fresh protein production stops once the trees go dormant, though dried pupae can be stored for winter use. It's also genuinely labour-intensive, with daily leaf harvesting, feeding and tray cleaning taking 30-60 minutes depending on scale, and it's a supplement rather than a full diet — chickens still need grain for energy and grit for digestion, and overfeeding fatty pupae can lead to loose stools or overweight birds.

Stagger your batches — hatching a few hundred eggs a week instead of a thousand at once spreads the leaf-demand and avoids being overwhelmed during the worms' final growth spurt, when they eat the most. Store harvested branches upright in a bucket of water in a cool, shaded spot for up to two days, or strip and refrigerate the leaves in a sealed bag for longer storage. Boil and sun-dry surplus cocoons to store the pupae as a shelf-stable protein treat for leaner months, and always return the frass to the garden or the base of the mulberry trees — it's a genuinely active fertiliser, not waste.

This isn't an imported idea for most of India — mulberry-silkworm systems are the backbone of sericulture across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and parts of Jammu & Kashmir, and reject silkworm pupae from silk production are already a known, locally available poultry feed in several of these regions. A backyard keeper near any mulberry-growing area can often source surplus pupae or leaves directly, rather than starting a silkworm colony from scratch — while those in other regions can still grow a few pollarded mulberry trees purely for this loop.