Are there bugs your chickens just won't eat?

[koikeepr]

I'm curious if chickens will eat dead bugs? I have tons of june beetles each year, which are a total menace eating all the leaves of many of our ornamental trees. So, I set out those bags with those stinky natural pheremones of theirs so they just go to the bag and crawl in and die because they can't get out. Would it be okay to then just dump the dead beetles in a bowl for my hens to gobble up? I'm assuming they would love it right?

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Ours won't eat ants. They seem to prefer flies and moths to anything that crawls.

 

[Mervin]

Mine will generally eat any bug I bring to them, slugs, horn worms, red worms, etc. They hurry up and gulp it down before anybody else gets a chance. That said, they won't eat a lot of those things if they find them on their own. My coop is absolutely covered with cob webs. A couple of nights ago I saw the biggest, hairiest Wolf Spider climbing around in the pen. Nobody even gave it a second look. Same goes for Woolly Bear caterpillars, they inch their way through the run completely unmolested. They also don't seem to like ants. The most disappointing though, is the fact that mine show absolutely no interest in mice whatsoever. I incapacitated one earlier this summer and tossed the little wretch in the run to see what the girls would do. At first they were interested, they pecked at it some but seemed to lose interest as the Mickey drew his last few breaths. The next morning there he lied, no one had worked up the nerve I guess. Kind of sounds like my wife's cat too.

Added...Oh, yeah. That don't like Lady Bugs either. That's a real bummer b/c we have tons and tons of them. The last couple of years, I've had to shovel them off the patio in the fall.

 

[gettinaclue]

Just the other day I watched as Cloudy (my white jersey giant) peck at a bee. She spit it right out and it flew away. She came back later and pecked another one and spit it out. This one died and just layed on the ground while she gave it the stinky eye. She came back later and ate it, but didn't seem to particularly enjoy it.

My ladies seem to prefer moths and crickets.

I sure hope they decide to eat some yellow jackets. They have really been bad this year.

 

[pgpoultry]

My Brahmas don't eat earthworms, but love woodlice, flies and anything that buzzes.
The others all love worms, but are less keen on buzzing things.

Sandie

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Ok, I'll give everything a rundown of what I think.

Wasps/bees - Those bright orange/yellow marks are there for a reason, the black stripes give it more contrast. Most animals avoid them by instinct since those colors mean "I can bite back!" Of course some animals will take advantage or just don't care.

Slugs/earthworms - I guess these are just personal preferences, I've seen mine eat some before, but they hate the slime. If yours don't like slugs or worms, consider yourself lucky. There's an array of parasites that use these as hosts, until something like an unsuspecting chicken comes along and eats it and in turn gets infected.

Ants - Ant brood is a different story, I'm sure most chickens love these. adult ants, not so much. It's either the nip of the mandibles, the formic acid, or the sting. For most chickens, it's not really worth it for something so small.

Lady bugs - Once again, the pretty litle lady bugs have those bright contrasting colors for a reason. Between their legs, or "armpits", they secret a fowl tasting/smelling liquid that no predator would want in it's mouth.

Catterpillars - Though hornworms are often a big hit, anything with hair is a no go. Those are ment to sting or irritate skin, and even for a human it's not fun to touch one. Let alone stick one in your mouth!

That's all I got for now.

 

[HHandbasket]

My girls are funny, like others here. Sometimes they hate a particular bug, but a month later they'll eat it up like a 2-year-old in a candy shop. My girls like rolly-pollies (I have no idea what they're really called... we used to call them 'pill bugs' when I was a kid & my sister used to dare me to swallow them with glasses of water, which I did... because I was 4 and stupid LOL). To be truthful, I think now they're eating pretty much everything and anything because I have, like, NO visible bugs in my backyard. I don't even have earwigs in the hay pile anymore! I have seen my leghorn eat bees in the past, and we recently opened our garage door and let the girls in there & they've all but eradicated our black widow problem.

They go back and forth between liking earthworms and such, but they have done a wonderful job of cutting down on garden pests this year.

At this point, the only bug we have a lot of is flies, and my chooks will eat those, too. We saw our barred rock snatch a fly right out of mid air when she was about 12 weeks old; and my darling husband, without skipping a beat, looked at me COMPLETELY dead-pan and said, "Her kung fu is strong." I thought I was gonna fall outta my chair.

 

[jmbwholesale]

my chickens like any bug that enters their territory! Gnats, moths, flies, grand-daddy long legs, spiders, crickets, earrwigs, Beetles, even ants. If it moves, they are on it! They also like worms. I haven't seen any slugs but I saw a slug slime trail, so they probably ate them, too. They also love any leftovers I have which usually isn't very much, but I always cut my left over meats into short pieces and they will fly up to get them. I'm pretty used to chickens, both of my grannies had chickens. I remember my little granny dowell slinging black snakes out of her chicken coup. She was about 4'5' tall at the most. Let's put it this way, when I was 12 years old, she was shorter than my armpits! She would put her chickens up at night and the ones that wouldn't go into the coup, she would cover them with old wooden crates and lay a rock on top. Great memories of a time gone by.

 

[centrarchid]

None of my ladies will eat a squash  (stink) bug. Nor will they touch a tarnished plant bug or a large hornworm, small ones ok. They do eat Japanese beetles like popcorn, cabbage loopers, crickets and grubs. Grasshoppers I haven't seen them eat but wish they would. So dry here even the bugs are getting scarce.

Mine will consume squash bugs and squash beetles but seem to have problem with their taste. They will avoid insects with red on them especially when they come of milkweed plants.

 

[vderks]

On our upper porch we have an infestation of daddy long legs. I thought I would give the girls a treat and collected a few in a cup. When I took them to the coop, the girls came running but when I let them loose, they screamed and ran. Funny chickens!