catching grasshoppers?

[mrsengeseth]

My whole yard is full of the creatures. However it isn't safe to free range my girls in any part of the yard other than where they are. Tractors are out of the question until i can afford to build a fence on that side of the house...loose dogs are everywhere. So...my kids are excellent grasshopper catchers (if I do say so myself). What i w as thinking is letting them catch as many as they can and housing the hoppers in an aquarium with a screen type top. Would it be feasible to house, reproduce and use these hoppers to feed my girls for treats? They do eat the ones that are unlucky enough to mosey into their run. I mean as far as for treats during the winter.

 

[Wildsky]

My chickens CLEARED my back yard of all signs of anything that might think of hopping.

They then got braver and started moving out of the fenced area, to go find MORE MORE MORE.

Sadly all our grasshoppers are gone now - its too cold already.

Can you let them into those area's with supervision - perhaps for the last hour of the day so they'll be more likely to go home/back to the coop?

Edit to add: the grasshoppers around here will eat through screening.

 

[ncCHICKS]

I do it with crickets. They love them so much and we used to have tons. After having chickens for 2 months, I'll see the OCCASIONAL baby cricket, too small to catch. I go to the store and buy them some once a week and keep them in a cricket catcher we use for fishing. They chickens run up to the run when they see it