Can chickens eat spiders???

[starforever61]

We keep finding wolf spiders in our garage. They are probably poisonous. Can chickens eat them if we take them into their pen??????? Will the spiders hurt them because they are quite aggressive...any ideas??

 

[TennesseeTruly]

My chickens LOVE spiders especially wolf spiders! Our coop is built inside our old barn so there are tons of wolf spiders all over the place. You should see the chickens when a spider enters the run!

It's the most hilarious thing to watch! One will grab it, the rest will chase whoever has the spider. It turns into a free for all. The spider is ALWAYS the loser.

BTW, our chickens eat snakes, mice, lizards, you name it. If it enters their run and its not bigger than them, its FOOD!

Laurie

 

[PortageGirl]

My chickens LOVE spiders, they chase them like CRAZY... no idea if wolf spiders would hurt them though.

 

[fordmommy]

Wolf spiders are not poisonous, but they pack a heck of a punch. Hense the name "wolf". I have had a lot of them around my house I use Home Defence which you can buy just about any where. I do not use it by the chickens and they do not free range. But once it is dry it is safe for children and pets.

Yes. Chickens LOVE to eat spiders. My 2 DS catch speders for the chickens all the time. They just don't catch wolf spiders. But they would taste pretty meaty to a chicken, I would think.

 

[starforever61]

OK, thanks guys. I've heard a lot of different theories about wolf spiders, though. I've heard from 2 smart, reliable people that they weren't poisonous and from 4 smart, reliable people that they were poisonous. It's really hard to tell, I'm not gonna take my chances getting near those things...

 

[barredrockmama]

I wondered this myself, until I found out that chickens are "opportunistic feeders" as my husband likes to say. As a new chicken mommy (I've only had my girls for about 6 months), I had no idea how "opportunistic" they really are. One day I saw all six hens fighting over something slimy. I thought it was a worm, but upon closer inspection, I realized it was the entrails from a gopher carcass left in the yard by my cats! Yuck. They truly will eat anything that doesn't pose a threat to them.

 

[Uzuri]

*ALL* spiders are venomous.

But not all venom will poison you or your chickens. It's there to help kill or stun their prey, usually much smaller than you are. Wait, did I say usually? Unless you live in a B-movie, ALWAYS much smaller than you are. Some spiders, due to some accident of nature, have venom that will kill things many times their size.

If you (or your chickens) are bitten by a wolf spider, you might have a reaction to them, much like a bee sting. I react pretty badly to spider bites -- I always know when I'm bitten; get a nasty looking bump, sometimes with purple streaks -- but I'm still here. Chickens (and other animals) have different reactions to things that people. What bothers you might not bother your chickens, and what bothers one chicken might not bother another.

From the bit of research I did, it seems that North American wolf-type spiders, at least, aren't much threat. They'll hurt if they bite you, and it may look nasty, but we're talking bee-sting, not necrotic wound.

 

[starforever61]

Ok, this is all making a LOT more sense now.

Thanks to Uzuri the spider expert

lol

Thanks to everybody who posted!

 

[TinyBirds]

Our turkeys love to eat scorpions! (even with the scorpion stinging them while they're trying to eat it). It's pretty cool to watch, since we have lots of scorpions around here (both big and small) They also love to munch on the biggest spiders they can find. Juicy and delicious from the looks of it. I haven't seen many roaches around here lately either, so they must love those too. The porches were swarming with them when we first moved to this house, but not any more! Birds are perfect pest-control. Too bad they don't eat mice.

 

[woolymama]

Quote:
Oh I've seen chickens go for mice! And lizards, frogs......pretty much anything smaller than them that moves! (and we have guineas that go for the snakes!!!)
It's freaky and I always worry and want to intervene when my chickens go after something, but then it's hardwired into their nature, right?
I do worry about the black widows and brown recluse we have here - but hearing that turkeys eat scorpions........makes you wonder.