Do chickens eat ants?

[Lori Anne]

3 weeks ago I bought 5 day old Brown Leg Horn chicks in the hopes that they would forage in the back yard and help us battle our Thatcher Ant problem. So far I haven't seen them eat a single ant. They readily eat blackflies and moths. When they see an ant, they just watch it walk away. I saw some You Tube videos of chickens demolishing ant hills. Is it something they will do when they are older? I really pictured chickens eating all bugs they see. Perhaps I should have tried a different breed of chicken?

 

[slingshotandLAR]

They should....

Mine eat anything they can get in thier beaks, I'm a bit surprised the chicks watch them without pecking at them. Give them time, they should start eating them

 

[hawsecav19d]

I think for most part they are not a preference food because of high acidity.

 

[ccrow]

Mine don't eat ants... although some of them will eat the larvae etc if I turn over a rock and find a nest. Maybe if you dug into the nest a bit they would pitch in?

 

[tcstoehr]

Mine will browse a bit on ants, at least I think they are, I can't really be sure. They do seem to be more interested in the larvae and pupae. Just yesterday I pulled some old utility fabric out of my garden shed that had been colonized by carpenter ants. I tossed it outside and called the chickens over. They gobbled up all the cocoons and seemed to be pecking around in the area for a while afterwards. These were sizable ants and my hens seemed fairly indifferent. I'm sure they ate a few and I have seen them take a peck or two at a line of sugar ants. But I think they could take 'em or leave 'em.

 

[enola]

The only way my hens will eat ants is if I put them in a tractor in the morning, before they fill up with fermented feed.....

 

[steve102]

Ours love them, especially when u hand feed them.
[VIDEO]

 

[Lori Anne]

Thanks for all the replies! I will cross my fingers and hope they will acquire a taste for them!

 

[beginnergirl]

Sadly, my hens will not touch ants. We live on an ant hill but they are not interested.

 

[mcbrown7513]

I have only had my chickens for a short time. I have been bribing them to the ant mounds in my yard with fried meal worms. Now they terrorize the ants something fierce.