Official BYC Poll: Do You Feed Your Chickens Cicadas?

[BYC Project Manager]

Chickens are scavengers. Foragers. Omnivores. Chicken love to eat a wide variety of insects & worms. Like most bugs, Cicadas are high in protein, low in fat and carbohydrates. This high protein bug and beneficial microbes are a favorite treat, and this free food not only improves the quality of the eggs, but it also reduces the amount of feed you have to buy.

This summer marks the much-anticipated mass-emergence of Brood X (Ten) cicadas which will see billions of them surfacing after 17 years underground. So, the question begs: Do You Feed Your Chickens Cicadas?

Please place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other".

Further Reading:

• Deciding To Free-Range Your Flock
• Feeding Chickens: An Introductory Guide
• How Much Does It Cost To Raise Backyard Chickens

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[3KillerBs]

I would happily run around with a butterfly net catching them for the chickens if we actually had any where I am.

My chickens love the Dubia roaches my sister the reptile keeper gives me.

 

[ChickieMomma21]

I have a hedge row fence that the cicadas apparently love to sit on top of. Every time I walk out to the run, I swing by the bushes first to choose from the buffet. My chickens are only 10 weeks old and think this is normal. They’re probably never going to speak to me again once the cicadas go away

 

[dragonfly2pilot]

My chicks are too young! They were hunting cicadas when they were two days old and then I had to rush in some chick grit. I worried about the hard exoskeletons. No obvious health impacts overall.

 

[3KillerBs]

I was going to try to do the "no feed for an hour, just water" thing with my new chicks. But the first thing they did straight out of the box after taking a sip of water was to start eating the bugs that had died under the heat lamp the night before (outdoor brooder).

So I had to add grit right away -- and feed too so they'd know what they were supposed to eat instead of just grit.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

I hear them in late summer, but we don't have very many, and I think they're kinda gross, so no....my chickens have never had a Cicadas. From me, at least.
I voted "other"

 

[thehenandchick01234]

I should probably freeze them

 

[Ascholten]

I am not seeing any here in Florida so far, which is a good thing but if they do show, sure, let them eat their hearts out, it's free food that I am not paying for. I already have a buglamp I modified to stun instead of fry and it doinks beetles moths etc that fall into a collection jar on the bottom and in the morning, I empty into 4 eagerly awaiting tummy's.

From my scientific calculatons, Bug + Electricity + Chicken (Catalyst) = Eggs for breakfast. and as an alternative reaction Bug + Electricity + Beer = Breakfast AND Entertainment. These formulas has been proven Many times over however the beer one seems to work better in the south!



Aaron

 

[chickentrains]

I am not hunting cicadas but if the dum dums catch em' themselves, they are welcome to eat them.

 

[WallyG74]

Where exactly has or is this brood emerging? This is the first I’ve heard about Brood X. We had one of the 13 year broods come out in 2010 I think. It was deafening to go outside. I didn’t have chickens back then. I would gladly gather free snacks for my hard working cluckers!