Official BYC Poll: Do You Feed Your Chickens Cicadas?

[The Duck Dad]

I actually don't have chickens, i have ducks but they still love them!

 

[Ascholten]

To drift slightly, it seems it's soldier fly season again, my compost is FULL of them, ok so I don't get Cicada's, I got sumtin better fer da gurlz !!

Aaron

 

[Justicedog]

I'm in Maryland and am so over these noisy creatures. When they first came out, I grabbed a few and chucked them into the chicken run. The chickens liked them well enough. I've been letting the chickens free range lately - as my 6 year olds don't seem inclined to jump the fence and cross the road anymore, and I'm integrating my new chicks with them and I want to give the littles a chance to get food, water, enjoy the coop/run without the bigs. Another reason I was letting them free range was that I was hoping they would get rid of the cicadas, but I think they've had their fill. They don't seem all that interested anymore in them. Meal worms -- they'll come running. These cicadas and the dried grasshoppers I got, they look at me like, "Is that all you've got?"

 

[Ascholten]

I have a compost bucket full of soldier fly larva, going to let them age a few days more to get big and fat then do the strainer thing and feed the witches. They usually go crazy over them and it saves me a day's worth of feed

Aaron

 

[Grisbeard]

We are in the middle of brood X and the chickens are satiated with cicadas. There are several trees in the run and the first emergers were picked off as soon as a hen spotted the hole. I fed some to 6 week old bantam salmon Faverolles and they went wild over them, however, the subsequent out break of cocci was suspicious. Lucky only lost one before it was controlled. The hens had no problems with gulping down cicadas.

 

[robinhs]

I don't have many here but if I catch one(or more) the chickens get their chance!

 

[Cassandra Lana]

I have no cicadas but tomato hornworms are a flock favorite worthy of keep away!

 

[Chickassan]

No, if I find one im keeping it so I can marvel at how cool it looks.
Between my herd of mouths that lay eggs having run of the yard from 7 to 8 and these insects called cicada killers iv'e got to hustle to see a cicada doing it's thing.

 

[Gramaden]

My family and I love to give our girls a cicada and sit back and watch the “super bowl”! Very entertaining watching them try to steal it from each other! We are surrounded by woods and cicadas, the noise they make is amazing and my grandkids love to catch them and lightly shake to have them vibrate in their hands. Neat lil buggers.

 

[Ascholten]

Oh yah, that can get real interesting when one catches a snack, and 3 others want it too. The running, the ducking, the dodging, and the ultimate tug o war that disembowels it with roughly half going to each side . Sometimes they catch a lizard and im like, oh good god just EAT the poor thing already, you already beat the hell out of it now Swallow. SWA... LLOW... there you go, one more time. Good girl

Aaron