will chickens eat ants?

[NuthatchKnollChickens]

I've finally finished my coop and am about the start the run and I just noticed that there is a pretty good sized ant hill in the run area. Does anyone know if the chickens will just dig this up and eat the occupants, or should I dig it up and try to get rid of the things before I move the chickens in? These are mediaum sized black ants. I'm in upstate NY and I don't think we have any ants around here that are really aggressive or, gulp, carniverous. Any thoughts?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Some will and some won't, just depends on the chicken. There used to be an ant hill in the run of my coop, but now there are just hollows where the chickens have been dust bathing.

I think the ants gave up and moved, personally.

 

[Alaska animal lover]

My chicks are ant killing machines! They hate to see an ant on the other side of their run!

 

[JaysGirl]

I like digging up old threads too! Lol! Hope you and your chicks are doing good! Mine are 3 wks today so I'm still learning. In the south we have a lot of fire ants so I hope my girls like them, that would be a big help!!

 

[Bronco21]

I live in the country on 3 1/2 acres outside of San Antonio, Texas and after every rain we have so many new ant mounds some are fire ants some are crazy ants, some are different, we also have all kinds of spiders and every pestillence known to mankind! I am assuming that when I get it all together and get my girls, they will free range on all these kinds of pests? Maybe not the occasional small brown and med sized black tarantullas! (I wish I were kidding)

 

[beltonhunter]

I found my pullets a tarantula a couple days ago. I tried giving it to the mature rooster. Because I was unsure if it was safe to eat. But the pullets ripped it apart leg by leg devouring it instantly

 

[KiekenKot]

Sorry to dig up this old topic...But I have a funny story.

I'm a potter who uses a shared atelier space. One of the other clay enthusiasts had rolled out clay, cut it into heart shapes, and then wrapped it in a piece of old bed sheet, put it between two boards, folded plastic around the whole thing, and put it on the lowest shelf of a closed cabinet. And then forgot about it.

So, today we find this little project, and somehow, a whole ant nest had gotten inside the plastic wrapping. There were thousands of ants and pupae, and they were harmless black garden ants. It was fascinating, I have never seen a whole working ant nest out in the open like that. But of course, we could not keep it in the house. So what to do with it?

Feed them to the chickens of course! We weren't really sure if they would eat the ants, but oh boy they went completely nuts. I have never seen chickens eat so frantically- they devoured the ants, the pupae, it was something to behold. Like all their birthdays came at once! I was almost sorry for the ants. The 3 of them they went trough the whole nest in under 30 minutes. So- garden ants? Feed them to the chickens!

 

[Darin115]

My girls devour ants. When I am splitting wood they hand out waiting for me to bust one that is full of black ants. I pitch it to them and they inhale them.

Are these ants fire ants? I would not want to put them in a coop with a fire ant mound in it. I am not sure what would happen.

Darin

 

[MRNpoultry]

My chickens love ants. They free range and when the find a ant hill they will eat almost all the ants.

I ain't sure about fire ants, but most animals know what to eat and what not to eat.

 

[NuthatchKnollChickens]

No, I'm pretty sure they aren't fire ants - I don't think we have those around here. They look kind of like small carpenter ants - but they are nesting in the ground and not in dead wood so they probably aren't carpenters.