Bug Zapper Chicken Feed

[ctodd]

Hello,

I'm new to chickens and actually got started this year with my young daughter who loves all animals. I had a question and idea wanted to pass on if anyone is interested. I had an epiphany a few weeks ago and has turned out to be a nice treat for our 6 hens.

The idea: I have a large bug zapper because of a pond behind my house and attracts all sorts of flying insects. It was necessary to clean the hundreds of bugs off every few days to allow the light to show through and better expose the wire that zaps the bugs. Anyway, I thought these partially cooked bugs might make a nice treat for the hens so I started banging it off inside the coop. They love them...they viciously eat every one of them. I don't know what the nutritional value would be because the bug bodies are pretty small but they seem happy and I figure it's pretty natural food source.

The question: anything wrong with feeding chickens bugs that have been zapped? I have heard there have been some cases of West Nile in CO where we live but not sure that can be transferred 'through' a chicken. Also, would a heavy moth or mosquito diet cause anything weird to happen with taste of eggs?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kelsie2290]

A lot of people seem to use them around the coop area or as you are suggesting, to zap bugs as a diet supplement for the chickens. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/473428/bug-zapper and https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/172994/bug-zapper-tasty-chicken-treats/20 We have one near the garage, chickens clean up the dead bugs every morning, never noticed anything but have a lot of chickens, don't know that it would do anything to the egg taste unless you had an awful lot of bugs per chicken. WNV doesn't really sound like it would be a problem with zapped bugs http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2753.pdf

 

[LindaB220]

A lot of people seem to use them around the coop area or as you are suggesting, to zap bugs as a diet supplement for the chickens. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/473428/bug-zapper and https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/172994/bug-zapper-tasty-chicken-treats/20 We have one near the garage, chickens clean up the dead bugs every morning, never noticed anything but have a lot of chickens, don't know that it would do anything to the egg taste unless you had an awful lot of bugs per chicken. WNV doesn't really sound like it would be a problem with zapped bugs http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2753.pdf

Really like the last site. Very informative. Makes me feel safe because I'm next to Mississippi. (La)