Bugs

[Bossroo]

I keep seeing a lot of people claim that their free range chickens feed on grass and BUGS. In my backyard ( no grass or weeds as I garden with Roundup and 72 Redwood trees and numerous junipers on 2 acres of house grounds) or 20 acre pasture ( winter and spring only) my chickens would starve to death if they depended on bugs for protein as the only bugs that I see out there is a lonely stink bug here or there and a few mounds and trails of ants which my chickens wouldn't touch. Also, we don't have any grass, only dry , brown dead ones (only very few [lie a half dozen] grasshopers or crickets in the spring )for 6-7 months of the year. I would have to BUY very expensive irrigation water that is not available to me even if I could because there is no irrigaiton ditches anywhere near me and there is now a 3 year draught . That is IF I was able to free range them due to numerous predators . So, the question is just HOW MANY bugs do each one of your chickens eat daily ?

 

[big greg barker]

I asked them, but they ain't talkin!!

 

[luvarabhorses]

I have an enormous amount of bugs here in the Ozarks. Some of the bugs I really enjoy (Luna Moths, Butterflies) and some are annoying. Chickens do best with ground bugs like crickets and ones that fly around lightbulbs. I am growing crickets for my collared lizards and once in a while I shake a bagful into a sealed off area where Mommy chicken is with her two dozen children. They go crazy. Not sure how to answer the question. My chickens have about a 1/2 acre area they have made devoid of insect life of any sort.

 

[Judy]

Last year we were invaded for about a month or 6 weeks by an unbelievable number of some sort of little bitty black beetle. They would fly up in clouds when you walked across the yard. They attacked one particular weed in the lawn. (Well, it's about half grass and half mowed weeds.) This year I saw only a few. I have 4 free range hens, plus (3) month old chicks now, and about half an acre of lawn or so.

I guess they eat a lot of bugs. They certainly eat very little feed. A little more in winter when there isn't a lot of greenery, but still not what I would expect 4 hens to eat. When they were on layer and the new ones on starter, I bought small bags so it wouldn't spoil.

 

[knittychickadee]

Well, I know that at a minimum mine get a half quart jar a day lol. My little grandson visits daily, and as soon as he gets here he grabs his jar and collects bugs to feed the 'peeps' as he calls them

.

Other food items are good protein too though, not just bugs. Weed seeds and legumes are a couple. I bought several bags of deer plot seed blend and threw it around this spring. It's a high protein mix of different clovers and a forage type chicory.

I've got good bug habitat, so I've got bugs galore here. I garden organically, have compost piles in several different places, don't rake leaves, leave outer edges of property unmown, have part of a pasture in wildflowers and prairie grasses for butterfly habitat, grow flowers that attract beneficial insects etc.,etc. Just bug friendly in general. I can find a cricket every step I take, and when I walk through the pasture grasshoppers are flying all over the place.


Sounds like your climate and habitat just aren't hospitable to bugs.

 

[dancingbear]

If I recall correctly, you're in a more or less desert area. So your area is not typical.

I'm in Ky, a notoriously "buggy" area of the country. Year before last, we had the 17-year cicadas. They're huge, and there were probably millions of them. The birds ate a lot less feed, and their crops were bulging when they went to roost at night. I watched them hovering under trees and near shrubs catching every cicada that flew or landed within reach. My DH and I amused ourselves several times by helping. We caught cicadas by the wings and threw them down for the chickens. The birds would snatch them up before they could regain their senses and escape.

Most years are not quite that full of easy pickin's, but there are always numerous grasshoppers, crickets, grubs, ticks, beetles of many kinds, worms, small lizards and snakes, frogs, small rodents, weeds, grass, and the seeds from them. As you can see, the pickin's are not limited to bugs.

I doubt you'll find anybody who has followed the birds around and counted every bug they eat. I certainly haven't. You're welcome come visit and follow them around and count bugs if you wish.

 

[twentynine]

Doesn't matter how many bugs a chicken can eat, if you ain't got no bugs to start with. Kinda like: How many chucks can a wood chuck ----------

Here in south Louisiana we got more bugs on 1 acre than Carter has little pills. And a chicken would be skinny as a rail if he didn't get no feed.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
Daily? If they are on pasture with a lot of bugs.... sounds like your not swamped with much bugs... they will eat about 5 lbs of bugs per 100 hens.

I'm not sure exactly how I figured that one out but you can tell with the feed. When they are on heavy bugs.... they will eat less food. (same with clover or alfa) I have it in my records some where so I will have to look that one up for you so you can figure it out.

It really depends on if you move them or not. Because chickens will devour an are in a matter of days. Once the area is stripped of bugs they need to be rotated. This way the new bugs can reproduce and replenish. If they are left to roam the same area day in and day out they will cut the bug population down really fast.

Maybe you could start raising worms for a protein source? Or... you could plant some alfalfa in a small section.

Good luck...

 

[Bossroo]

Yea, we are at 502 ft elevation... the Central Valley of California at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is a high desert environment, tumbleweeds and coyotes but no cactus. Just add water and the Valley is the richest agricultural crop producing area of the country. Normally we get 10.5" of rain a year but only in the winter/spring. The last 3 years we got only 6" of rain and only in the winter. I only saw about a half dozen crickets and maybe a dozen baby grasshoppers this year. Alfalfa grows like crazy in the Valley IF one irrigates and can harvest 6 crops a year. However, the alfalfa plant goes dormant in the winter months, and starts to grow again in mid to late Feb. and by late March,to early April the rains stop, the temps jump to 99* and all grasses and legumes die back and become brown dead vegetation unless one can get irrigation water from the melting snow in the High Sierras. I am not that lucky. Now, thousands of acres are being plowed under because of NO RAIN and very little if ANY irrigation water. Just last week a dairy ( 30 miles from our place) that has been in business for 3 generations just slaughtered their entire herd of 6,000 cows due to $70 ,000 monthly loss in feed expenses and low milk prices. So, I have to buy very expensive chicken feed. I am thankful that my last batch is now in freezer camp. Store baught chicken at $0.99 a pound is looking to be more and more a viable option for us.

 

[Spiceychik]

I am new to this but, I am learning new things every day. I started a tub of worms. I cannot rotate where I put my chickens. I built them a run 2'wide 2'highx 15' feet long. I only have 3 hens. But they are let out every day in the run for the whole day. Knowing they are depleting any good things in the run, I have several stages of sprouts growing that I put in there and as I said a worm farm. I am not sure if this is the right way about it, but it seems to be working for my girls. They are happy and productive. I am wondering though if this same set up would work for meat birds. Anyone have any info on meat birds for backyard farmers? I was thinking of maybe starting out with 10.