Can chickens/chicks eat Asian Lady Beetles ?

[AppleMomma65]

It's springtime in Minnesota and with our weather warming up, those crazy Asian lady beetles are everywhere! Are these okay to feed to chicks and chickens? My chicks are only a few days old but once they can start eating other things besides their moist chick food, could I catch one or two of these bugs and let them have at it?

 

[centrarchid]

Check and see. My chickens generally have an aversion to insects with red on them. They will still eat insects that obviously taste bad even to the chicken doing the eating.

 

[Folly's place]

If you feed chicks anything except their chick feed, they need grit too. Offer it in a separate container, the smaller 'chick sized' grit.
I'm not sure how edible those little bugs actually are, and wouldn't offer them to chicks myself.
I do feel your pain thought! We've had some years with so many of them, but the last two years there have been very few. Thank God!
Mary

 

[Fluffyflufffluff]

It's springtime in Minnesota and with our weather warming up, those crazy Asian lady beetles are everywhere! Are these okay to feed to chicks and chickens? My chicks are only a few days old but once they can start eating other things besides their moist chick food, could I catch one or two of these bugs and let them have at it?

Those are lady bugs-meaning they are pests that are particularly helpful. Mostly from disgusting plant-juice that sucks aphids. Our chickens / turkeys won't eat them-but once the plants come up, they'll be fun to see these nasty ladybugs eat all those nasty aphids

 

[GC-Raptor]

I've found over the years that as chickens get older their taste for beetles and night crawlers diminishes.
But as Pullets they'll eat them, once a brave one tries it.

My hens free range an hour before sunset daily and forage for grubs and small worms under leaves and digging up the back yard.

As for grasshoppers and crickets my 4 year old still likes them.
Sometimes I'll find a large grasshopper on a cool morning and she'll eagerly take it from me.
Good thing she doesn't have teeth or I wouldn't be able to hand feed her. GC

 

[centrarchid]

Some beetles taste like butt, some taste good. Best not to lump them.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

When we first moved to our current house, the yard was overrun with crickets. We got chickens the following spring and I don’t think I’ve seen a cricket in the 6 years since!

 

[GC-Raptor]

Some beetles taste like butt, some taste good. Best not to lump them.

Ive never tried any.
Which types do chickens like?
I'll keep an eye out for them, for my chickens of course. GC

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Some beetles taste like butt, some taste good. Best not to lump them.

I’m picturing “beetle lump” to be something like a scone. “Don’t put butt beetles in your beetle lumps!”

 

[BoCRon]

Those are lady bugs-meaning they are pests that are particularly helpful. Mostly from disgusting plant-juice that sucks aphids. Our chickens / turkeys won't eat them-but once the plants come up, they'll be fun to see these nasty ladybugs eat all those nasty aphids

They aren’t ladybugs. They are Asian beetles. They will bite(ask me how I know lol).